Cruzer Micro is an incredibly small USB Flash Drive (UFD) that connects to a computer's USB port.
With a capacity of 512MB, users can easily store their key documents, pictures, music and videoclips on a Cruzer Micro and transfer them to another computer with a USB port.
In addition to its small form factor, Cruzer Micro can be expanded to MP3 player functionality with the Cruzer Micro MP3 Companion (not included). Users simply plug the Cruzer Micro into the Cruzer Micro MP3 Companion (not included) and they’re ready to hear all their favorite songs.
Advanced Features: - Stylish, clear overmold casing
- Brilliant blue LED
- Hi-Speed USB 2.0 certified (backwards compatible with all USB 1.1 ports)
- USB Mass Storage Class Device
- Compatible with Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP and Mac OS 9.1.x+, OS X v10.1.2+
- Certified Windows XP and Mac OS X
1 Choose Wisely
Maybe it's just my luck but this product bombed on me in no less than 2 months, and I hardly used it. It got great reviews, which prompted my to buy it, but one day I went to use it, and every computer I used it on said "your device has malfunctioned."
It's small & stylish, whatever that counts for, but I just had a really bad experience with it. If I had the receipt I'd return it, but...
2 Not the fastest, but still very good
I bought this at RadioShack when they were selling it for $40 and offered $20 in rebates. So, of course it was a GREAT deal!! I've found other reviewers' comments about its speed to be true. It's not the fastest, and it seems to be slower copying multiple files than copying one big file. But, if you're just using it to transfer documents from one machine to another, that shouldn't be a problem. I don't consider it a major drawback. And its small size is a great plus!!
Some people complained that the cap is too loose, but I've found it to be fine. And it even fits on the butt end of the drive, so you can keep it attached while you have it plugged into your computer. You'll be less likely to lose it that way. If you do think the cap is too loose, the drive ships with a tight sleeve (which others have mentioned) that won't fall off.
This drive is pretty durable, too. I bought mine a little less than a month ago, used it a lot, and then couldn't find it. I had accidentally left it the front pocket of my shorts. I finally found it today after it had gone through the wash (and dryer). I thought it might be toast, and my EE friends were telling me the static from going through the dryer might have fried it. But I plugged it into my computer, and it works fine.! The files are readable and undamaged.
Overall, this drive has been a great buy! I recommend it, especially if you don't have high expectations on it being super-fast.
3 Very good so far...
Got my Cruzer Micro yesterday. It looks good. Very solid feel and look (because of its metal casing). To me, transfer rate is not as bad as some other users reviewed. I tried to transfer a 291-Mb folder (of about 30 jpeg files) to the drive and it took 1 min 10 sec. It took 10 sec to delete the folder from the drive. A 13-Mb folder (of 130 small files) took about 20 sec to transfer and several sec to delete. This is surely fast enough for me for everyday usage. You must be a fairly impatient person to say this is slow. Unless different types of file are transfered at different rates? (i.e. MP3 files may be transfered at slower rate, as some users reviewed?). In general, I like it. The (small) cap fits pretty good, and I think I won't loose it if it keeps fitting this tight (I hook it to my key chain). Could be better if the cap were designed to snap in.
4 AWESOME
I think this is the smallest and the best Flash drive now (April 2005). Some people said the cap always lose .... however, it just cap!!! I like the design that make the key chain on "Unit" side rather than "CAP" side. Which one that you like ? U lose your flash drive (include ur data) or lose only flashdrive cap?
5 Best flash drive on the market
I recently received this flash drive as a gift, and it is the smallest one I have ever seen. The design of it is what's really nice, it's clear and has a nice metallic color. You'll be amazed at how brilliant the LED lights up; not just a dinky little one like on most flash drives. I normally don't keep the USB cap on, so I can't really say whether it stays on well or not. My only complaint is about the keyring hook on the end of this drive. If they had made it just a MILLIMETER thicker, it would be fine, but as it is, it doesn't spin quite freely around the keychain. This is not a big problem, though, and I think this is a great USB drive for anyone.
6 Awesome Product
This is the best USB Flash Drive (UDF) that i have found. I got a much smaller UDF (128 mb.) not that long ago and i didn't like it. So i bought the SanDisk Cruzer Micro 512 MB, and have yet to be disapointed. To go along with what some other people have said about the loose caps, both of the caps (the one that just covers the USB plug and the one that goes the lenght of the UDF) that i got with mine are both tight, i acutally think that the one that goes the whole length of the UDF is a little too tight, but the other cap is perfect, and i keep mine in my pocket when i'm not using it in a PC and the cap has never come off. So anybody who is looking for an inexpensive UDF i would definintly suggest that you should pick this product.
7 This is well worth the money
The Sandisk Cruzer Micro is tiny, durable, and quick at uploading and downloading files. It is very easy to use, even for a Windows 98 user like myself. It transfers everything for me jiffy quick, and neither of my computers even have USB 2.0! Be warned, though, that if you have a computer with 98 and no Internet that you plan to use this product with, you have to do a little working to get it compatible. I had to download the drive installer from this XP computer, burn the installer to a disk, then put it into the '98 and download it there. Other than that, I HIGHLY recommend this product to anyone who needs to transport a lot of information very quickly.
8 Solutions for Tight Keychain and Loose Cap
For those of you complaining about the tight fit when using your keychain, here's what to do: take out the black neck strap that came with your Micro Cruzer. There is a small metal ring at the attachment end. Take that ring off and attach it between your Micro Cruzer loop and your main keychain. Now your drive can hang freely on your keychain.
For those of your complaining about the loose cap, I put a generous dab of rubber cement inside the cap. Leave it til its fully dry. The cap should fit very snug when reattached. Crude, but works. If it becomes loose again, repeat.
9 A few benchmarks
I have heard people say things like "this drive is slower than my old usb 1.1 drive". There must be a configuration problem.
hdparm reports 16.31MB/sec reads
Then for a REAL test, i worked w/ a 350MB test file:
--wrote 350MB in 21.646 seconds = 16.17MB/s
--read back 350MB in 25.582 seconds = 13.68MB/s
These tests are far from scientific (just used cp & time under linux), but should at least squash a few of the rumors that this is as slow as USB 1.1 drives.
10 TINY & BIG!
This is just a quick review in response to a couple of previous reviews.
One reviewer mentioned that it's not great for a keychain because of the slot which doesn't let it move freely (true) and the cap that keeps falling off (not mine). I would suggest for him to put a dab of super glue on the inside sides of the cap, this should make it tighter. The thing I didn't understand about the review was his cons had to to with having it on a keychain, yet he summed up the review by saying "Overall, I would not recommend this product to anyone who wants to carry a flash drive in their pockets."
Shouldn't it say "on their keychain"?? I specifically use this drive BECAUSE it fits in my pocket completely unnoticed. It's as if it's not there! I love it for this reason.
As for the other review about it being slow, yes I'm sure there are larger faster drives, but the drive is not "slow" per se, just slower than others.
I think the trade off is great. I don't notice a lack of speed too much (though I gave it only 4 stars because of this), but best of all, I don't notice the drive at all. =)
11 Incredible Product
This is a tiny, beautifully stylish, 512 MB hard drive that's as small as a house key.
Pros
-Amazing looks, clear plastic casing, with a bright blue LED that lights up when the drive is working.
-Fast drive speed.
-Comes loaded with encryption software.
-Well designed. "pretty + solid," places it above the lexar which is simply solid.
-At $50s, it's cheap.
Cons
-Hard to put on a keychain.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
12 Flash Drive - A Convenient Storage Data Tool
I have been using the SanDisk 512MB Micro flash drive for about four months . It goes with me everywhere and is a must for data and music storage. I have not had any problems with the unit other than the storage case which becomes loose almost immediately after use (I use a rubber band to retain the drive in the case). At home the drive is recognized immediately whenever it is plugged into a usb port. At work, where a computer is shared, I have to log on with the unit installed for the drive to be recognized. The blue light in the unit flickers when data is being up or down loaded giving a visual indication that the unit is working. I'm very happy with the product.
13 Micro price, max capabilities!
Cruzer Micro is the best and easiest way I find to transport, edit and backup my entire Outlook mailbox and my personal documents (bookmarks, word, excel, powerpoint, mp3 etc.) thanks to CruzerSync application preloaded on it.
It comes only as a 30-days trial but for only $29.95 you can get the full licence. Plus all your data are encrypted and this app is very simple to use.
I will definitively recommend this "sleek design" USB Flash Drive to my friends.
14 Slow as hell
I have used numerous memory sticks in different capacity and brands at work. I bought this for my personal use because it looks slick. All I could say that, this is the worst! Slow as hell! Many times I just want to throw into the trash can... especially when I am in a hurry. Even after I bought, I had to rely on floppy for smaller files. Saving a Meg file to floppy is much faster than writing to this dumb stick, even with USB 2.0.
I assume those given positive reviews for this product have never used memory sticks before. My recommendation is, know who to believe and don't waste your money.
By the way, I would be glad to sell my memory stick for $35 dollars if anyone wants it. Just email me. It's in like new condition and rarely used(not that I don't want to use it).
15 the diskette of the gods
This is my first "jump-drive" and all i can say is that it is amazing. Being able to transfer files quickly between an I-Mac laptop and two Windows XP computers (and consequently a 1991 DOS computer via diskettes) is a sheer joy, the only thing I dislike is that it is not compatible with anything below Mac OS 9, because I have an old OS 8 IMac, but I can make do. One of these things in any size is awesome, and is probably the only worthwhile thing, besides food, that I've bought in the past year. Kickass.
16 Warning: this flash drive is very slow
Take it from me: this Sandisk Cruzer Micro flash drive is very slow and does not operate at USB 2.0 hi-speed as advertised.
I tested this on four systems: Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Mac OS X. I did the testing by copying 400MB of MP3 files. In theory, at USB 2.0 hi-speed's 480Mb/sec maximum speed (that's 50MB/sec), this should only take 8 seconds. But no USB 2.0 hi-speed device I know of operates at that max speed (someone should really bring a class action against Intel, Apple and the other designers of USB 2.0). OK, let's say on average we should get 10MB/sec, which is 10 times faster than the original USB 1.1. So my 400MB of MP3 files should take about 40 seconds, at least no more than a minute, right?
Well, when I tested the 512MB Cruzer Micro on the four systems, the copying time took between six minutes (WinXP) to nearly 10 minutes (Mac OS X). Note this is not a test about which OS is better at supporting USB 2.0 hi-speed; in my experience WinXP, Win2k and Mac OS X all fully support USB 2.0 hi-speed equally well. My Win NT machine at work also has the appropriate service pack so it's also USB 2.0 hi-speed compliant. So the fault must lie with the Sandisk flash drive.
(For comparison: I copied the same 400MB of MP3 files to my Seagate 160GB USB2 external drive and it took only 35 seconds. That came to over 11MB/sec, 10x faster than with this Sandisk Cruzer Micro.)
It does seem that if you copy a large file, the Sandisk drive works faster; when I copied one 200MB AVI file, the speed was about 3MB/sec, faster than copying small files but still nowhere near USB 2.0 hi-speed's regular rate I've observed. Also, I discovered that when deleting a large number of small files, the Sandisk can take an awfully long time.
So please take my warning seriously: this flash drive does not work nearly as advertised. You are getting speeds litter better than USB 1.1. Since I'm not the only one who's complained about this, this must be due to a serious design flaw, or just flat out false advertising by Sandisk.
In terms of exterior design, the Cruzer Micro is very small, and it comes with both a tiny cap and a sleeve. The sleeve is way too loose and you can easily lose it. BTW, if you have a deeply recessed USB port (like one of the four on my Fujitsu laptop), you won't be able to plug this in -- in fact this was why I bought this, thinking it would fit into that USB port. Your USB port must have enough space at the opening to allow the plastic part of the flash drive to go in.
I'll contact Sandisk's tech support regarding the serious speed issue, but given other people's similar negative experience, I think I'll probably end up returning this phony product.
17 Fast drive, lots of capacity
This is my first USB drive and I am already pleased with the speed and portability.
The endcaps are snug, the drive fits a variety of usb ports just fine including other usb cables.
I need to carry around coursework and applications and I have been able to fit a great many things onto this drive. The speed is great.
18 Does not work in keyboard USB ports
I like the size, the speed is slow but I can just zip up my files first as the drive has a slow time dealing with lots of small files.
The one thing that irks me is that it draws too much power and DOES NOT WORK on the USB port of my Mac ( standard mac keyboard ) or PC ( MS Natural ) I have to plug it into the machine itself. I bought this to move files to and from clients computers and am a little concerned that when I get to the clients office I will not be able to move the files.
A friend has a cruzer micro 256, It works on both of my computers keyboard hubs.
19 Slow things come in small packages
I have had this drive and am extremely dissatisfied with it. It performs far slower than my old Lexar JumpDrive which is only USB 1.1. I have read the Cruzer titanium is the fastest on the market. Well, after owning the Cruzer micro I can say it must be the slowest on the market.
I have tried every type of file system when I format it. I have tried to optimize for performance. And I have tried to copy files large and small. No matter what I do I cannot speed up this drive.
It does get 1 star though for being so small and having a cool blue light when it is plugged in.
20 Watch it... design problems...
I bought this product after reading some reviews placed around. Even though it proved its utility up to a certain degree, since the beginning we had problems with the design, since it makes it a little uncomfortable to attach to the computers. After a while, some of the computers in my office stopped recognizing it, something that did not happen with other drives of the same maker.
21 People are always jealous of my Cruzer Micro
...because their thumb drives are so much bigger than mine! It's as fast as I expected, runs just fine on an unpowered USB hub (e.g. keyboard USB ports), and it's so small that it doesn't block other USB ports when it's in use.
22 SSSSLLLLOOOOWWWWWWW.....
41 Mbyte folder with a mixture of files/sizes/types.
To copy the folder to the Cruzer = 15 minutes!
To delete the folder = 15 minutes!
42 Mbyte zip file.
To copy the file to the Cruzer = 30 seconds
To delete the file = 3 seconds
Something is wrong in the design of this product. It is over 10 times slower when dealing with multiple files compared with one single large file. You have been warned...
23 This is the best
I had older SanDisk flash drive but that was small and I never had it when I needed it. This one has very practical place holder for key chain and its with me all the time in my key chain. I bought it anyways insipte of the previous reviewer (Julian) that you will loose the cap but I think that will be not be the case and in fact the cap looks pretty good. I have not lost it for the first month so far and I don't think so I will. The older Sandisk flash drives had some what firm plastic caps, this one is a bit elastic and kind of body sticks to the drive which is good and feels more secure. There is one additional holder (or something) for this drive in the package which I think is good for nothing. My wish list is that if they could provide 2 additioanl small caps to the drive if in case you loose it anyways. I highly recomment this drive.
24 For giant files only -- horrid with small files
I've owned a 128MB Lexar JumpDrive for a year and utterly love it, but would like to be able to transfer greater volumes of data among a number of PCs. I was planning on getting another Lexar, but just happened to be in Circuit City when they were offering an unbeatable deal on the 512MB SanDisk Cruzer Micro: 45 dollers with a 15 dollar rebate.
It proved slim enough to sit comfortably side-by-side on adjacent USB ports with my Lexar, and despite so much reviewer commentary on the cap, I thought it was snug enough, and I liked the little plastic desk stand that also came with it. So I was quite pleased with the Cruzer Micro -- until I used it.
On my home PC (Compaq 7100US, 1.3GHz Athlon, 768MB RAM, USB 1.1, WinME), a 13.6MB folder on my desktop (containing 309 files/57 folders) took OVER EIGHT MINUTES to read to the Cruzer Micro, THREE MINUTES to write back to my hard drive, and THREE MINUTES to delete from itself. In comparison, my old Lexar JumpDrive took 115 seconds/30 seconds/50 seconds for the same tasks.
Shocked by how excruciatingly slow the Cruzer Micro was, I thought it had to be defective, and emailed SanDisk tech support. Meanwhile, I tested the Cruzer Micro on my work PC (Dell PWS350, 2.8GHz Pentium IV, 512MB RAM, USB 1.1, WinXP), this time with a 118MB folder (containing 2009 files/191 folders). The Cruzer Micro took THIRTY-SEVEN MINUTES to read it (compared to my Lexar's 11 minutes). I wasn't even going to attempt to write it back.
SanDisk tech support told me to plug the device in the back, top, left-most USB port on the PC, since that one gets the most power. Well, since my flash drive travels among friends', colleagues', and public PCs, I don't necessarily have access to a particular port, and such a requirement's not very convenient, is it?
SanDisk also had me try formatting the Cruzer Micro to FAT (which also erased its installed security software), but read time on the test folder was still 35 minutes -- not much of an improvement.
However, when I copied a *single* 32MB .exe file to the Cruzer Micro and it took only 20 seconds, what the problem was became clear: the Cruzer Micro doesn't like small files -- email, docs, html, spreadsheets, jpegs, zips, anything that's not *individually* on a multimegabyte scale.
SanDisk's response to this was (and I quote): "I'm afraid our drives are optimized for copying few files of large and very large sizes and if you use your USB storage mainly to copy a quantity of small and very small files, then I would have to agree that our product does not meet your needs. We apologize for the inconvenience."
So the Cruzer Micro gets to keep a star for appearing to be a good product for really huge downloads, disk images, that sort of thing; and SanDisk keeps a star for reasonably prompt tech support and admitting to the Micro's limitations. But three stars come off for touting speed on the package but stating nothing about the fact that if you want to transfer gobs of piddling files, the Cruzer Micro is slower than molasses. If I had known this in advance, I'd have passed on what turned out to be a lousy deal. Even for the price it's just way too slow, so the Cruzer Micro's going back.
25 tiny usb 2.0 drive but wow 512mb
first impression when open the package... darn i am gonna lost both of this cap, what a big flaw this is, i don't know if those people design this actually use it or not.. but i can asure you if you put this in your keychain you're going to lose the cap. i got this for only 21.00 after 20.00 rebate so i can't complain much. i order this to use it for work/school and mp3 companion. this usb is so nice/beautiful design i'm afraid to put it in my keychain that i will scratch it :-\ ehehe
pro. small, rugged design, super bright blue LED, fast usb 2.0 i transfer 219MB of mp3 total of 43 songs take exactly 4 minutes and 5 seconds. my usb were plug into a usb2.0 hub so i don't know if this slow it down any but 4 minutes seem fast enough.
let me see..
1MB = 1024KB
USB2.0 = 480KB/second
219MB of song = 224256KB
total of seconds in transfer = 245 seconds
so to find how many KB per second did the transfer take..
224256KB (divide) 245seconds = 915.3KB/second
I could be wrong but that is close to double rate of 480KB/second
I tested again just transfer a 6MB song and it sure took around 5-6 seonds :)
con. what a stupid cap design, nothing to hold it on, i mean how can you design both of the cap the same way? the neck strap plastic thing to remove the neck strap and the usb key broken right out of the box.
26 Perfect Size
In other reviews, I read about a concern that it did not fit well on a keychain. In fact if you use the included small ring that comes with the necklace attachment... attach to the Cruzer and then attach the small loop to your keychain, it works perfectly. The device is so small that it seems like a natural fit for a keychain. Many keys are larger than this device.
27 It is EXTREMELY SLOW
The Cruzer Micro drive is very compact and small. It's probably the smallest USB flash drive I've ever seen. The cap? badly designed. I practically lost it on the 2nd day. But one thing that is greatly disappointed is its writing performance. It takes FOREVER to copy into it a directory of about 300MB. The company should be sued for misleading consumer about its USB 2.0 performance. The writing is NO WHERE at USB 2.0 speed. Half star deduction for the faulty cap and 1 1/2 stars deduction for the sub par speed performance.
28 Very Attractive Drive...but.
The Cruzer Micro is a great usb drive but I has one glaring defect that brings the entire drive down. The drive holds alot. I was able to put my service pack 2 update on it which I would normally have to burn a CD for. Back up my pictures, my documents, my videos and some programs. Very handy for holding that bit of critical data that you cannot afford to lose.
When you plug it in it has a glowing soft blue light. This is good on the eyes. Much better than the red of my previous flash drive.
It is amazingly very small. It looks like an elite flash drive as it is metal encased by solid plastic. It does not feel cheap but very, very sturdy. And it looks nice also, pretty stylish. Some people think it is a bit slow but I say no more than a few seconds than the cruzer mini.
The one terrble defect I can tell everyone to watch out for is the cap that covers the USB connector. The thing is soooooo slack it is not funny. I could not beleive that after spending so much money on a flash drive that such a defect could actually be manufactured. The cover ALWAYS comes off very easily. You'll find yourself as I did, hunting all over for the cover which is transparent to add more worries. I had to heat up the cover near a fire and compress it a bit so that it could have a nice, proper fit. Of course this means that the cover is 'scarred for life'.
If you are not into 'plastic welding' I suggest you get a 512mb cruzer mini version of this drive or add a bit more and pick up the titanium which is a massive improvement in design and speed.
29 IT IS SLOW
i like the device because it is affordable and small. but the write speed of this thumb drive is really slow (700kb/sec) especially for transfering (writing) smaller files (<1mb). i did some benchmarking, even my Lexar usb1.1 thumb drive beats it. this is confirmed with SanDisk tech support. usually, a good usb2 thumb drive can get around 3mb/sec write speed.
on the brighter side, the read speed is pretty good (7mb/sec). good news for people get this and the mps companion. i bought this one mainly for its dual funcations of mp3 and file transfer.
30 Very small, quite fast
As some of the other reviews have mentioned, the protective caps which come with the product seem as though they might not be well-engineered. As this is a pretty new product, only time will tell if they hold up. I would've given the product five stars if the caps were designed as well as their other USB flash memory drives.
But, I have to disagree with the review which stated that this flash drive is really slow. I haven't used many flash drives, but this one certainly seems fast enough for my use. Some simple benchmarking shows that I can write to it at a rate of about 1.5 megabytes/second, or about 90 megabytes/minute. For the way I use the drive, it's certainly fast enough.
All in all, it's a great product.
31 Small and works with MP3 Companion
You have to get the MP3 companion to make this a good deal. The design of this memory is not that great. It is small and stylish. The body is made of hard plastic that does not absorb shock. The cap and the holder are made of the same hard plastic. My cruzer micro slips out very easily. It is not a big deal, just like to see all components to work.
32 Cute design but SLOW!
Sandisk Cruzer Micro looks extremely cute, with transparent silver case, blue LED and small dimensions. HOWEVER, it is extremely SLOOOOOOOOOOW!
It claims to support USB2.0. Yes, it is true that it can be used via USB2.0 port (which should be true for all USB jump drives). However, it does not take advantage of USB2.0 high speed. (My computer does have USB2.0 ports for sure.) It took more than 40 seconds to copy about 55MB files to Sandisk, while only 10 seconds to the other USB2.0 drive I have. It is a pain to fill 512MB at such a low speed.
Design: 5 stars
Performance: 2 Stars
Price: 4 stars
33 Excellent, mandatory item for many
I am a high school student and I find this flash drive incredibly useful, I used to have a Lexar Secure Flsh drive (128mb) and I replaced it twice after breaking constantly, well this baby is solid, I carry it in my pocket all day, and yes the large cap they provide does not last long, the small one a little longer, however they begin to wear and loosen hold on the drive, however having dropped it, and abused it, it still works fantastically, I store all my files for school in here, I use it for many classes including Computer Science, Engineering, Computer Graphics, Journalism, you name it I store it, I've even been able to successfully run programs off it like iTunes and Firefox, the drive is small, convenient, and very handy, and has a cool blue light during connection, not to mention 512mb is a huge amount of room, my fellow classmates have often shown interest and curiosity in my cool flash drive. I love it, and would not trade it for any other flash drive.
34 Sadly Disappointing Product
This is the third portable USB drive that I have purchased. Each purchase was driven by the fact that I constantly needed to upgrade to one with more memory. At first this seems like something that had been well-designed, but within the first use I clearly saw that their product designers/engineers no nothing about what a consumer looks for in this type of product. They were too busy putting the blue light up feature in that they completely ignored everything else. I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER SANDISK PRODUCT AGAIN.
CONS: LID IS LOOSE, COMES WITH AN ADDITIONAL PLASTIC THING THAT HAS NO DESCRIPTION FOR WHAT IT IS FOR, DESIGNED THE KEY LOOP ON THE WRONG END OF THE PRODUCT (My previous Sony had an option to add the key attachment to either end, which is helpful so your keys aren't hanging off your computer), AND WORST OF ALL - THEY MARKET THIS PRODUCT TO BE FAST (HI-SPEED USB 2.0) Well my Sony USB was 2.0 as well and it was 4X's faster! I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THIS PRODUCT.
35 Cap does not stay
The only major and I think stubid drawback of this stick is that the cap does not fit securly,it is bound to be lost.I think from a company like this more attention should have been given specially that it comes with 2 different caps and non of them stays attached to the device.
36 Cruzer Micro: plastic snail
Pros: The design is perfect. Small, very sturdy, nice LED, keychain ring, nice price.
Cons: Being an usb2.0, it is nearly unusably slow. Writing lot of small files takes FOREVER, meanwhile you can have your dinner comfortably (half an hour or more!). Average USB 2.0 drives do this about 3-4 times faster. Dealing with large files is better, but also much slower than competition. I absolutely NOT RECOMMEND it if you regularly want to move lot of data in a copy'n'go style.
37 Quickly became my favorite gadget
I bought the Sandisk Micro Cruzer initially just for the occasional file transfer between my work computer and my home computer. However, it is so convenient to handle because of its size, speed, and ease of operation that it quickly became my main storage medium. Now I just work off the memory stick, and I occasionally use my harddisks to make a backup of it.
I can highly recommend this sleak little USB stick to everyone!
38 Works well but slow (only 10% of full USB2 speed).
It is very small and does not mechanically interfere with other USB plugs in nearby ports which is great.
But.. it is SLOW compared to my expectations. I copied a 105 MB file in 70 seconds. This is a bit faster than USB 1.1 but is less than I thought I would get. By comparison my USB2 hard disk, an IBM travelstar in a generic BAFO enclosure, copied the same 105 MB file in 7 seconds. There are no product specifications on the company web site so it is not as if they are not meeting spec I suppose.
39 TOP PERFORMER: 512MB USB Flash Drives
While its tiny physical size and its large 512MB capacity are both very attractive, the best feature of this device is the built-in keyring at the end of the unit which enables you to attach this drive to your keychain. This is a feature that I have not seen in any other USB flash drives. This drive is so small and so durable that you can permanently leave it on your keychain to take with you everywhere you go. If a USB flash drive is not easy to carry around, then you will not carry it around; and if you're not going to carry it around, then what's the point of having one of these???
And this really is teeny-tiny. This is noticeably small than all the other flash drives that Amazon sells. Transfer speed is comparable to most other USB 2.0 drives. By the way, you WILL lose the cap at the end; just accept that fact and don't worry about it. On a different Sandisk drive that I own, I've gone without the cap for over 2 years without any problems (got my fingers crossed).
40 great product
I bought this for my file transfer application and I'm happy with this product(...).
41 Small size LARGE capacity
Who even needs 3.5 disks or the need to burn a CD everytime you have a file larger than 1.44mb? This 512mb does a great job of making your files portable. For work, photos, or for some MP3's for the office or on the go, it holds a lot.
As the other review points out, the Micro MP3 Companion is pretty basic. If you're thinking iPOD, don't even consider it...but if you'd like to have some tunes while working out, it's VERY compact, lightweight and the 512mb holds a lot of tunes to keep you moving.
Portability in (especially now) an affordable application and tunes to boot.
It's a great little product.
42 This Device Can Crash your Computer (and it is slow)
When I first plugged the 512 Cruzer Micro into the front USB 2 port of my PC it locked my PC instantly. No crash, blue screen, etc. Just locked. It worked ok on another PC. I called SanDisk and they said the problem is power. Some USB2 ports (including the one on the front of my PC connected directly to the motherboard) do not provide adequate power for the Cruzer Micro. I've used several other thumbdrives (of lower capacity) without a problem with the same port. Maybe it's the fancy blue LED that sucks the juice? I have no idea. I got an extension cable (which SanDisk warned me might not work!) and am using one of the rear USB2 ports, which works ok.
SLOW: I haven't used any other large capacity USB2 thumbdrives, but from reviews of other drives it seems this one is slow when transferring large numbers of files. (500 files 200MB took about 18 minutes) -- that is writing the files to the drive.
It is also extraordinarily slow (10 minutes) to delete those files.
I called SanDisk and they recommended reformatting the drive when deleting large numbers of files.
That seems dumb to me (and I have other files I don't need to delete...)
Also the MP3 Companion is constructed like something you would buy for $5 (very flimsy plastic switches) and has a difficult interface. It also doesn't work if you have a folder of non-mp3s on your Cruzer.
All that said -- The cruzer is small and solidly made. It looks nice and basically functions if your USB2 port has enough power.
43 Decent product, but some glaring defects
I bought this flash drive after reading the rewviews on this site and pricegrabber.com. Needless to say, I had some very high hopes for it after what had been written about it. When I received the flash drive, I was impressed by the size of it. As someone else has mentioned, it is just a little longer than a standard house key, and so it's a perfect size for your keychain. At the same time, it's very rugged and durable -- I droppped by keychain twice and nothing happened to the drive. Although transfer speeds were a little slow, it was something I could live with. Then why did I return this drive after 7 days? Here's why:
1. The caps provided with this little device are just too loose. Considering the amount of engineering thought that has gone into designing the body of the flash drive, I'm sure designing a suitable, firm cover would not have been too much of a challenge -- and yet it was!! I used the flash drive for 4 days, and in that time the cap came off about 3 times. I had put this drive on my keychain and I am assuming that it had been designed for this kind of use. Instead, the cap would come off while I was driving my car (since the keys were in the ignition and the keychain was being jostled around). The second cap which they provide (the one that is the length of the drive itself) was worse than the small one.
2. When I put this drive on my keychain, it was a very awkward fit. The small hole that they have at the end for the key ring is just large enough for the ring to go through, but it is so tight that the drive does not move around the ring freely. It stays in one position and this can be very annoying.
Overall, I would not recommend this product to anyone who wants to carry a flash drive in their pockets. Spend a little more and get a Lexar drive. They might be slightly larger, but the trade-off is well worth it.
44 Great Device
Fast and compact, the Cruzer Micro does what it's supposed to do. The blue LED glows brightly when it's operating and looks really sharp.
I'd like to give it 5 stars, but the keychain clip is really small and it seems like it should be better thought out. Plus, it comes with a neck strap. Is anyone really going to wear this around their neck?
There is some debate as to whether it's better to have the keychain clip on the USB device or the device's plastic cover. If it's on the device, as with this unit, and you attach it to your keychain, you likely won't leave it behind on a computer but you will likely lose the cap. If the keychain clip is on the cap, you won't lose the cap but you might leave the device behind somewhere.
45 Great product
The sandisk cruzer micro is one of the best tools I have purchased in a while. It is great for storing all my important data, and login usernames/passwords on so no one other than me can use them. The only problem I have found with this product so far is that fact that the hard clear plastic holders that came with the product do not stay on the end of the unit very well. This is the only reason that it did not get 5 stars. I found a great,quick solution for this problem. heat up the end of the plastic holders with a lighter or other heat source and bend it in a little, until it grips it better. Just make sure that you dont use the yellow flame of the lighter, only the blue flame, or it will turn the plastic black. It took me less than 5 minutes to fix mine, and not there is no way that I will lose the usb covers.
46 Sometimes They Get it Right
Whoever designed this thing was thinking. Given what's likely to happen to these things in use, I think Sandisk hit the nail on the head. A metal device with a clear plastic overshell. It's small, and it will hold a ton of pictures or files, whatever you need to drag around. I could put this on my keychain and not have to worry about it breaking. If this device is as good as the other Sandisk flash products I have from an operating perspective, this will be a real winner for them.
Nice job Sandisk....
If you need or want a USB flash drive, get this one...
47 Small and solid
Sandisk's site claims you only need drivers for 98SE. I have only used it on XP and a co-worker's 2000 Pro. It plugs in and works the first time without a reboot. Sandisk claims Windows ME will also use it without drivers.
The loop-hook is metal inside the slightly soft plastic covering, so it's not going to break. You are far more likely to break the included string lanyard or plastic quick-disconnect hook for the included necklace. Put this on something with a good metal ring and it's not going to break and fall off.
The Blue LED is bright, and stays on when idle (in the computer, see below re: MP3 Companion). That helps you remember to take it with you. It blinks when read/write operations are happening, reminding you not to pull it out until it's done. There is a note in the included quick-start guide about which operating systems you should use the "remove device" tool with.
The MP3 Companion works well, I gave it 4 our of 5 stars. The blue LED is only on when the player reads in the whole track as it starts to play it, otherwise it's off to conserve the AAA battery's life.
48 Small & Rugged - Perfect for the keychain
All guys have a minimal set of items that are always with them, for me these are: keys, wallet, glasses, and cell phone. Since the number of items in the set is directly proportional to the comlexity of a guy's life, adding an item to the list requires life-altering benefits in return. For example, adding a wedding ring brings with it a wife, 2.7 kids, and one more anniversary date to remember. As convenient an USB drive may be, it doesn't meet the requirement to become a "minimal set item".
So I took a look at the existing 4 items and determined that my keychain is the thing that can be "enhanced" with a USB drive, and for that the small and rugged Micro Cruzer is the best choice out there. At just over 2" long, it is only slightly longer than a standard house key, and that length includes the integrated key chain ring. Combined with .75" width and .3" thickness, it is one of the smallest USB drives you can find on the market.
You can find smaller USB drives out there, but they are simply too fragile. The Cruzer Micro has a brushed stainless clam shell steel body that extends from the keychain ring to the USB connector in one continuous and seamless slab. And over this steel body is a thick plastic jacket that has a slight rubbery texture to it. Two USB connector covers are included, a thick one and a slim one - choose your level of protection. The thick one pretty much sleeves the entire drive and make it impervious to anything this side of tank treads.
Add to this tidy and tough package the speed of USB 2.0, 512MB of storage, and a very bright blue status LED, it's a complete package that simply outdoes any other USB drive out there, including the Cruzer Titanium, which incidentally looks more like a mini cigar sleeve than a proper USB drive. Dont be a poser - be a guy - buy the Cruzer Micro.
