Imation, a leader in the area of magnetic and optical removable data storage media, has recently expanded its range of flash drives. The latest product to join this line-up is the USB 2.0 compatible Pivot Flash Drive. This particular device will be available in capacities ranging from 256MB up to 4GB. This review is based on the 256MB version of the product.
The Pivot Flash Drive is made up of the actual flash unit residing in a tough rubberised shell. The shell is water-resistant although I must admit to not having tested this particular feature. Attached to the shell is a reinforced metal ring. While some might feel that this ring would be suitable for storing keys, I wonder about the suitability of this practice as the keys could get in the way of inserting the flash drive into an available USB port. Maybe a better use of this metal ring would be as a means of attaching the flash drive to a belt or some other secure item.
When needed, the drive swivels out from its protective compartment so that it is ready for inserting into a USB port. A small panel, on the front of the drive when sitting in a USB port, flashes with a blue light to indicate any read / write activity. Data transfer, in either direction, compares reasonable well with other devices tested. Using my standard test, consisting of 212MB of data made up of 40 files spread over three folder, writing was completed in 47 seconds and reading the data took 33 seconds. This works out at 4.5MB/sec for writing and 6.4MB/sec for reading.
As supplied this flash drive comes with no bundled software. However, as recent research has showed, devices such as laptops, PDAs and possibly flash drives are regularly lost (5,838 PDAs and 4,973 laptops were left behind in licensed taxi cabs in London last year), some form of software protection should be used. Imation has made available for download 128-bit encryption and password software from www.imation.com/flash for use with this product. This software is compatible with Windows 2000/XP.
The suggested price for the Pivot Flash drive ranges from £14.99 for the 256MB version up to £129.99 for the 4GB model. This drive will work on Windows 98SE or later, Mac OS 9.x or later and Linux 2.4 or higher.
http://www.imation.co.uk/products/flash_devices/flash_pivot.html
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