A whole lotta storage for cheap. Hope it holds up well on my trip to Mars.

sdc100 wrote:Don't know Mushkin but would you really trust memory from TDK? It's probably just rebranded generic Chinese-made meory with poor quality control and questionable specs. No better than the mislabeled stuff on ebay. TDK neither design nor manufacture memory, and is unlike to test them. Buying TDK memory is like buying Memorex TVs.

If i'm not mistaken, Centon specializes in memory products.

Did you just say you didn't know Mushkin? And then try to talk about memory like you know it? And then further say that Centon specializes in it, after you said you didn't know anything about Mushkin?

Hmmm.

sdc100 wrote:

In for 2 (because I need to spend > $40 to use the coupon code TAXSUCKS).

While it wouldn't matter for this item, I still don't understand why some people only need to spend $40 or more and others, like me, have to spend $45 or more to use the TAXSUCKS code?

Going to use this in my car stereo to listen to music. Screw buying expensive Ipods anymore.

Looks like the perfect drive for the perfect price to me!

Snowymartian wrote:
I've not heard a lot good about the Centon flash drives, I'd rather go with the Microcenter brand, those I've had good luck with already

I'm lucky to have a Microcenter 10 minutes from me. I've had no problem with their house-brand sdcards or flash drives. Having used/given away at least 50 of them I've only had one bad and they have lifetime warranty so I was able to drop into the store and they exchanged it right away.

They also have great deals on their house brand SSD 64gb drive which is a re-branded Adata. I currently use it as my boot drive, for the price/performance its one best available.

theguruguys wrote:I'm lucky to have a Microcenter 10 minutes from me. I've had no problem with their house-brand sdcards or flash drives. Having used/given away at least 50 of them I've only had one bad and they have lifetime warranty so I was able to drop into the store and they exchanged it right away.

They also have great deals on their house brand SSD 64gb drive which is a re-branded Adata. I currently use it as my boot drive, for the price/performance its one best available.

Do they really have a lifetime warranty on the Microcenter brand? I have one that is dead! They also seem to squeeze too tight.

bpr2 wrote:woah, please let there be a tracking device for this thing. Imagine losing 32 gigs worth of data somewhere!

Not that big a deal these days. I'm currently downloading a torrent almost twice the size of this unit's usable space. Back in the early 90s, when my library of Amiga games and apps was probably well less than 2 GB it would have been a crushing loss. But then, the then massive floppy collection I had in the Atari 800 days was just a few dozen megabytes.

Nowadays, 32 GB is just adequate for moving around good quality HD video. Though with multi-gigabyte files a USB 3.0 flash drive is well worth the greater cost.

theguruguys wrote:A note for those impatient types...

Motherboards rarely go bad in computers, but when they do it has been my experience that it is usually a result of a damaged USB port. Many of my customers have tried to jam a thumbdrive or usb device into the port carelessly and ended up bending the pins and shorting out the port. This can result in a completely dead mainboard, but more often and more frustrating to troubleshoot it results in random freezes, reboots and crashes! I have replaced at least three pc's this year that after lots of trial and error were found to have a damanged usb port. Replacing the mainboard fixed all the problems. In one case I was able to disable the on board usb, add a PCI based usb card and the system continued to function.

So, in case you are just skimming, BE CAREFUL when inserting and removing your USB devices!,! This holds ESPECIALLY true on those dual all in one eSATA/USB ports many small notebooks use.

This is the reason to have a hub on the desk for items that are frequently inserted and removed. Stuff that tends to stay put should get the direct connections.

sdc100 wrote:Don't know Mushkin but would you really trust memory from TDK? It's probably just rebranded generic Chinese-made meory with poor quality control and questionable specs. No better than the mislabeled stuff on ebay. TDK neither design nor manufacture memory, and is unlike to test them. Buying TDK memory is like buying Memorex TVs.

If i'm not mistaken, Centon specializes in memory products.

and it's made in china...click on the photo

knarf009 wrote:I don't entirely grasp the purpose of a 32 Gig Flash Drive. If you need to move vast quantities of data then just buy an external hard drive.
For 30 bucks you're halfway there already. Might as well throw down another 30 and get a 500gig external and have ~15 times the storage space without sacrificing much in the way of portability.

Apples and oranges. The item you actually have with you is the one you'll end up using. Which do you think is more likely to get used: the one that is always in your pocket or the one you might have in a back pack or leave at home when you aren't expecting to need any storage.

I keep a half dozen flash drives in my cargo pants pockets. Over the years they've been replaced with more capacious units. Right now it's all 16 GB or larger. One is USB 3.0 and that is becoming another priority. It may only be on a minority of PCs thus far but when it's available the difference is really, really, nice.

My pocket will never have too much storage and it will never be too fast.

Nobody hu?

asked a question on page two. might a been too pony fan of ?

bummer for me.

I'm pretty sure portability is the main benefit. 32gig on a chain...

bpr2 wrote:woah, please let there be a tracking device for this thing. Imagine losing 32 gigs worth of data somewhere!

My first thought, exactly!

Don't know about the quality of the Centon flash drive, but it is the best price available, for a 32GB, by about five dollars.

idemockle wrote:I have a 2gb version of one of these. After having it for about a year, the plastic casing came off, and I discovered that it is actually a micro SD card in disguise. Really. It is literally a micro SD card glued to a circuit board with the leads down. I lol'd. Makes no difference in how well it works, and it's worked great for me so far, but just thought that was funny.

I doubt that that would be the case with a 32gb model since 32gb micro SD cards are very expensive. They're more expensive than generic memory because SD cards are often used in speed-specific applications, hence the speed rating. USB flash drives have no minimum standard they have to meet..

epobirs wrote:I keep a half dozen flash drives in my cargo pants pockets.

Oh, that explains the bulge. I thought you were just happy to see me...

Actually want to get this to take on vacation with me so we don't have to bring our Laptop. Someone will have one with them and I simply would like to use this to take my photos and video off my camera daily and have clean memory cards. Would this be something for that or would just increasing the size of another microSD?

Honestly a week at Disney with 13 people will equal a large amount of pictures.. :D

Dan! wrote:Lots of folks really trashing these USB sticks, but one survived a trip through the washer and the dryer.

I just bought two more.

Nothing impressive here, most USB sticks should have no problem with washer/dryer, as long as it is dry once you go to use it again.

Why buy this when you can get 64 Gb USB drives on Ebay for $18 ?

suprchunk wrote:Did you just say you didn't know Mushkin? And then try to talk about memory like you know it? And then further say that Centon specializes in it, after you said you didn't know anything about Mushkin?

Hmmm.

Er, please quote exactly where I "talk about memory like (I) know it." First off, I ended my post with, "If i'm not mistaken, Centon specializes in memory products." Does "if I'm not mistaken" sound like I'm boasting about my knowledge?

Furthermore, I wrote, "It's probably just rebranded generic Chinese-made memory..." Does "probably" indicate that I'm arrogantly positive about my information? I also wrote "unlikely" (actually, I mistakenly wrote "unlike") -- another word of incertitude. Now read the rest of my post in its entirety. Carefully.

The last sentence should indicate to you that I was making a general statement about buying rebranded items from companies that neither design nor manufacture them. Indeed, I've posted similar warnings about Polaroid, Sylvania, Bell & Howell, etc.

Yes, I do have some expertise -- on ebay and Chinese industrial corruption, but where exactly do I "try to talk about memory like (I) know it..."???

This is a forum to help people. Criticizing others without any helpful information may boost your ego, but it does little for potential buyers. Think about it.

Bought this last time it was up on Woot. Works perfectly. Cap was fine for me you just have to keep track of it when in use. I have piles of little flash drives (2-8g) and this little gem allowed me to take everything I wanted on the go in one unit hassle free. Not to mention its cheap!

2 thumbs up!

Based on comments from this thread, imma pass.

Don't waste your money.

http://www.amazon.com/Centon-DataStick-Flash-Drive-GB-001/product-reviews/B001QFYCU2/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

My employer purchased this exact model for me but I destroyed it in a wash/dry cycle. No one knows my dark secret and now thanks to Woot no one ever will!

reviews on Amazon are terrible! Think I'll skip this one.

"Speed: Standard"

Riiiiight. Would be nice if they'd adopt a standard rate like any other media and stick with it. Copying 32GB of data at "standard" speeds is not something I have time for.

Prey wrote:Yeah... and you can put that 500 gig external in your top pocket too, eh?

Actually, you can.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=440

when
Woot sells a pico usb drive then I'll be in.
I've got a 8GB on my key chain and I love it.

Although everything I kept on my usb stick is now in my Dropbox....

http://www.amazon.com/Super-Talent-Pico-C-STU32GPCS-Silver/dp/B002MCB54Y

https://www.dropbox.com/

Why buy a single USB drive. Buy an SD card reader for $1 and add in whatever size SD card you like. Fill one up, replace the card and you are good to go. I use them to save photos when traveling.

Cheap here: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=sd+card+reader&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=5400398742473495065&sa=X&ei=Mjo5TtjRCKnq0gHmg7n-Aw&ved=0CGoQ8wIwBA

I bought two of these from W00t a while back. One died pretty quickly, and the other works fine.

For those worrying about loosing the cap:

I always remove the casing from my USB drives and coat it in two-part epoxy from the local hardware store. I've used both quick set and overnight, and they both work great. I cover it about 3/8" thick all the way around (sometimes takes multiple coats to get it that thick) Now it's waterproof, shockproof, and can take almost any abuse given to it. It also re-enforces the almost laughable connection from the USB plug to PCB that is often only the four soldered leads.

I recommend using two part as it dries very hard and smooth so it won't collect lint from my pocket like softer coatings are prone to do.

I drill a tiny hole in the end, through the epoxy only, and attach it to my keyring.

Throw the cap away and forget about it.

yawn yawn yawn!!!!!

Same price

http://www.dealigg.com/story-Centon-DataStick-Pro-32GB-USB-Flash-Drive-2

LastApeMan wrote:Question.

I have several 8 gig sticks i use to view videos in a divx player.
seemed to work great for years.

Now the Vids I watch seem to be larger, because the formats have changed. Most are over 1.3 gigs. The videos will play fine and then suddenly stop and will not go forward. audio and vid just quits.

is it my usb sicks? is it my divx player? is it something else? what do I do to fix this problem?

to watch the same type of video i used to watch without getting really po'ed and taking the usb drive back to my computer and watching the last half on my desktop, i have to burn it to a dvd and that's starting to be expensive and always time consuming.

let me know if you know what the deal is and how I can fix it please.

Thanks.

Answer: It depends.

If you are encoding the videos yourself, try setting the bitrate lower.

An older player may not be able to handle and decode a higher bitrate video. You've got multiple options without burning to DVD:
1) Use your PC to recode the video to a lower bitrate that your DivX device likes. It takes a long time and you will lose some quality.
2) Get a newer player.
3) Connect your pc to your tv.

knarf009 wrote:I don't entirely grasp the purpose of a 32 Gig Flash Drive. If you need to move vast quantities of data then just buy an external hard drive.
For 30 bucks you're halfway there already. Might as well throw down another 30 and get a 500gig external and have ~15 times the storage space without sacrificing much in the way of portability.

USB port on the front (or rear) of many car stereos.

So, someone decided that it was important to show how many 6, 8, etc megapixel images or how many "songs" that 32GB was, but not the sustained read/write speed?

One can only assume that if the read/write speed is not listed, it sucks. Pass. I've already got really slow thumb drives. The bigger they are, the more their being slow sucks.

Altazi wrote:Run, do not walk, away from this unit. The read and write speeds of this devices are pretty bad - 5 MB/s and 3 MB/s respectively. - and this from the manufacturer's website. These specs are definitely on the low end of USB flash drive performance.

I own a 16GB version of this flash drive. The read/write speeds are terrible.

Toeknee25 wrote:My thoughts exactly. The size is great but that cap is a liability. I need to replace my 4GB Titanium Cruzer too :\

You don't need the cap. I toss my caps as soon as I get my drives so I don't have to worry about losing them. Think about it. None of your USB cables have caps, do they?

theant wrote:Hiya Guys... I've been looking for a flash drive with a hardware based write protect switch lately. This drive doesn't have one, but I thought I would share this link for anyone else that is looking for a way to write protect a flash drive. The physical switch is required for the use I want to put mine to, but this link has other methods all the way to software based solutions.

http://www.fencepost.net/2010/03/usb-flash-drives-with-hardware-write-protection/

The best solution I have for a flash drive with write protection is an SD Card! They are way cheaper than the Flash Drive counter parts and the best thing is that you can find Flash drive style readers. Buying both of them together is still cheaper than most of those ones with the hardware lock on the flashdrive and... you can change the storage! Win/win/win. I know that link you posted says that SDCards are bad, but I have a patriot 32gb one and its been working great. I clean virus's off of machines everyday and still see no signs of it ever being infected.

http://www.buy.com/prod/217447573.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820237290

amazon shows poor reviews... why are they telling me to buy this crappy thing

I work for a computer company and we bought 50 of the 16GB size Centon drives for SCCM booting. It took less than a month for 20% of them to fail, and they are still dropping off. We will never buy this brand again, as will I personally.