SanDisk Cruzer Mini 256MB USB flash disk

[Peahippo]

This thing cost me about 43 bucks and even at the current state of problems, is more than worth it. But I'd like to share my experiences with it and to see if other flashdiskers have any thoughts.

Firstly, I can only assume the thing is powered from the USB, but how does it retain memory? Is it the old non-dynamic RAM? Does is have a capacitor or small battery?

Secondly, it didn't work as smoothly on my work computer (WinXP Pro) as advertised. We use network drives, and when the flashdrive was plugged in, no extra drive appeared. I eventually discovered that the flashdrive "wanted" to be drive E:, so I moved my network E: drive to F:. Problem solved ... except that I now have to remember that my E: drive is not the network E: drive of everyone else's machine.

Another problem arose when I tried to stop the device to unplug it. The systray icon led me to conclude I had to stop it instead of just unplugging it. But the systray icon led to a GUI of a hierarchy of devices that refused to allow me to stop them. I ended up restarting the machine; during the restart, the flashdrive's LED went off, and onyl then I unplugged it. Safe! ... but it still didn't work as smoothly as I was led to believe.

I'm still pleased that I can tote 256MB of storage around so easily, and I will keep this thing (provided that it does work with my Win98SE machine with drivers obtained from the

http://www.sandisk.com

site ... I've yet to install them).

Any thoughts?

 

[Churchtechman]

I have a smaller version. Looks like you got a heckuva deal for $43. I think the flash drive is just that. The info is "flashed" onto flash proms, similar to eeproms. In other words, no battery, etc.

I do not have network drives but mine works great in xp pro. I do have an icon on the taskbar that would like me to stop the drive before disconnecting but I often don't remember to do it and it has worked fine.

 

[jrbarnett]

Hi,

Before you can successfully stop the USB disk services in XP that run the flash drive, you must close any files that are open on it, explorer windows and anything else that has anything to do with it that is running.
Then click stop, you should get a "It is safe to remove this device from your system" bubble message then unplug it.

John

 

[Peahippo]

You know, the thing about the flashdrive is that of course I had no open files on it before I tried to remove it. Which is why my XP's behavior was so bizarre.

Hey, Churchtechman ... like, duhhh, flash, flash, what did I think flash meant? No clue, apparently. (I'm now knocking on my skull, yelling "helloooo, McFly!&quot It was pretty brainless of me to miss that, so thanks for pointing it out before I embarrassed myself further.

Since it is an EEPROM, then my next question is how many read/write cycles this thing can withstand. Any ideas?

 

[JimInKS]

Here may be more info than you want:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/removable-storage4.htm

 

[DonKlein]

I started using the Sandisk Mini Cruizer instead of zip disks about three weeks ago to carry data files between desktops in several offices. This seems to be a much better alternative.

I also wonder how many read/write cycles I should expect from the device. As always back up regularly.

It works fine on Win98 once you install the required drivers. I have noticed some conflict with existing Zip Drives. Unplugging the zip drive caused the problems to go away.

I have had one experience where I could not disconnect the unit with the icon in the systray. The software indicated that the drive was in use and the green light on the sandisk unit was steady green. No applications were running, nor was explorer open. Powering down did not seem to damage any data.