128 MB Dabsvalue usb memory stick

Author's product rating:   

Layout & Design

Good

Advantages:	Excellent price  -  about 12p per megabyte, needs no drivers
Disadvantages:	Need Windows XP

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I first saw the Dabs value Easy Disk memory stick when I was reading my latest Dabs Special Offers' email, and noticed that they were selling it for just £10. I jumped at the chance to own one, as did my brother. It was an amazing price to get 128MB of storage and on the Hi-Speed USB 2.0 format too.

I really needed some kind of portable storage as I go to college a few days a week on a computing and electronics course, and I needed to be able to take some of the assignments home. My work totalled up to about 10 MB, and I hated using floppy disks as I found them so unreliable, often they would need re-formatting or they would just stop working, so I just gave up on them. As the college computers don't have CD drive burners, I decided I would have to make the most out of the USB ports that they do offer. I realised by purchasing a USB memory stick I could use the USB port at college to download my work, and then upload it later on to my computer at home, as it too thankfully had a spare USB.

The Easy Disk was delivered the next day, and I was able to bring my work home with me whenever I needed to catch up.
It looked quite smart, with an aluminium look and feel to it, with black plastic running around the sides. The Easy Disk logo is printed on the front, along with the 'Hi-Speed Certified USB' logo next to it. There is a metal hoop attached to the top of the memory stick, allowing it to be attacked to a key ring for example. It came with a green fabric band too, allowing it to be threaded through the metal hoop and put round your neck, for sake-keeping. Not that I bother doing that, as it would look a little strange, though I have seen IT teachers wearing them before.
A little LED is implemented in the front of one of the sides of the Easy Disk, and this turns green when it is plugged in to a USB port, and flashes green when data is being transferred, which can be handy.
There is a cap included which covers the USB when you don't use it, preventing dirt or dust entering the USB connector and that stops it getting damaged.
On the smaller side of the rectangular Easy Disk, there is a switch with the pictures of a lock, and an open-lock. You can slide the switch to the side to lock the data, or unlock it. This allows data to be protected, preventing it to be accessed. This is achieved with the program implemented on the USB stick - 'U-Storage', which can be used to password-protect your work. This program also allows you to create partitions on the USB stick, if you need to manage your work into separate sections. Another feature on 'U-Storage' is that you are able to create a Boot disk, allowing you to be able to boot up directly from the USB stick, after copying your boot-floppy across to the stick.

I had a slight worry at first when I plugged it into the computers in my classroom at college, which incidentally are P200's. Which is incredibly s l o w and so outdated, which is a joke as all the computers in the college are Pentium 3's and 4's, except for the ones where people actually need them to do their computer course. But enough about that. Upon plugging it in, the memory device was not recognised by the computer. It wasn't being noticed, yet there are no drivers or anything needing to be installed. I then realised that it only works on Windows XP, and luckily the computers in the college library are powerful enough to run XP, so I went there and plugged the USB stick in. Thankfully enough, as soon as I plugged it into the port, a message box appeared from the taskbar that a new memory device had been recognised. After acknowledging this I was able to go to My Computer and see that a new drive (on this computer it was F: ) had been installed. Next I simply ran my workspace, copied all the folders, and pasted them to the F: drive. I then opened the 'safely remove hardware' message box in the taskbar and ended the process, so I was able to remove the USB stick without doing any sort of internal damage.
After this I took the USB stick home, plugged it in to my computer (running Windows XP), ran My Computer and located the F: drive, and copied all my work across to my hard drive. It was as easy as that, no need for any drivers to get installed (which would have been a problem on the college computers) and simply copy and paste to the memory stick.
The actual transfer rate of data is very quick, taking a few seconds just to copy about 5MB; this is thanks to the Hi-Speed USB 2.0 which is used. I don't come close to using the full 128MB, but it is there if the occasion does arise.

Overall I really recommend the DabsValue Easy Disk to anyone getting fed up of wasting money on Floppy Disks, especially as they are not becoming redundant and Floppy Disk Drives are even being removed from some newer machines before they are sold. USB memory sticks are the next logical thing to be using, and for 128MB it costs just £10, which is far better value then spending a couple of quid for a few 1.44MB floppy disks. The transfer rate is very quick, and the U-Storage program included is a nice feature to have, especially being able to use the USB stick to boot from after copying from a normal floppy-boot disk. Probably my favourite thing about it is the fact that it needs no drivers installed to work, though it does only works on XP.