Integral Courier - USB flash drive - 128 MB

Author's product rating:   

Memory / capacity	Satisfactory
Reliability	Excellent
Ease of use	Very easy
Speed	Fast
Value For Money	Good

Advantages:	Transfer data from  one computer to another very quickly .
Disadvantages:	Quite small, could get lost and a small capacity .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Computers are so important in our world now that when disaster strikes and your computer fails you think life has reached rock bottom! This happened recently to us, and a new computer was bought but not all my files were backed-up on CD (I know people always tell you to back-up but I did have some things!) and so we managed to get the old one running long enough to copy folders and files we wanted. Not being a brilliant computer buff I thought I would need to copy and email the things I wanted but my son produced a tiny blue “Thing” a bit like a key ring and said use this Mum.

Ok but what do I do with it? was my reply, it’s just like a CD or floppy he says. Well were do I stick it then? He nearly told me, but acting the useless woman worked and he did the first few things for me!

(Perhaps USB stands for U Silly Billy! or words to that effect!)

Before I tell you just how easy it is to use, I will tell you the little bit I have found out about Integral.

Integral is a brand of Just Rams Plc, one of the largest memory distributors in Europe. The Integral brand aims to offer high quality digital products and value for the end user. (I told you it was a little bit!) The company says that their little flash drive can do all this:-

• Replacement for your floppy disks, Zip drives and CD-R’s
• Read speed of up to 12MB/s (80x)
• Write speed of up to 3MB/s (20x)
• Drag and Drop file to and from your Courier USB Flash Drive using Windows Explorer
• Support for Windows and Mac OS
• True Plug and Play (powered by your PC)
• LED light
• Backward compatible with USB 1.1 (works at USB 1.1 speed)

They are available in larger capacities too, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB.

It is in a translucent blue colour with a silver coloured metal band and end loops. It measures 7cm in the closed position and 8cm in the open mode with the cover fastened on, so you don’t put it down and lose it! The width is 2cm at the widest point. It pulls open and snaps shut, and only weighs 9gr so won’t add much weight to your pocket or bag.

And what do you do?

Open the flash drive, and fasten the cover on the end. Insert into your PC- my USB port is on the front and easy to reach, the one on the laptop is on the side.
Copy the files as you would do with a CD or floppy, the drive will appear as another letter “J” in my case. A red light flashes showing it is working. Very quickly done, it is ready to remove and the cover can be replaced until the data is required. Then take the cover off, insert into the pc and a screen comes up entitled “Autoplay” UDISK 2.0 (J), and has a list of Audio file options with play, copy disc and transfer music and also a general option to open folder to view files.

Easy peasy! I did it so it must be! Although it may not be suitable for older computers as it does need

System Requirements
• USB Port (USB 2.0 for hi-speed data transfer)
• Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista
• Mac OS 8.6+

Where can I get one? and how much will it set me back?

The one I’ve been using was a gift and cost around £15 a year or so ago.
Shopping.com is advertising them at £7.05 with free p&p and Amazon are advertising them at £1.36 plus p&p of £2.75! Prices are rapidly changing especially on the lower capacity as people want a larger flash drive, which incidentally is sometimes called a pen drive! Browse the internet and you’ll find one for a few pounds.

Is it worth getting?

It is a simple and very quick way of transferring data between computers at home, the office, or in a school or university environment. We no longer have a floppy drive on our new computer, and although I will happily still use CD’s to store photos which I want to keep I do prefer this way of transferring data. Personally I think because the price has dropped it is worthwhile buying the smaller ones, although you may need a larger one for very big items.