Suggestions for USB thumb drive for knoppix/linux use

**freeballer** · 03-14-2003, 05:17 PM

I'm looking for information from those of you who have used some USB thumb drives with linux and knoppix, I was wondering if there have ever really been compatibility issues with some of them or if they all pretty much work well with linux. Any help on brands, websites with info or such, what to look for, what to look out for would be appreciated.
I'd also like to know of any who have used the nomad MuVo with linux!

**Lando** · 03-14-2003, 11:26 PM

Edit: Posted info from the November 2002 issue of Maximum PC below. The numbers are theirs, but the summaries are mine, albeit I am summarizing their review. From what I've seen, the prices probably haven't changed that much since then.

**Lando** · 03-15-2003, 12:07 AM

Okay, finding the magazine didn't take long, but summarizing their thumbdrive roundup will definitely take a while! Because of this, I'll just post the relevant info for each one they reviewed with as few comments as possible. And before you say "I just wanna know which is best!", it depends on what you wanna do and how much you wanna pay.

Kanguru Micro Drive
Capacity Tested: 128MB
Cost per MB: $0.66
Maximum capacity
available: 1GB
Write-protection: Yes
Time to transfer 127MB: 5:32
Price (at time of review): $85
Overall score: 8/10
Lando's summary: It's got the best price per megabyte, it looks really sturdy, and it comes with an extension cord/docking cradle, in case your PC doesn't have front-mounted USB ports.

M-Systems Diskonkey
Capacity Tested: 512MB
Cost per MB: $0.98
Maximum capacity
available: 512MB
Write-protection: No
Time to transfer 127MB: 4:19
Price (at time of review): $500 (smaller capacities would obviously cost a LOT less.)
Overall score: 8/10
Lando's summary: It's one of the two fastest thumdrives reviewed, and the price per megabyte isn't bad. If you plug it into a windows machine, you can use the built-in KeySafe software to encrypt and hide a portion (or all) of the drive's storage space.

JmTek USB Drive
Capacity Tested: 1GB
Cost per MB: $0.70
Maximum capacity
available: 2GB
Write-protection: Yes
Time to transfer 127MB: 9:31
Price (at time of review): $700
Overall score: 7/10
It's big, but slow. It has tons of software built-in, including an email client and backup utility, but it is all, of course, windows software.

Trekstor USA Thumbdrive
Capacity tested: 16MB
Cost per MB: $1.88
Maximum capacity
available: 128MB
Write-protection: Yes
Time to transfer 16MB: 2:10
Price (at time of review): $30
Overall score: 7/10
Lando's summary: It's slow and pricey, but it's also the physically the smallest drive reviewed. I must emphasize that it's *very* small compared to some of the other drives, on the order of 1/3 to 1/4 of the size of a few of them and 1/8 the size of the Sandisk Cruzer.

Sony Micro Vault
Capacity Tested: 128MB
Cost per MB: $1.17
Maximum capacity
available: 128MB
Write-protection: No
Time to transfer 127MB: 4:19
Price (at time of review): $150
Overall score: 7/10
Lando's summary: One of the two fastest drives reviewed, but it's expensive and (they say) not very sturdy.

Sandisk Cruzer
Capacity Tested: 64MB
Cost per MB: $1.25
Maximum capacity
available: 256MB
Write-protection: No
Time to transfer 127MB: 2:49
Price (at time of review): $80
Overall score: 8/10
Lando's summary: It's huge (the size of a zippo lighter), but it's upgradeable! Essentially, the Cruzer is a MMC to USB adapter. When you buy it, it comes with an MMC card (you choose the size of the card), but, if you like, slide a switch on the front of the unit and out pops the MMC card, ready to be replaced by another one.

Creative Labs MuVo
Capacity Tested: 128
Cost per MB: $1.02
Maximum capacity
available: 128MB
Write-protection: No
Time to transfer 127MB: 36:53
Price (at time of review): $130
Overall score: 9/10
Lando's summary: This score is from the MuVo's original review, based on its capabilities as an mp3 player, not on performance as a thumbdrive. Yes, it's slow as hell, but it plays your mp3's very well, apparently. It's also pretty small.

Lexar Media Jumpdrive
Capacity Tested: 64MB
Cost per MB: $1.25
Maximum capacity
available: 128MB
Write-protection: No
Time to transfer 64MB: 2:34
Price (at time of review): $80
Overall score: 7/10
Lando's summary: Definitely the thumbdrive for the budget concious. I've seen the 64MB version on sale at OfficeMax for $50! It's moderately fast, and small to boot.

Whew. That took a while to type.

**freeballer** · 03-15-2003, 02:02 AM

that was a whack of information, thank you for sending that over to my end. I appreciate it

**Lando** · 03-15-2003, 06:51 AM

You're welcome.

I just figured it would help everybody out, since Knoppix 3.2 is gonna make us all buy thumbdrives to use for the persistent home feature. :P

Edit: New info! Newegg has the Lexar drives priced at $43 for 64MB and $69 for 128MB. Definitely the best deal if you don't need extra features.

www.newegg.com

**silvestrij** · 03-30-2003, 09:34 PM

Now I shall have to recommend Lexar's JumpDrive 2.0 Pro - I just bought it from buy.com for $100 - $20 mail in rebate (ends tomorrow). It's a 256 MB key, and is USB 2.0, with read/write speads of 6.0/4.5 MB/s. And it is backwards compatible with USB 1.1. Previously, I was using a 32 MB "W@lk Key" that I bought for my dept. at work from computergate.com, at the then low price of $20. I'm thrilled with my Jumpdrive 2.0, and can't wait to try it out under Knoppix 3.2

Also, I thought I'd share this bit of Knoppix goodness - after the HD on my personal server had troubles, I didn't quite have time to reload it, and wanted the freedom to move stuff around and onto a new HD when I had a chance to, so I booted it to Knoppix, and started sshd, and tinyhttpd (which I use to access my MP3s from my laptop (an IBM Thinkpad iSeries, which Knoppix worked very well on). Well, as of a minute ago, this is it's uptime:
15:34:21 up 86 days, 18:10, 4 users, load average: 1.00, 0.97, 0.80
This kind of says something about my procrastination on reloading that machine - but it's been working so well, I've had no motivation to change it

.

I think this absolutely incredible, and I thank everyone for making this possible, not the least of whom is Klaus. For a computer to be running 86 days with no operating system installed on its HD is a rather impressive feat to me, particularly given the advanced functionality it has. I've burned a CD with it, and am using it to download Knoppix 3.2 and will use it to burn that to a CD (I obviously have 2 drives - 52x reader, and 8x4x32 writer). Assuming this finishes downloading today, and I've burned it by tomorrow, I will make some more copies at work to spread the love. Knoppix has proved invaluable to me many times over, and I'm sure it will continue to do so. So once again - thank you.

**brian03** · 05-13-2003, 08:00 PM

Originally Posted by silvestrij

Now I shall have to recommend Lexar's JumpDrive 2.0 Pro - I just bought it from buy.com for $100 - $20 mail in rebate (ends tomorrow). It's a 256 MB key, and is USB 2.0, with read/write speads of 6.0/4.5 MB/s. And it is backwards compatible with USB 1.1. Previously, I was using a 32 MB "W@lk Key" that I bought for my dept. at work from computergate.com, at the then low price of $20. I'm thrilled with my Jumpdrive 2.0, and can't wait to try it out under Knoppix 3.2

I'm using a 128MB Jumpdrive. Also very pleased.. Have you figured out how to use a persistent home directory on the USB drive, without using a floppy for the knoppix.sh file?

The "light" footprint of Knoppix is very useful for computers where I'm not allowed to modify the OS. I have a lot of networking and server things to learn before it's fully functional for me, but I expect a Knoppix disk has
become a permanent part of my briefcase or backpack.

**burke3gd** · 05-14-2003, 06:53 AM

Originally Posted by freeballer

I'd also like to know of any who have used the nomad MuVo with linux!

My MuVo works great with Knoppix 3.2 (I have tested saving/loading knoppix settings), as it does with most OS's, you just need a windows machine to use the formatting utility. But don't worry it comes pre-formated, so you only need to format if something goes wrong. (And this has never happened to me in 6 months of use.)

**choi** · 12-09-2003, 02:12 PM

I have just got a new Dell thumbdrive, and I came to think of using it to run as a emergency boot disk with a small linux distro inside of it.

I have a knoppix linux distro.iso file, which I want to 'burn' to the thumbdrive instead of to a cd-r, but I have not been able to 'burn' the iso to it.

I with cdrecord and trying to force to burn to the thumbdrive, but with no luck(Cdrecord complains about it not being a cdrecorder).

So, is there anyone who now how to 'install' ie 'burn' a linux distro from a .iso to a thumbdrive, to make it bootable etc...

I have tried just to mount the iso, and copy the files over, which does ofcourse not work.. =/

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance! =)

**Stephen** · 12-09-2003, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by choi

I have just got a new Dell thumbdrive, and I came to think of using it to run as a emergency boot disk with a small linux distro inside of it.

I have a knoppix linux distro.iso file, which I want to 'burn' to the thumbdrive instead of to a cd-r, but I have not been able to 'burn' the iso to it.

I with cdrecord and trying to force to burn to the thumbdrive, but with no luck(Cdrecord complains about it not being a cdrecorder).

So, is there anyone who now how to 'install' ie 'burn' a linux distro from a .iso to a thumbdrive, to make it bootable etc...

I have tried just to mount the iso, and copy the files over, which does ofcourse not work.. =/

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance! =)

This thread may help.