Memorex 2-gigabyte TravelDrive - USB Flash 2.0 drive (1.1 compatible).

    The two things I like most about this USB drive are it's size and it's speed. At exactly three inches in length and a half inch wide, it's small enough to fit easily in my shirt pocket. With a data read speed of 8 MB per second, it's fast enough to transfer files without making me wait all day long. If I have to choose between size and speed, I'll take speed any day of the week.

    I transfer around 3.3 gigabytes worth of files between at least two computers every weekend - 137,102 files in a total of 8,579 folders. Compression brings this down to a total of 1.5 gigabytes. All this basically involves is copying these "critical" files from my work computer to my laptop, or vice versa depending on which computer I've been working on most recently. It's not a very smart idea to work on the same project on two or more computers at the same time, but I'm lazy and do it constantly. As long as I'm always careful to transfer any newly updated files to whatever computer I plan to be working on before I start working on it, it's usually a seamless operation. It's a little complicated to explain, but you can easily lose important work by accidentally overwriting it if you're not careful when you use this system.

    "Real" computer guys network their computers together and don't have to rely on USB drives to move files. I did that. I have a wired router (D-Link Ethernet broadband router - model: DI-604) as well as a wireless router (Linksys wireless G broadband router - model: WRT54G) and have set-up and used both in the past. I may be "home networking" challenged. I'm willing to accept that possibility. Over the hard wired network it took me the better part of a half day to move one and a half gigabytes of files (compressed) from one computer to another. Needless to say, I only did it that way once. Not only was it slow, it essentially tied both computers up while the file transfer was taking place. The only advantage to using a network connection to move files is that it requires less participation on my part. Get it started and find something to do for the next six hours. The wireless network connection was even slower and I only used it once as well. I needed another solution for moving files and this little Memorex USB drive seemed to be the answer.

    I bought this one at Bestbuy two years ago and paid close to a hundred dollars for it. The same Memorex 2GB USB flash drives are selling on ebay as we speak for less than $30.00 ($26.98 as of 6:00 a.m., 6/24/2007). It's actually slightly amazing when you think of the distance USB drives have come in the last two years. Speeds have increased, the drives have gotten smaller and more compact and their prices have come down dramatically. If I could have waited until now to buy one, I definitely would have.

    I can compress all 3.3 gigabytes of important files (I use WinZip), transfer them to the USB drive and then onto a second computer... all in about an hour. It's not hands free work like it is when I use the network connection. Transferring files in this fashion requires my involvement at one or two key points during the operation, but that's okay though. This is a mandatory, routine, weekly job and the quicker I can get it done - the faster I'm able to move on to other things. That's the game plan on every weekend around here.

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