[olug] Best Brand for Bootable USB Thumb Drives

[Dan Linder]

I like my 1GB Corsair "Flash Voyager" - physically, it's rugged and has 
withstood being my main USB key for the past two years.  It's got a 
rubber shell rather than hard plastic so it take knocks quite nicely 
(yes, you could probably snap it in half if you wanted to try).  I've 
got FreeDOS booting from it and it sees it as a 1GB "C" drive - good 
when you need to run a DOS-only flash update program.

My only complaint is that I'm on my third one.  The first two died at 
almost exactly 11 months old, and this one is "due" in in a couple 
months.  (And when it dies, it dies hard - no machine even sees a USB 
device plugging in much less having a chance to get anything off.)  What 
I *have* learned is that Corsair tech support is great - just get the 
RMA from their on-line tech guy forum site, shipt it to them, and about 
a week later you get a brand new USB drive back.

My second USB drive is a red Verbatim 1GB that I got at Office Max when 
my first Corsair died.  It is more of a spare, but it too lives on my 
keychain and has survived the day-to-day abuse.  I can't speak to it's 
bootability, but I am pretty certain that I tested the FreeDOS image on 
it first and it worked fine.

IMHO, the biggest issue with booting from a USB keychain is not the USB 
key as much as it is the BIOS in the computer.  Some expect the USB 
device to show up like a HDD, others expect a CDRom, and some others 
want a ZIP or Floppy device.  I don't know what the pros/cons are but my 
Voyager works fine in most computers if I try "USB HDD".

Dan

-- 
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"Wait for that wisest of all counselors, time." -- Pericles "I do not
fear computers, I fear the lack of them." -- Isaac Asimov