New Tech Review - Imation's Rugged Clip USB Flash Drive

I remember my first USB flash drive. It was in the neighborhood of 32MBs and I grew accustomed to the convenience of it right away. I could easily store dozens of floppy disks all in the palm of my hand. Unfortunately the unit fell apart and a plastic switch broke off. In a few months the data became corrupt and I could never trust it again. Even after being careful with it and slowly plugging and unplugging, it simple fell apart. Finally there is a USB flash drive on the market that is rugged enough to stand the normal wear and tear along with insuring your data is safe.

Imation has produced a new and improved flash drive that looks like it could stand the test of time. This new drive is very slim and only a couple of inches long. It can easily fit into the tightest USB slot on your PC. It is housed in a rubber case that stays together very well. A sturdy carbineer also comes with the drive, which can clip to nearly anything. The unit does not fall apart and it will not come unattached from the clip. Simply pulling down on the rubber shell will remove the drive from the case and clip.

The unit is plug and play, which means there is no software to install. I used the drive on many PCs and Macs and in all cases the computer identified the USB as an external drive. On PCs you can see this in the 'my computer' window. I transferred files from Macs to PCs and vice versa all with no problem. If you are working on numerous computers with different operating systems, you should find no problem in interfacing with each.

Older USB drives did not offer password protection. If you ever lost your drive anyone could pick it up and have total access to your information. Imation has a utility program that you can download that will set up a password. This utility works nicely and once you set up a password and reconnected it to your PC, it asks for your password right away. I also did a test and set up my password on PC, transferred some files and then connected it to a Mac. Unfortunately the Mac was unable to open the drive to reveal my files. There was no way to access it. Hopefully Imation will engineer a solution to this.