back to article Kingston's thumb drive is tiny Tardis

You really won't want to lose Kingston's Data Traveller 300 256GB thumb drive, the highest-capacity thumb drive available. There could be a near-universe of files, pictures and music inside and yet it can be as easily mislaid as any 2-gig thumb drive. Data Traveller 300 against Tardis background This tiny Tardis holds as …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let me know when Tesco's are sellign them.

    Then I'll know that they're a generic product.

  2. Bug

    10MB/sec?!

    So 256GB. Assume they're using the 1GB=1000MB method of capacity calculation that's 256000MB. (256000/10)/(60*60)=7.11 hours. So it'll take 7.11 hours to transfer that 256GB assuming it's continuously writing at at the maximum possible speed. Which of course it won't be because of the overhead of all the handshaking stuff that comes with copying each individual file.

    So the Tardis analogy is very apt. The product will be of most interest to Timelords since they can skip over the tediously long period of time it takes to fill the drive up or retrieve it's contents.

  3. Sam Liddicott

    I'll use the tardis

    I'll use the tardis to collect mine. Then I won't have the 3 day made-to-order wait - in fact I can also buy them from when the price will have dropped through mass production.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Thats not a Tardis....

    its a Doctor'in my bank ballance.......

    ouch ouch ouch very very expansive on the expenses bottom line to say the least...

    Balmer... cos burning money is no issue with one of the satanic, doom with a view bringers.....

  5. 3kids2cats1dog
    Paris Hilton

    Yes, But

    Who cares how big the drive is. The real metric of any thumb drive is "Will it Survive a Tumble in the Wash". No reviews ever does it. But it is a real saleing point!

    Paris, ' cause all drive needs a tumble.

  6. Robert Ramsay

    I'd buy one...

    if it was *shaped* like a Tardis.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    That'll go nicely...

    ...with the new NAS adapter I've ordered following this - http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/07/14/hitachi_simpletech_nas/

    I must stop reading the register, it's bankrupting me :-(

  8. nichomach
    Coat

    @Robert Ramsay

    It is; it's just that the chameleon circuit isn't busted, so it looks like a thumbdrive pretending to be a TARDIS pretending to be a thumbdrive....

    /Mine's the one with the floppy hat and scarf...

  9. Anonymous John
    Unhappy

    Damn!

    I thought you meant it looks like a Tardis

    <Puts credit card back in wallet>

  10. The Original Ash

    @3kids2cats1dog

    My OCZ ATV 4GB lasted a wash.

    http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives/ocz_atv_usb_2_0_flash-drive

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    I would ...

    also buy one if it were shaped like a Tardis. Sad, I know.

    @ 3kids2cats1dog

    BTW, I have two USB (8 Gb) Tesco cheapo sticks (around eight quid on sale) which both have survived a wash and when dried out the data was all still perfectly readable. Bargain!

  12. TeeCee Gold badge
    Stop

    ReadyBoost?

    Since fister will use any attached USB stick as ReadyBoost (if it's fast enough - and you can get that from the performance figures), presumably "comes with ReadyBoost" actually means "comes with extra words printed on the box".

    Also, since ReadyBoost supports a maximum of 4Gb, we're beyond sledgehammer territory here and off into the lala land of using piledrivers to crack nuts.

  13. Peter Foulkes

    Squeaky Clean

    My 4GB SanDisk Cruzer USB stick is spotlessly clean following at least one spin cycle.

    It also still works and the data did not wash away.

  14. david 63

    @bug

    You don't need to watch that little blue bar crawl across the screen you know. It will keep going without you willing it along...

  15. Jon Green
    Happy

    @The Original Ash

    "The OCZ ATV 4GB ... made for today's lower temperature washes!"

    Yeah, that could work... ;)

  16. exilis
    Coat

    Spin me right round...

    I've got a 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Micro that has been through the wash at least half a dozen times now. Still works perfectly, although I do let it dry out properly before using it.

    Mine's the one with the thumb drive left in the pocket...

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stick survival

    I've never managed to kill a memory stick, through multiple washes, crunches, bangs, drops, you name it.

    I didn't even manage to murder my Sansa clip when it got dropped in the driveway in the winter for two weeks - stuck in the snow, with my car driving over it every day. My mom found it after a while, soaked with water... I let it dry out, and it works fine to this day.

  18. Steve Foster

    @Greg Fleming

    8GB Sticks for £8 each? That was definitely a bargain, as the cheapest Tesco offer today is just under £15.

    eBuyer are currently cheaper, from around £11.50 for 8GB.

    8GB and 16GB sizes appear to be the "sweet spot" for cost-effective flash memory at present. The cost jumps right up as you move up to 32GB and beyond.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Exchange rate gone mad?

    "The price is £50"

    I'm sure I read this earlier and it said it was over $500... something crazy going on.

    Frankly, I don't believe that you could get a 256GB key for £50... prove me wrong!

  20. Brian Miller
    Boffin

    And this is the computer age??

    The fastest Kingston USB stick writes at 20Mb/s (DataTraveler BlackBox). I would have thought that with better technology comes better performance. Anybody out there understand the concept of parallel access? Can't anybody come up with a better flash chip interface controller??

    I did the same math as Bug, and this product looks to be useless for mass storage. I'll go with USB hard drives instead.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Steve Foster

    Yes, they were originally £14.99 but marked down to £8.99 -- just checked. My local Tesco still has 'em and I recall thinking "they're prolly wrongly priced". But hey, at the checkout I asked and sure enough -- £8.99. In lovely lurid see-thru colours too.

    I can almost hear the stampede now ...

  22. dracotrapnet
    Coat

    Roomy in here.

    It would take forever to fill up that thumb drive. Even worse some devices that will take thumb drives index the whole file system before returning to root menu and playing the first mp3. I'd avoid using a thumb drive this big with my truck's stereo as it is afflicted with that problem.

    Mine's the one with the sonic screwdriver and celery in the pocket.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    could hold everything I know

    Seriously, now where's the beer? i only a one brain cell left....

  24. Tom 35

    @david 63

    " You don't need to watch that little blue bar crawl across the screen you know. It will keep going without you willing it along..."

    No, 5 seconds after you turn away it will stop.

    Do you really want to move that locked file?

    or

    There is already a folder named crap...

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There is precisely one use for this device

    namely slaying all comers who dare to play Who's Got The Biggest Thumb Drive during weekly geek-offs at The Old King's Headcrash.

    Do you want to be that man?

    Do you?

  26. 3kids2cats1dog
    Terminator

    Tales of Flashdrives

    I think there is a story here some where. A Reg Poll on the worse thing that has happened to a flash drive. Washing up is fine, but really what else has happened to your flash drive: i.e. How deep was that mud hole, what body cavity did you dig that flash drive out of and the burning question that I have is; can you use a flash drive as a marital aid and save my love life. Please post pictures.

    KC

  27. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Joke

    Just what every government minister needs

    Something to stuff their department's databases on and loose on a train.

  28. Andus McCoatover

    Tiny Tardis?

    At that speed, I'd call it a "Tardy Tardis"

    Too effing pricey. But, the plods can put the entire UK's DNA database in it.

    Then lose the fuc*ker.

  29. James O'Brien
    Thumb Up

    Hell since its a pissing contest

    I have a Sandisk 2Gb Titanium Cruzer that spent a winter in a snow bank, two washes with bleach and dry cycles and been run over by a car...nary a scratch on it and the data was fine in each instance :)

    /Sandisk FTW

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    @ James O'Brien

    My no name cheepo 16GB stick bought at a stall in Ashton market spent well over 3 hours in the urinal in the Turks Head and after fishing the damned thing out and wiping it with my hanky, it worked straight away when I returned to work and plugged it in and continued my "anonymous surfing" session...

  31. Another Anonymous Coward 1

    Always good to see the next storage capacity released.

    As it generally hails price cuts on the capacities way below it. Nice to see the high end continuing to stamp along.. it was only a few months ago that 128gb drives came out.

    I remember very clearly, 6 years ago, seeing the latest flash stick online for over a thousand bucks. The capacity? 4 GB.

    If that rate of progress remains steady...

    Mines the one from 2015 with the 16TB drive in the pocket. That's enough to back up the entire contents of my brain, assuming the cyborg hardware manufacturers get their finger out and come up with an interface by then.

  32. TeeCee Gold badge
    Joke

    That's nowt!

    My old 256Mb stick were dropped from 'airplane over t'Himalayas, fell into t'snow, were eaten by t'Yeti and shat out two weeks later, fell down t'mountain in avalanche, landed in t'middle o' road, were run over by a Tibetan truck and t'pieces were tarmacced over by a Chinese road team.

    After that I dug it oop wi' jackhammer, stuck it back t'gether with cold porridge and grit and my S Club 7 collection were still there.

    Memory sticks these days? Don't know they're born......

  33. Mark Lockwood
    Joke

    @TeeCee

    I used to dream of having a 256Mb stick...

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @TOM 35

    you mean you didn't just type xcopy /s /y *.* f:

  35. MyHeadIsSpinning
    Coffee/keyboard

    @TeeCee

    Icon says it all

  36. Bill Fresher

    Not Indestructible

    I have a 4Gb memory stick that I used to carry in my back pocket. It lost all its data one day when I did a big fart.

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    BOOST!?

    "The data transfer rates are up to 20 MB/sec read and 10 MB/sec write." - Windows must be crap to be boosted by such a lame thing.

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    @ John Smith 19

    The word is LOSE... LOSE... LOSE.. LOSE. For the love of everything that is holy, the word is LOSE!!!!!

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