Fast & Small USB Drive?

[racketboy]

I use my USB drive all the time and my current one takes forever to save large spreadsheet in Excel.
Most of the fast ones I've seen are also kinda big.

So I thought I would ask if anyone knows of a reliable, fast drive that is on the smaller end of the scale.

I'm looking at a 4GB range.

[Metalcrack]

I take it you're looking at a hard drive, not a flash drive?

[nickfil]

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/04/12/road-tes ... -actually/

might be up your ally. I know when i saw it, i wanted one without any use at all for it.

[Pulsar_t]

I once had a 256meg DiskOnKey (?) USB drive that was so sturdy it actually remained intact after being run over by a car! I reckon they don't make them anymore though.

[Anapan]

Here's what I got - Sandisk MicroSD HC card reader with 8GB high speed MicroSD HC card.

small enough to easily lose, up to 16gb capacity, compatible with MiniSD and SD using included adapters and excellent speed over USB2. Most cheap MicroSD cards are rated at ~4MB/s write and ~12MB/s read (class 4) tho you can buy ones with much faster speed. Apparently the new Sandisk Ultra ones are the fastest at about ~15MB/s write and ~20MB/s read (class .
I think I bought that particular one off newegg for $10-15.

For larger file transfers I use 2.5" Sata notebook harddrives and the Vantec NexStar-3 external enclosure with eSATA and USB interfaces. The eSATA data transfer rates are awesome.

The worst one I ever bought was a 16GB Toshiba thumbdrive that has an ipod type miniature mechanical hard drive in it. Expensive and very slow.

Edit: corrected misinformation on write speeds.

[marurun]

I like a lot of the Sandisk Cruzer drives. They have some smaller ones. How small, exactly, do you need to go?

[ryanstein]

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/04/12/road-tes ... -actually/

might be up your ally. I know when i saw it, i wanted one without any use at all for it.

I've heard nothing but good things about these drives. That said, I just use a standard 8GB Sandisk Cruzer Micro. Works well for my needs.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

The only flash drives I rock are my 256MB San-Disk Cruzer mini, and a Boeing 64MB I've had since 8th grade (05-06).

When it comes to a large scale item I just use my 60gig Maxtor portable HDD that I've had since mid '06.

All three of them read/write quick and have been through hell and back, but I doubt anything that small is still being made anymore.

[racketboy]

I had a Sandisk Cruzer a while back -- was a nice drive -- that one was only 256Mb though
The current lineup of Sandisk drives don't seem to be geared for speed though...

For reference of size, this is similar to what I have now and I like this size:

[racketboy]

I take it you're looking at a hard drive, not a flash drive?

Nope -- need something small for my pocket