Reliability in your pocket. For a USB thumb drive? Believe it.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Reliability - in a thumbdrive!  Slick stying and good read/write performance. 

Cons: You'll regret using it as a pencil eraser many years from now.

The Bottom Line: 

Why are you still reading this!?  Go out and buy yourself one of the finest and most reliable thumbdrives on the market.

Author's Review
Let me start by stating what many of you already know about thumb/USB drives:  Almost all of them are unreliable and usually fail when you want to use them the most as per Murphy's Law.  It was this fact which I had in mind when I decided to go shopping for a reliable thumb drive.
    
Previously, I burned through two thumb drives, both of which lasted a total of about six months!  The first one was a SanDisk Cruzer Micro (4GB).  I posted a positive review on this glorified paperclip on this site back in '07 and for that I'm sorry.  That product failed within three months and I have yet to retrieve the two hard disk drives' worth of data backed up on it.  Next up was a Kingston Data Traveller (also 4GB) which failed within four months.  It too has more data on it than I care to admit.  The experiences I  had with these storage devices left a bitter taste in my mouth for sure.  But I'm a traveller and I need a portable storage option, even if it means carrying around another thumb drive that can potentially be another data timebomb.  

For the third round I got smart and did some online legwork and queried 'reliable USB drives'.  I found two sources that offered good reviews on the reliablity of Corsair's Flash Voyager thumb drive series and its Survivor thumb drives.  It's obvious other people have met up with the same dilemma as I with these units, so Corsair, one of the biggest makers of computer memory around, decided to get serious. 

This time I waited until after six months of use before posting my review here, and I can confidently say this little gem from Corsair has lived up to its billing.  Its reliablity has been commendable.  I can report to having absolutely no problems with either reads or writes on this drive.  With 8GB of storage space available on this model, I've enjoyed carrying around a sizable library of files in my pocket, and to think there are 16, 32, and 64GB models available too!  Only the most ambitious file downloader will run out of space using the 8GB model providing you occasionally back up the data to a hard drive or burnable discs.   

Before closing, I want to mention the Voyager's construction and stying.  Corsair must be a thoughful company because they used a slick and  innovative waterproof rubber shell which encapsulates the circuitry inside the unit.  I love this!  As a rule aren't these drives made of cheap plastic?  (And if you think this is nifty, wait until you get your hands on the bomb-proof Survivor thumb drive constructed with an aircraft grade aluminum casing!)

Alright.  I said what needed to be said, and this time I can assuredly recommend this thumb drive from Corsair.  If you're at home reading this and still pondering which thumb drive to buy for reliablity, just pinch your arm and get down to the PC mart now to pick up Corsair's tremendous product.