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published: 10/04/2006 last updated: 10/04/2006 Some of the more geeky out there may recognize the name Crucial as the maker of some seriously high-end PC RAM and the commercial arm of Micron, the makers of virtually all the high-end RAM chips on the market regardless of what manufacturer actually builds the RAM. Some of the most popular makers of RAM around, such as OCZ use Micron chips in their fastest RAM. Crucial also makes a line of flash drives called Gizmo!. Today's review is of Crucial's top of the line flash drive, the 2GB Gizmo! Overdrive with Security Software.

Crucial Gizmo! Overdrive with Security Software in Use

Usability, Size & Portability

Size wise, the Gizmo! is near identical in size to all other flash drive on the market. It measures in at 64 mm x 20 mm with the cap on. You can easily carry the Gizmo! in your pocket or purse with no problems, and you will hardly know it is there. Flash drives by nature are very easy to use and the Gizmo! is no exception. To use it I simply plugged the drive into my Windows XP test machine and it was immediately recognized and ready to be used.

When you plug the drive in an autorun file automatically executes to bring up the option to login to access and encrypt files in the Portable Vault. Encrypting files with the Gizmo! is a simple drag and drop proposition from your computer to the vault for encryption. Alternatively you can also use the add file button to add individual files for encryption, similar to the way you add files to CD burning software.

Benchmarking & Testing

For testing the Gizmo! Overdrive out I used Sandra 2007 and HD Tach to get some synthetic benchmarks and for real world tests I moved a large file to and from the Gizmo! and measured the time it took with a stopwatch. The first test series up was SiSoft Sandra 2007. Sandra gave me the following test results:

• Combined Index: 9563 operations/minute
• Endurance Factor: 19.6
• 2MB File Write: 409 operations/minute
• 2MB File Read: 1034 operations/minute
• 2MB File Delete: 8708 operations/minute
• 2MB Combined: 755 operations/minute

For the next test series I used HD Tach to get some basic stats for the Gizmo!:

• Random Access Time: 0.6ms
• CPU Utilization: 4%
• Average Read Speed: 36.6MB

For the real world portion of testing I used a folder with 1.03GB of data inside it and measured the time it took to write the file to the Gizmo!, how long it took to read the file to the local disk and how long it took to delete the file. I used the security software to encrypt the same file folder and timed that function as well. The results were as follows:

• Write: 1:47:47
• Read: 0:33:37
• Delete: 0:32:06
• Encrypt: 2:27:22

Verdict

The large 2GB storage capacity of the Gizmo! Overdrive allows users to carry lots of files and the fast read and write speeds make accessing your data faster and easier. The portable vault is great and with loss of valuable and sensitive data being potentially devastating for corporate users and individuals, the security software is an excellent addition to protect your data in case the drive is lost. Overall, the Gizmo! Overdrive is fast, secure and very hard to beat in the 2GB flash drive market.

More Information
You can find more details about the Crucial Gizmo! Overdrive at the Crucial site.
Buy your own Crucial Gizmo! Overdrive with Security Software here.