Kingston Data Traveler Flash Drives-Security on the go

Flash drives are little sticks of USB wonder. Each one with the ability to hold enough data to fill hundreds of floppies, not to mention that many computers do not even have floppy drives any more. They are portable, they can be worn around your neck like a geek status symbol, they will fit on a key chain, and they are quite tough as well. Some are very small, some are just small compared to other forms of portable data storage and some are even disguised as other objects. Some even perform more than one function as in an ink pen that hides a flash drive under the cap.

The choices are endless but one stands out from the others. Kingston shines with its DataTraveler and Data Traveler Elite which has features that are popular with anyone that travels or that is tough on their gadgets. James Bond may carry one of these drives. Even a dousing in up to 4 feet of water would not be a problem since this drive is waterproof to that depth.

The Kingston Data Traveler stands up to its name. It is great for travelers that have to protect data on the go. The Elite's on board AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption keeps sensitive files safe and secure, A password is required to unlock the partition containing the encrypted files which by the way cannot be seen until you log into the partition itself. It is imperative that you remember your password since after the 10th try the data is locked forever. In fact, the only way to use that partition again is to reformat. Anyone not using Windows 2000 or higher will not be able to access the encrypted partition as well. Data outside of the secure encrypted partition will operate on multiple platforms including the MAC OS.

For a device that measures just over 3" long it is built to keep the drive and its contents safe from physical damage. Plastic, stainless steel and titanium protect the workings of the drive and the case works much like shock absorbers to add additional protection from rough handling. Kingston is so sure of their design that they place a 5 year warranty on each Kingston Data Traveler Flash Drive. Although not covered under the warrantee, the data on the drive is said to be safe for up to 10 years.

Seasoned techies will notice that Kingston did not load this drive with a bunch of trail software. Necessary software is included like MyDatazone.exe and MyTraveler.exe. One contains the key for the encrypted partition and the other contains the ability to perform limited syncing with your choice of folders. Space for your data files should not be a problem especially with the 2GB - 4 GB versions. The drive speed will also satisfy since it reads up to 24MB/sec and writes up to 14MB/sec.

If there is a downside to this flash drive it is most certainly the cap. It is not attached in anyway and can easily fall off or be forgotten. Otherwise the Kingston Data Traveler drives perform very well inside and out. Travelers and non-travelers alike can easily and securely keep their data around their neck, on their keychain or in their shirt pocket.