Kingston DTI 4 GB USB Flash Drive Reviews

• Excellent Thumb Drive

  
  By AXKFNVCCNQ3YK on 2007-05-12
  I found this thumb drive to be a very good one. It is 4GB, so it holds a large amount of data, and software. It is relatively tough, I have carried it in my backpack and have had NO problems with it. Also, I just bought a new laptop with Vista, and it works wonderfully! However, I also bought a Sandisk 4GB Titanium Drive and it was not compatible with my new laptop. Overall, I love this Kingston drive!
  
  

• Handy

  
  By A57G9OTRL7PGK on 2007-05-12
  Good capacity, compact, cheap, from a known company with a reputation for reliability. I bought this as a backup device. It will fit easily not only into a pocket, but also into someone else's fire-resistant offsite file space. Data retention on these devices is supposed to be good, and with a batch of these, I never have to worry about where to keep an extensive backup set - they'll slip into a safe deposit box (unlike a stack of CD's) or into spaces between papers in a fire-proof cabinet. Unlike DVD-R's they have an establshed track-record on long-term data retention and will not be damaged by laying up against other objects in a drawer that may cause minor but destructive warps to a DVD.
  
  

• Exactly what I wanted

  
  By AI8EMB0HUC6Z5 on 2007-11-21
  This thumb drive is exactly what I wanted. Cheap, reliable, and without some kind of vendor supplied crapware that automatically runs when you insert the drive.
  
  I use truecrypt for creating/using an encrypted partition. Works fine, but one word of warning. Format the encrypted partition as FAT. An NTFS partition running on a thumb drive can have dismount issues. Eventually, those issues will trash the partition.
  
  I've run this drive for a month now and it has been fine even though it bangs around in a pocket with phone, knife, change, etc. A corsair drive failed after a few days of this treatment.
  
  

• Small File Writes are Painfully Slow

  
  By A3OAPBEMR0B3JV on 2007-10-10
  After opening the package, I popped my DTI/4GB into a USB port and copied a number of relatively small files to it (310 files totalling 5.1 mb). It took a full 2 minutes (that's 44 kBps), which was slow enough to convince me I'd gotten a lemon (I copied the same files to my old Sandisk Cruzer 1 gb in 20 seconds). After a couple emails to tech support, Kingston advised me to return it for a new one.
  
  The new one arrived quickly, but performed identically to the old one. For kicks, I installed Sandra 2008 and benchmarked the device's performance. I found that, for small files (512 B), the transfer rate was barely 1 kBps. I contacted Kingston support again, this time providing more details about my testing and the benchmark results I'd gotten out of Sandra. The tech confirmed that this is a low-end device, that the slowness I was experiencing was normal, and that I probably should have sprung for something in their DTS line (too rich for my blood).
  
  Now the good news. If you don't tend to copy a lot of small files, you'll probably be perfectly happy with this device. Once the file size gets to about 256 kb, writes to this drive speed up nicely. Reads are always fast. And tech support was exemplary. My only other complaint would be that the cheap plastic case does not inspire confidence.
  
  No matter how you look at it, however, this is not a 5-star item by any stretch of the imagination. Not even for the money.
  
  

• Not Window Vista ReadyBoost Compatible!

  
  By A250M88M3P5783 on 2007-10-15
  I wanted a flash drive for a Window Vista RAM ReadyBoost. As it says "works with Window Vista," I thought it would be used to serve the purpose, but I was wrong. This is the writing I found from Kingston FAQ;
  ' ReadyBoost is a Windows Vista feature which has the ability to utilize USB flash drive storage space to improve system performance. DT1 DataTraveler High Speed does not support Windows ReadyBoost. '
  
  It is simply an inexpensive slow secondary back up tools. It is handy to own a flash drive for everyone. But it has shown a slower file transfer rate than my other media like Memorex 4Gb flash drive sold at $70+, and ultra 2Gb Sandisk memory card, that is almost several months old now.
  
  The reason I give 2 star is because it is low-priced.
  
  
  
• Returning - too slow and other reasons
  By A39G26LKBXB83D on 2007-12-10
  I've had much smaller and older flash drives that have worked 1000 times better and faster than this. I want to find one as good as those but larger. This isn't it. When I copy my "My Documents" folder to my other external hard drives and flash drives, it takes around 4-10 minutes. Copying to this unit takes an hour! And it took nearly that long to delete the folder from this unit! What's that about?
  
  Also, it is saying it is full even though when I check the size of the folder on the unit it is about 2GB and this unit is 4GB. The pie chart shows it's full but the folder of files on the unit says half that. Again, what's THAT about?
  
  This thing is going back and I'll probably avoid Kingston in my search for a decent flash drive.
  
  
  
  
• Not so great
  By AB8ZHDUBSHKU5 on 2007-05-18
  I read the many good reviews of this product, so I took a shot at it, but I was disappointed. Every time I tried to use it, everything would lock up. I could save small files to the drive okay, but anything large would freeze up my whole computer. I ended up returning the item and am looking for a better product.
  If it works, the price is great. Hopefully no one else will have the trouble I did.
  
  
• Fantastic
  By A2I16SKF3RHED6 on 2007-05-22
  This is great! 4GB for $36 and change... plus I ordered it on Tuesday and received it on Thursday on Free Super Saver! How'd they do that?
  
  I transferred EVERYTHING crucial I needed fom my old PC to the new one in two trips. Now I'm using it as ReadyBoost on my Windows Vista piece of junk.. but that's another story.
  
  
  
  
• Be aware! It ceases to work easily!
  By A3JG4DAZ4VNQYF on 2007-10-09
  I've bought four of these with my friends, in the last 3 months.
  ALL of them have stopped to work. It just stops suddenly. The led on it wont light up anymore, it will no be recognized by windows anymore.
  Even thought Kingston gives you the 5 year warrant, it is really frustrating to have 4 (FOUR) braking in the first 3 months. Try other brands that give you UNLIMITED warrant, because they really believe in their product. Before buying this, take a look at other brands....
  
  
• Highly functional but less than optimally practical
  By A6FIAB28IS79 on 2008-02-03
  Kingston, I've found, is more Mac-friendly than Sandisk or Lexar, and this 4-gig lightweight over-achiever literally shatters capacity and price barriers (remember when you couldn't get 128 mb for under fifty bucks?). No problems with performance--provided you can find the thing or don't inadvertently throw it out with a chewing gum wrapper. Your best bet is to attach it to a key ring, the sooner the better. But now comes the other, admittedly lesser, of the challenges: hanging on to the cover. If you attached the drive to a key ring or lanyard, the challenge is now even greater since the back part of the device won't be available for attachment of the cap.
  
  One solution: spend an extra five bucks for the slightly larger Kingston drive with identical capacity and a retractable USB connection. Problem: it has no ring or hole--nothing to attach a key or neck chain to. Another solution: pick up the deeply discounted Sandisk Cruzer for twenty bucks. Problem: much of the memory is used up by Sandisk's gratuitous programs which, moreover, are not designed for Mac-compatibility.
  
  I'm still waiting. In the meantime, maybe I'll get lucky and come across my latest Kingston that's MIA.
  
  [Later: Transcend makes an affordable retractable flash drive (JetFlash V10) that attaches easily to a key ring and is noticeably faster in transferring files than this Kingston. Moreover, it's Mac-friendly, since its Vista software appears in the drive only if you choose to install it.]
  
  
• Failed after 2 months
  By A34NSBEMRK7Y7G on 2007-08-05
  Hey Amazon, why aren't you posting this review? Third try...
  
  Stick stopped working after 2 months of use, and has gone back to Kingston for replacement.
  
  
• order cancelled
  By A2562H0S5Y7C7W on 2007-11-30
  pc universe listed this item at a great price, so i bought 5 of them. they then told amazon that they were out of inventory, thereby cancelling all orders on the product, including the orders of a few friends of mine. they then listed this item again at a higher price, proving that they lied about being out of inventory, just to cancel our orders and make an extra buck.
  
  
• Had to be reformatted
  By A3LX22NYQLSUCH on 2007-05-01
  At first, trying to write any files bigger than about 100k caused my Mac to hang. I had to reformat the drive to solve this, and since then it has worked okay.
  
  Unlike my previous USB drive, the cap is not attached and could easily get lost. There is a small carrying strap included, but you have to attach it yourself.
  
  
• Painfully slow - almost useless for large amount of data
  By A2WER6C7Y0T4D2 on 2007-11-29
  I frequently have to transfer large amounts of data (500MB+) between computers in the office and my home computer. Prior to buying this drive I burned CD's since that was the only way to get the data back and forth. After looking into USB flash drives I thought this would make my life a lot easier but I was wrong. Transferring large amounts of data is so slow that burning a CD is a lot faster. To give you an example, I just tried to copy 700MB (8,500 files in 150 folders) from my hard disc to the flash drive and it is taking about 1.5 hours to transfer all files. That makes it unusable for my purpose. By the way, I'm using it under Windows XP.
  
  According to Kingston's webpage they have (more expensive) flash drives with data-boost technology which are faster (e.g. DataTraveler II Plus). Maybe I should've done more research before buying.
  
  Update: Compressing all the files into one large zip-file (300MB) reduces the transfer time to roughly 5 minutes. So I guess the drive just doesn't like transfering many files (8500 files).
  
  
• Disappointing ergonomic design kills it
  By A3J3BRHTDRFJ2G on 2007-12-23
  The Kingston DataTraveler family of drives should be a great product. The pricing is excellent compared to the storage capacity, and they work very well in regards to compatibility with PCs and USB ports.
  
  Where the Kingston drives fail miserably is in their user ergonomics. First up is the cap. The cap is on tight - real tight - and that is good, since it helps prevent it from getting lost. However, the shape of the cap - tapering in the same direction you'll need to pull it - combined with the tightness, and therefore the effort needed to remove it, makes it very difficult to grip long enough to get it off. Kingston could have overcome this easily by including some grooves, ribs, or some flares or depressions to enhance your grip, but inexplicably they didn't.
  
  The fatal flaw for me is the keychain loop on the rear of the drive. For me, the USB drive is all about mobility. I like to be able to carry 4GB of data around with me; it's fantastically handy to port that much storage. But, and this is a big "but", you MUST be able to make sure the data stays with you. Who wants to lose their data? No one does that I know of. And this is where the drive lets you down. The loop for hanging it on a keychain is far too weak to hold up to even light duty use. Mine broke within 6 days of use, and it was shocking how little effort it took for the loop to break. A very gentle tug of my keys from a backpack pocket, an act that my Lexar Media 1 GB JumpDrive Sport USB Flash ( JDSP1GB-231 ) (Retail Package)has endured for nearly 2 years without complaint, and yet the Kingston snapped its loop completely off. To further add insult, it now has 2 very sharp barbs where the loops were, requiring me to perform some surgery on the drive just to make sure it doesn't pose a danger to fingers.
  
  I'm headed back to the Lexar JumpDrive Sport family, which I appreciate even more than I did now that I've seen the failings of the competition.
  
  
• Not perfect but satisfactory
  By A3S5QQTF80HG9W on 2007-05-29
  This flash drive works smoothly as expected. But I am little disappointed after finding out that it does not comes with a software to secure the content with a password. Also the cap is a simple (and somewhat feel cheap) cap that can be lost easily.
  
  
• No Driver for Windows Vista
  By AHZD94FMF5BKY on 2007-07-12
  I don't understand why there is no driver that works with Vista. I have much older, cheaper flash drives that work just fine.
  
  
• Simple
  By A1KT1GWCW8F80 on 2008-01-13
  I recently got a laptop to do photo processing/storage when on the road. It accepts 4gb SDHC memory cards with no problem, but my older desktop does not. So, I can either 1) copy data to an external HD, burn a DVD, or copy smaller quantities to 2gb SD cards and transfer to the desktop...or 2) use my USB card reader with the 4gb SDHC card for the desktop...or 3) just use a simple flash drive to transfer from one to the other.
  
  I'll go with the flash drive :-)
  
  The removable cap will fit on the other end so you don't lose it when in use. But, if you use the optional included little keyring-on-a-string, you may eventually cut the string with repeated use.
  
  
• Backup & ReadyBoost
  By A14VUXR4P87PYM on 2007-04-04
  I bought this chip to use as backup for Outlook and my important files and it is wonderful. It also works great as a Windows ReadyBoost drive on Windows Vista.
  
  
• Plenty of room, plenty simple, and just plain works!
  By A2QJJR9P3IYVO9 on 2007-06-26
  Lots of room for my stuff, connects without a problem, data transfer is zippy, and I don't miss the U3 (my SanDisk microCruzer with U3 crapped out) -- this one just works and works and works! Love it!! And though it has a cap, no worries about it getting lost, because it snaps onto the back -- how cool is that?!? And BECAUSE it has a cap, I can carry it around in my pocket without worrying about lint getting jammed up in the USB connector. Let's see, what else -
  * It's nice and slim so it rides in my pocket quite sweetly
  * It's a heck of a lot more convenient than messing with CDs or DVDs
  * It's even kind of pretty ;)
  
  
  
• Don't believe everything you read.
  By A1T81VNZCNTFQT on 2007-10-20
  I read the manufacturers product description and it sounded just like what I was looking for. "It works with virtually any device with a USB port - even cross-platform from Macintosh to PC and vice versa." When I received the drive, however, it wouldn't work with Mac OS 9. I am running OS 10 but a lot of the files I wanted to back up were created with OS 9. There was no information on the web site about supported versions. My OS 9 files were not recognised. I was understandable upset. I contacted Kingston for support and was give a tech solution that was not guarented to work and a disclamer:
  
  "If these steps do not work for you then unfortunately there is nothing else we can do for you."
  
  So much for their "five-year warranty and Kingston's legendary service and support."
  
  The steps didn't work and I am not able to back up the files I need so I guess I am out of luck and Kingston is out a future customer. Lose. Lose.
  
  
  
  
• Great Item at a Great Price
  By A96SMLDK2IEVD on 2007-04-03
  The title says it all. it's a great item. It does what is supposed to do, regular speed (not to fast, but that's ok). And It's 4gb!. Excellent
  
  
• Keep up the good work, Kingston!
  By A2B4YK6EB52EFI on 2007-06-02
  This is a handy flash drive, smaller than most in this capacity range. I really like having the full drive capacity available to me, instead of having to deal with slow-loading junk/waste-of-time utilities like the U3 applets on other makers drives. About the only negative is lack of a full lanyard, although it did come with a little cord. Some folks might not care for the unattached cap, but that's a personal preference.
  
  
• Good value for flash storage
  By A2D9N670IKJ2BP on 2007-11-08
  I bought two of these - one for transportable backup and the other to expand VISTA's memory capacity and performance. So far both are working just fine.
  
  
• Good data device, but flimsy
  By A20QGAS0PO57CE on 2007-12-10
  I chose the Kingston 4Gb drive from a long list of choices here on Amazon because its reviews praise its storage capacity, overall compatibility, and reliability. If only I had know how poorly it was constructed.
  
  The problem with this product lies not with the digital technology, but with a simple oversight in manufacturing--the cap. Since I store information I'd rather not lose on my drives, I like to use the protector cap, but it appears that with this Kingston drive, the cap was not intended to actally be used. The cap is a simple snap-on design where two small bits of plastic "catch" on a pair of indentations on the drive's housing. Snapping the cap on and off has led to the formation of numerous seams splitting open in the cap's cheap plastic, and to similar cracks forming on the part of the housing that engages the plastic nubs.
  
  I am gentle with electronic equipment. This drive did not crack (multiple times) from being twisted around in a pocket or thrown to the bottom of a bookbag. repeatedly snapping the cap on and off has caused the protective feature of this drive to fall apart. It's still a good drive as far as technology is concerned, but it's amazingly poor design harms my opinion of the product.
  
  
• Poor product
  By A8O29TMU46FYW on 2007-12-09
  Unlike my old 512Mb or 1Gb Lexar jump drive, this 4Gb is of poor quality. It just feels flimsy and you cannot plug this into the USB port in your keyboard due to insufficient power. This is a major flaw IMO. Who want to root around on the back of the computer or monitor all the time? That's plain annoying.
  
  
• Slow writes
  By A1FNNE981ME1PE on 2008-01-07
  Good capacity. Small size. But writes very slowly even after enabling Write-Caching on my Windows XP PC for the USB drive.
  
  
• Unsatisfactory
  By A1CVNOK4BRSTPR on 2008-01-17
  Really, this is way too slow. but as the saying goes, you get what you paid for. It's cheap, affordable, and 10 times slower than my Memorex flashdrive. Good for patient people and computer novinces. However I would not recommend buying this product to tanyone that has any knowledge and is comfortable with computers.
  
  
• Woops! Corrupted information
  By A7RJ19XG5PDRU on 2008-02-02
  Yeah, I really wanted to like this product. Kingston has a great reputation, and this seemed like a slam dunk. At 4 gigs I was able to back up my entire work directory on my laptop (to avoid having helpdesk help me by accidentally deleting it all like they sometimes do). It seemed fine ... until I tried to use the files on there. About 40% corruption. Tinkering eventually got me 100% corruption, with no visible files on the drive and Windows showing it as full. Format time! It looks like I got stuck with a bad controller on my drive.
  
  
• Cheap plastic isn't durable
  By A2YGJNN5JSISAZ on 2008-02-27
  Although the flash drive seems fine for data storage, in less than a week attached to my keychain the plastic broke, making it useless for keeping private data with me at all times.
  
  

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