Corsair generously sent along their 8GB Survivor Flash Drive midsummer for me to field test at the behesting of this post. Over the last few months I have done everything I can to beat this flash drive to hell. The flash drive comes in its own CNC-milled, anodized aircraft-grade aluminum case. In its case an EDPM o-ring makes the case resistant to 200m. The drive has a molded shock dampening collar that prevents vibration from impact being transmitted to the drive. Here is a list of all the things I have done to the drive and it still works.
- Ran over it with my 2 Ton Jeep Wrangler…no damage
- 2 Dives to 35′ with it in my BC pocket, total of 2 hours underwater…still works
- 15 minutes in a pint of Guinness…still works, Guinness has metallic taste
- 10 minutes in the right claw of a rock crab…no damage except to my own left digit
- 18 airplane flights with it in the outer, unprotected pocket of checked luggage…still works
- 1 hour chew toy for boxer puppy…slobbery but still works
- 1 dive to 40′ in 55 degree water in pocket of BC…still fine
- 20′ drop on to aft aluminum deck of research vessel…as you might of guessed still fine
This is the drive you need! I can’t really figure out how to destroy this drive anymore than I already have. The good news it stands up to my everyday life and it should yours too. The best part has to be the full 8GB of storage. More than enough to hold all of my data and room for some mp3’s and anything else that catches my fancy. Data transfer is by far faster than any of the other USB drives in my geek arsenal. The 4GB version retails for near $50 and the 8GB near $175.
…well, great stuff, bad price. $175 is to much for pen drive
i want to EMP one, and see what happens
Not surprising it survived all that. Have you tried the same tests with a control device (a standard flash drive) and see what happens? Other than having too rinse the plug, I think you would see similar experiences.
Why the vibration dampener?
@ken, if it’s not in use at the time, the emp should have no effect. At least that’s what google said.
This link (ruby url is like tiny url, makes long url’s small) http://rubyurl.com/B94 has a decent overview of flash drive technology.
Was all of that deliberate testing, or were some of those accidents?
No comparisons were done to other flash drives. But I will say the average life of my flash drives is about 3-4 months before I damage (crushing) or it gets dropped in water. Some tests were deliberate some were accidents.
Smalltalk and Ruby both have great intros to programming for children. The one for smalltalk is called Squeak and is geared towards teaching kids object oriented programming from the get-go. Ruby (also object oriented) takes more of a web approach (kinda like Rails for kids)with HacketyHack.