I recently purchased the 32 GB Patriot thumb drive and have been very happy with it. I work in video animation and web design and have found the drive to be very fast - even with large size file loads or loads with a large number of files. I've read some other complaints about the load speed of the drive but haven't noticed them myself. Perhaps the people complaining about the load speed weren't using a USB 2.0 port or they were simply being overly scientific about it.
Upon opening the drive from its packaging I inserted it into my USB drive right away and both my Vista machine and my Windows XP machine recognized it immediately. There was no formatting or configuration required. I'm not sure how it would react to a Mac.
My biggest concern with a drive like this is losing the cap. For example, if you put the drive on your keychain and stick it in your pocket the cap will eventually come off of the drive in your pocket, or while you take your keychain out of your pocket, or while the drive hangs from your vehicle's ignition. It's also common, at least for me, to forget where I put the caps. In consideration of a potential future lost cap I emailed the manufacturer's customer service department and asked them for extra caps and I received 2 additional caps about two weeks later free of charge. To me, that's customer service.
Overall the drive seems reasonably rugged. It's encased in rubber so I suspect that's what the manufacturer was going for. I'll modify this post if the drive ever craps out on me but for now I'm very satisfied with it - especially when compared to other thumb drives I've owned. Patriot Xporter XT Boost 32 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive PEF32GUSB
Bottom line: The Patriot Xporter XT Boost 16 GB is a good USB drive but far below the performance I expected. Its tests average slightly below a Class 8 flash drive or 50X.
I will update my review on the cap status in the future since most rubber caps loosen with age and this one is a pocket gripper. I may epoxy a little leash on it to the body.
Reading so many of these reviews does not help in purchase decisions. Frankly, they drive me nuts. "It was so fast!" "It was so much faster than my old drive!" "Some people are too scientific." "It booted immediately on my Windows... (version)/Mac [computer]." (Please do not take any of these comments as personal attacks on your reviews. I have been hammered in past professional writing to ensure I provide hard, substantive data for any statement I make.)
Can I please have objective data to assist in my purchase decision? The first thing I do is benchmark when I receive a flash drive or flash card. I have returned fakes, counterfeits, and below spec units. Formatting new drives appropriately upon receipt is a smart decision, since it removes any crapware from the manufacturer and any viruses a disgruntled employee could have placed. (Does anyone remember the WordPerfect employee who knew he was going to be fired back around 1990?) Although not a Mac user. I use flash drives for Windows Vista/7 and Linux OS purposes.
Flash "class" is based on write speed. I have included a conversion table toward the end of my review. I am sorry I forgot to specify sequential write testing for my benchmarks. To increase accuracy and reduce extraneous hardware reductions in test results, I do not use USB extension cables and clean format the flash for each test. Here are some hard data for you on the 16 GB Patriot XT Boost I received from Amazon:
Flash Drive/Card Tester 1.16.1
Patriot Memory, PMAP, PMAP 1234; 15271 MB
00:01:30.99 - -------------------------------- New test process started --------------------------------
00:01:31.03 - Started "Writing test data" for drive F: 15271MB, ", Patriot Memory, PMAP, PMAP1234", 512b
00:41:11.94 - Completed "Writing test data" for drive F: 15271MB, ", Patriot Memory, PMAP, PMAP1234", 512b
00:41:11.94 - Tested total 15271.999MB in 0:39:40 with 6.424MB/s (**Class 6**)
00:41:11.94 - Total write errors: Fatal=0, Recoverable=0
00:41:11.95 - Started "Reading and comparing data" for drive F: 15271MB, ", Patriot Memory, PMAP, PMAP1234", 512b
00:52:27.89 - Completed "Reading and comparing data" for drive F: 15271MB, ", Patriot Memory, PMAP, PMAP1234", 512b
00:52:27.91 - Tested total 15271.999MB in 0:11:15 with 22.608 MB/s
00:52:27.91 - Total errors: Read fatal=0, Read recoverable=0; Write fatal=0, Write recoverable=0; Comparsion=0
H2testw Results
Warning: Only 15255 of 15256 MByte tested.
Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 8.01 MByte/s (**Class 8**)
Reading speed: 24.5 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
Checkflash 1.16.1
Four sector errors in last block of flash, 2nd Pass: No errors (I did a second pass since the first showed physical errors and it could have been caused by factors outside of the flash, which it was.)
1 Cycle Test, 1:25:44 elapsed
Read: 26.92, 25.50 MB/s
Write: 8.15, 8.12 MB/s (**Class 8**)
Conversion Chart
Class 2 - 16Mbps - 2MBps - 13X
Class 4 - 32Mbps - 4MBps - 27X
Class 6 - 48Mbps - 6MBps - 40X
Class 8 - 64Mbps - 8MBps - 53X
Class 10 - 80Mbps - 10MBps - 67X
Thank you for reading my review. I hope it helps you. Please approve or disapprove so I know if I should continue writing and submitting results from this several hour process for future drive or card purchases.
I own a few of these, I find I need alot of portable space but I dont want to carry around an ext HDD. The drive is soooooo fast. Before this I owned a corsair voyager 16gb which was just way way too slow, this drive reminds me of my old lexar lightning. Well worth the price.
I bought this to help back up photos on trips. Works great. Relatively fast and was pleased with the transfer speed. I like the rubber housing.
Pros: Fast. Reliable. Small. Lightweight. Rubber housing semi-weather proof and feels fairly durable.
Cons: Only one small complaint. It would be nice if the cap was attached by a small rubber strip to keep the unit together as one piece. Otherwise you have to slide it on the back of the drive or set it aside which is easy to loose if you don't pay atttention. - Patriot - Usb Flash Drive - 32gb - Usb Flash Drives'
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