It's known as the cig@rdrive outside Australia. Is it worth lighting up the StorDrive, or will all your data go up in a puff of smoke?
Portable USB storage devices have become popular for two reasons. They're generally easy to install and use, and they offer a lot of storage space in a relatively small package. The USB StorDrive is no different from the rest in this regard, although it's actually a touch larger than most competing drives.
The local distributor of the StorDrive has rebranded the drive from its original moniker, although it's not hard to see why. When you first insert the drive it has a small (151KB) application that points you to the original vendor website. This shows the device going by the name of 'cig@rdrive'. Given that the local distributor is pitching this at least partly at the education market, we can see why they went with the name change.
We can also see where the original vendor got the cigar part of the moniker from; compared to other storage devices, the StorDrive is quite large. The 64MB model we got came in translucent orange plastic with a rather flimsy clip-off plastic 'head' that covers the USB connector. A quick trip to the vendor site reveals cig@r drives in various colours, along with the worst, cheesiest flash animation we've ever seen designed to show off the device. Don't say we didn't warn you.
As with most USB storage devices, operation is driverless unless you're running Windows 98. Annoyingly the supplied drivers come on a CD-Single, which may not work all that well in some drives. A small green light on the PCB flashes at a steady beat when the StorDrive's connected, and at a much more rapid pace if you're transferring or deleting data.
In our tests the StorDrive managed quite capably. Transferring a 60MB folder to the drive took 1:33. Sending the same files back took 1:06. It was better than the Thumbdrive devices we reviewed here, and quite decent given the basic USB 1.1 nature of the device itself.
So the StorDrive performs well, but to stand out in the USB storage space, you need something more than just decent performance. In the StorDrive/cig@rdrive's case, that's a USB extension cable, which makes up for its otherwise quite stubby nature. On plenty of desktop and even notebook systems, the close alignment of USB ports makes putting two (or more) stubby devices side by side an impossibility. By bundling a USB extension cable, this problem is neatly solved; as an added bonus it's a very easy way to extend one of your USB ports for any other devices you may have handy. Also included in the package is a lanyard, although we weren't brave enough to go out wearing the StorDrive in public.
Microbits sells the StorDrive in a variety of sizes, ranging from the titchy 16MB size (AU$34.10) up to a whopping 1GB (AU$1000). That compares extremely favourably with both the Thumbdrive, which starts at AU$75 for a 16MB model, and the Sony Micro Vault, which will cost you AU$49.95. As long as you can deal with the slightly larger size of the StorDrive, it represents good value and performance within its cigar shaped body.
USB StorDrive
Company: cigarusb.com
Price: 64MB Model AU$74.80
Distributor: Microbits
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