Introduction
We delayed our original plans to post this product review after we experienced serious and repeatable crashes on the Windows 98 computer on which we initially tested the Gizmo! product. we wanted to give the Gizmo -- we'll leave off the product name's exclamation point for the remainder of this review -- a proper test, and did not want to subject Crucial to a harsh or unfair review, so we delayed publication until further tested could be completed. After conducting further testing on a different PC running Windows 98, as well as a wide range of other PCs and Macs running operating systems both old and new, we're finally willing to commit this review to public scrutiny.
First, the good news: the Gizmo worked flawlessly on every other machine on which we tested it. It is automatically recognized by PCs running Windows Me, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It also worked seamlessly under Xandros Linux -- which, it's worth mentioning, isn't listed in the "compatible systems" section of the Gizmo information page on the Crucial.com website. It also worked flawlessly on Macs. We tested only Macs running OS X 10.2.6 (plus one running a beta of 10.3), but we're told it is also supported by earlier USB-compatible Mac OS releases.
Further tests under Windows 98 were less successful, although not entirely fruitless. Windows 98, Crucial notes, does not directly support USB Mass Storage devices -- a special driver must be manually downloaded and installed. In our first test (noted above) under Windows 98, the machine found the USB Mass Storage Device as expected, installed the Crucial-supplied driver and allowed us to read and write data. However, when we unmounted the drive, a complete freeze of the computer ensued. We tried this operation a total of three times with identical results each time before concluding that it just wasn't working.
In each case, we were careful to wait until the green LED on the Gizmo stopped flashing -- indicating the cessation of writing to the volume -- but it was to no avail. We even tried using the "Eject" Now, this is not to say that every Windows 98 machine is likely to behave identically. You might not experience any problem. Admittedly, we've been phasing out the use of Windows 98 on our test machines here at PC Buyer's Guide over the past several months, in favor of more reliable and robust systems such as Windows 2000, Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux. We did, however, have a second copy of Windows 98 on a machine running Win4Lin under Xandros Linux. Although the Windows 98 driver didn't allow the Gizmo to be used in that environment, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that Xandros Linux (and, we suspect, most other USB-savvy Linux distros) recognized the Gizmo in its native environment.
When we asked Crucial about the Windows 98 problem, the company replied, "In some cases, Windows 98 systems will have outdated USB drivers [resulting in] system freezes after removal of Gizmo! One thing to try is updating the chipset drivers and BIOS (if available). Another possibility is the USB port may not have enough juice to activate the Gizmo! drive. Trying the drive with a powered USB hub will determine if the power is adequate or not."
So, what is it?
So, now that we've got it working, it's time to tell you what the heck the Gizmo is. It's a small, thin plastic case about the size of a lipstick case, with a removable cap on one end and a nylon strap and a plastic clip attached to the other end. When the cap is removed, a USB connector is revealed, which you plug into your computer, If the computer is compatible with USB Mass Storage devices -- as all modern versions of Windows and the Mac OS are -- the device shows up as a volume, much like another hard drive, on your computer. It's a USB 1.1 device -- and not a very fast one, either. Crucial concedes that its data transfer rate averages about 6Mb/sec. (USB 2.0 devices support transfer rates up to 480Mbps), so don't expect blazing performance. It took several minutes to write enough data to the Gizmo to fill up its 128 MB of onboard "Flash" memory. This memory is non-volatile, meaning that it doesn't need power to remain intact on the Gizmo, and the fact that the Gizmo is automatically recognized by any computer running an operating system newer than Windows 98SE makes the Gizmo well-suited as a floppy drive replacement in most applications not requiring a bootable device.
The Gizmo is recognized by the computer system as a Samsung USB Mass Storage device. Although there are probably faster and slower devices of a similar nature on the market, ultimately, we don't think speed -- or the lack thereof -- should be your primary concern when evaluating a product in this category. It's more appropriate to look at the reliability of the storage technology, and the ease with which it can be used. In these areas, Crucial shines. A division of Boise-based Micron Technology, the company is renowned as a vendor of high-quality SDRAM memory, and the Gizmo's high-quality manufacturer and handy "disk activity" LED put it a cut above many competing devices. Our biggest complaint is that the plastic cap that covers the USB connector could be easily lost -- this is certainly not a serious flaw! We also noticed that a few PCs have USB ports that are stacked so closely together, or so near a serial port cable, that the Gizmo sometimes can't be plugged in without fiddling with other cables or removing other devices. C'est la vie.
Conclusion
We've been using the Gizmo several times a day for weeks, and find it useful in a wide array of circumstances. When the SoBig virus hit a friend's computer, we used it to transfer the necessary patches and virus updates to his ailing computer. When a friend wanted to test the demo version of QuarkXPress, we used it to copy the 40+ MB file. When we needed to print a poster-sized picture to a large-format printer not on our local area network, we copied the PDF files to the Gizmo and transported the files to the computer attached to the printer. And it's great for all those files and documents that you might otherwise be writing to floppy or CD-RW media. There have been a few times when the files we wanted to copy exceeded the 128MB capacity of this model, but in general, the speed of the Gizmo is low enough that anything larger would start to suggest that more complex alternatives, such as establishing an ad hoc network connection or burning a disc, would be worth the time to set up. In short, we've found the Gizmo a reliable and tremendously useful addition to our computer toolbox. In future iterations, when faster data transfers are possible, such devices will be even better.
At this writing, the Crucial Gizmo! 128MB USB flash drive is US$55.99. ::
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