Protecting a USB Key from Viruses, Etc

[Vicenarian]

Sold Vicenarian. Just bought a Kanguru 4GB on eBay for a little over $20.00.

I'm sure you'll love it.

 

[Graystar]

I just picked up that Kingston Mobilelite card reader (mentioned above), and can now report that it works perfectly and respects the card's write-protect switch. I had purchased an 8GB card specifically for use in my biz as a toolkit, so it was worthless to me without write-protection, but I couldn't see buying a new flash drive to replace it.

Does the SD card stick out un-protected? From the photos it looks like it does. To me this means the card cannot "ride" in the device all the time.

I have been using the Mediagear XTRA drive which the lock switch works all the time, but having had three of them fail on me this last year and the fact that I cannot find them readily I am looking for a different solution.
Please advise

 

[Skyhooker]

Does the SD card stick out un-protected? From the photos it looks like it does. To me this means the card cannot "ride" in the device all the time.

No, there's a protective shell that retracts into the device on both ends to cover both the card and the USB jack - it's not built like a brick, but should travel fairly well.

FOLLOW UP: OK, this is bad - I just tried removing my card from the reader, and it's stuck. It feels like it's hanging up on the write-protect switch itself. AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!! I may have to break it just to remove my card.

 

[Vicenarian]

I bet that Kanguru drive is looking more and more attractive LOL

 

[Skyhooker]

Kingston Mobililite G2 follow-up

I contacted Kingston regarding my Mobilelite G2 pocket card reader that basically ate my SD flash card - they gave me an RMA because their engineers want to see WHY the Transcend card got stuck inside, and they're sending me a new reader along with an 8GB Kingston card.

Bravo, Kingston!

 

[Vicenarian]

So, did anybody buy the Kanguru drive? And, if so, what do you think of it?

 

[kagman]

I am going buying 3 Kanguru Flashblu II drives right now. Thanks guys. Needed some flash drives with write protection..

 

[norm1320]

Vicenarian, I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you really like the Kanguru drive. lol

Seriously, I would consider this (or something like it) except that I like a bit more breathing room. I bring a 500GB drive in a Rocketfish usb/esata enclosure with me instead of a thumb drive. Allows me to carry ISOs of XP, Vista, and Win7 for OS reinstalls if the client has lost their media, plus UBCD, BartPE, a few different malware/virus scanners, and other assorted utilities while still having plenty of room to backup client data right on the spot if I need to do a format/reinstall.

I know this may seem excessive, but most of my clients are older retired people who don't mind one bit if I remain onsite for a prolonged period, but don't like having their computers taken offsite unless absolutely necessary. I think a lot of them just enjoy having the company for a while.

I'm just getting started, so I can't afford to do a proper hardware write blocker solution, but would love it if I could find an inexpensive way of getting at least some protection without sacrificing drive capacity.

 

[Vicenarian]

haha yeah I love the drive...so for those who got them, what do you think?