I want to find a jump/flash drive that is durable enough to be carried on my keychain without getting smashed. The one I have now I fear is too delicate for such a thing.

SAK has a combo knife and jump drive, which could probably stand up to the abuse, but I'm interested in the drive alone.

For those of you that EDC a jump drive, can you suggest a tough one?

Ive have had bad luck with the Apacer drives, and my TwinMOS drive bent nearly at right angles. At the moment I am using 2, a Travelling Disk which looks to flimsy, but it has stood up to more than the the others, and another, which the brand has worn off and I cant remember.
I have just ordered another with larger memory. Its a Kingmax, and the drive part slides back into the body to protect the plug. So there is no cap to loose. The body looks more solid than the others I've looked at locally.

I carry mine in my pocket for that reason. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

For durability on a kay cahin, I might suggest a Sandisk Microcuizer, becuase the hasp for the drive is ON the drive, not the cover. Replace the cord with a small split ring to hang it off you keys, and wrap the body of the drive with a single layer of electricians tape so that when you use the large cover, it STAYS on. Throw away the little cover, it is worthless, keep the lanyard for other projects.

Sandisk used to make a titanium cased flash drive. Don't know if they still do or not. That would probably fit the bill <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

If I were looking for a jump drive, I'd ask Han Solo what he's got... he made the Kessle run in less than 12 parsecs.

<img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Yeah, but the drive on the Falcon was on the fritz as much as it worked. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

After reading ironraven's post, I checked out Sandisk flash drives, and yes, they still make the titanium. They claim it is crush resistant up to 2000 lbs. and it has a retractable USB connector...no cover to lose!

If anyone else is interested, here it is.

You can't beat titanium, I don't suppose. As far as the technology inside goes, though, I'd go with Lexar. My wife's a professional photographer and Lexar's CF cards are the standard. Their Jump Drives seem to be just as good. I have the red 256MB one with the rubber cap/gasket combo that's been completely reliable.

Does anyone have any experience with the Corsair flash drives? They have a nice warranty and are supposed to be water resistant.

I've been using a 16mb kingston drive, which is sorely outdated <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I have not personally owned this one, but ATP's ToughDrive seems to fit the bill for rugged EDC.

It's rubber coated, water resistant, dust and electrostatic discharge-proof (don't see claims of ESD-proof often with thumb drives), fast USB 2.0 interface, and allows internal drive partitioning and password protection. The 512 mb model is $50 direct from ATP. Might find it cheaper elsewhere.

I have the same Lexar Drive...red body and a black rubber stretch cover. I do not carry it on my keys but in my shirt pocket. I have had it over a year with no issues. Mine is a 128MB. I have never used any other.

I use the Lexar JumpDrive Secure. I have used it for almost 2 years. It also has built in encryption, as do several others. If you lose your password, you will never again access your encrypted data, (Don't ask me how I know. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />)

But you can regain access to the entire drive, with help from Lexar. Then you can hide some more data (keep your password).

I have the SAK 512 MB, it's good.
But the BEST are the Sandisk Micro - washing machine proven, over & Over.

I'm a bit of USB Drive Addict.
I have four currently in use.
JumpDrive Secure - this one comes with an encryption program that's moderately good. The folks at Lexar have a "back door" to the data, as I learned after my Jumdrive died - twice - and they recovered the data for me.

+ Secure (relatively) data storage (you divide the drive into a "public" and "private" section (partition actually)

-Physical form does NOT fit in crowded USB hubs
- If you don't remember to keep the decryption software ON the drive itself in the PUBLIC section, you can't find the SW to decrypt your data when you need it. The Lexarmedia.com site is pretty useless for finding the decryption SW.
- When you repartition the drive to re-allocate public and private space you loose all the data on it (incliding your Decryption SW that you stored in the public partition.

- Does not like being washed and dried at all
- has a battery inside to run the little computer that encrypts data

SANDISK Cruiser MICRO
+Indestructible (almost)
+tiny!
- Protective covers fall off and vanish without a trace almost immediately

SAK USB Drive
+Looks Cool
+Fairly decent knife & scissors
+USB Drive has gold plated contacts!
+ Protective shell makes this IDEAL for keyring.
-NO Tweezers or Toothpick (What's up with that?)
- Not airline safe (well maybe soon)

Check the lexar sport http://www.lexar.com/jumpdrive/jd_sport.html

I think this is the one Schwert is refering too.
Mine has been through the wash several times and is still going strong. We used to use the Sony's but we had 2 of 12 go bad. We have 8 lexar sports and none have gone bad. Forget about the encryption/thumbprint/snakeoil drives. They are not worth the hassle, and are really just a gimick. Anything that sensitive/important should not use that type of encryption anyway. If you do care, PM me and I'll point you in the right direction. Anyway, I have heard very good things about the SANDisk drives.

I'm currently using Sandisk drives & one of the SAK drives. The Sandisks don't have a tiny, little led that lights up to show activity, the whole END of the drive lights up. Sandisk micros are 1/2 the physical size of most drives. The only plastic on the outside is the end that lights up and a removeable plastic jacket.

I'm currently in the process of taking an SAK model & adding the blades of a Vic MiniChamp.

Bought my wife a 1GB Corsair Flash Voyager for use as a school teacher. So far so good, I've heard no complaints from her yet.
It comes with a lanyard for wear around the neck and an 18" USB cable for those hard to reach plugins.

Got it @ newegg.com... with a mail-in rebate.