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Sony Micro Vault 128 MB USB Removable Storage Media

Sony Micro Vault 128 MB USB Removable Storage Media

List Price: $129.99
Your Price:
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The glue they use is terrible
Review: The glue they use to put this thing together is terrible. I have had two that have come apart. It's very annoying. The drive works fine, but you can't use it very easily when both ends pull apart. I would not buy another Sony Micro Vault.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Truth in advertising?
Review: The large print on the front of the box says, "No driver software needed".
The fine print in the instructions states, "Installing the device driver".
There are 8 steps to installing the device driver and steps 3 through 7 must be repeated three times. If you don't have a CD drive that can accommodate a small (nonstandard) CD you must download the driver from Sony.
Granted, this hassle is probably Microsoft's making and not Sony's. The installation is straight forward and once the installation is complete, the MicroVault is a great product right down to the sci-fi glow of the green activation LED - BUT -a device driver is required for Windows 98/98SE.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Truth in advertising?
Review: The large print on the front of the box says, "No driver software needed".
The fine print in the instructions states, "Installing the device driver".
There are 8 steps to installing the device driver and steps 3 through 7 must be repeated three times. If you don't have a CD drive that can accommodate a small (nonstandard) CD you must download the driver from Sony.
Granted, this hassle is probably Microsoft's making and not Sony's. The installation is straight forward and once the installation is complete, the MicroVault is a great product right down to the sci-fi glow of the green activation LED - BUT -a device driver is required for Windows 98/98SE.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Micro Vault 128 on WinXP & Win2K
Review: The Sony Micro Vault 128 is not recognized by Windows. Even on a fully patched OS including the current BIOS. The Micro Vault
locks up the machine when there is another USB device present.

The worst part is that Sony's Customer Support line was incapable of solving the problem and requires that the end-user
obtain a refund from the merchant. I spent in excess of 2 hours with Sony representatives with the end result being "You must use the root hub ports on the back of the Systems Unit". For a USB device, this is impracticle. In addition, the Sony Help Line did not even know how to support the product. I was transferred 5 times or had to re-dial another support group.

Sony products are not of the same quality they were a few years ago!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nice Product...kinda...
Review: The Sony Micro vault is stylishly attractive, compact, and is easy to use, in theory. In actuality, I can't recommend it to anyone who is even considering ever using this device on a Windows 98 computer. Sony is apparently unwilling to put any effort into pleasing these people who happen to have an older OS.

Sony is quite notorious for writing bad software. The driver installation and documentation for this device is terrible. According to the manual, you are supposed to repeat the driver installation until it works, but I got only to the first iteration when it asked to restart my computer.

After which, I was surprised to see that the badly-implemented installation of the Micro Vault caused the removal of all of my other drivers in the system, including the display driver, the CDROM driver, sound, and network adapter. Although I can see the drivers in safe mode, something is now preventing me from reloading these drivers, and my system has been unusable for the past hour and a half. I will most likely have to reinstall Windows, with huge time costs for myself.

I am not pleased. When I pay a premium for a brand-name device like this, I expect it to work as advertised. I certainly don't expect it to cause low-level problems in my operating system.

If you never intend to use Windows 98 or you like to take risks, go ahead and buy the Sony. But I think there are quite a few other solutions which are both cheaper and at least as effective.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Incredibly problematic
Review: The Sony Micro vault is stylishly attractive, compact, and is easy to use, in theory. In actuality, I can't recommend it to anyone who is even considering ever using this device on a Windows 98 computer. Sony is apparently unwilling to put any effort into pleasing these people who happen to have an older OS.

Sony is quite notorious for writing bad software. The driver installation and documentation for this device is terrible. According to the manual, you are supposed to repeat the driver installation until it works, but I got only to the first iteration when it asked to restart my computer.

After which, I was surprised to see that the badly-implemented installation of the Micro Vault caused the removal of all of my other drivers in the system, including the display driver, the CDROM driver, sound, and network adapter. Although I can see the drivers in safe mode, something is now preventing me from reloading these drivers, and my system has been unusable for the past hour and a half. I will most likely have to reinstall Windows, with huge time costs for myself.

I am not pleased. When I pay a premium for a brand-name device like this, I expect it to work as advertised. I certainly don't expect it to cause low-level problems in my operating system.

If you never intend to use Windows 98 or you like to take risks, go ahead and buy the Sony. But I think there are quite a few other solutions which are both cheaper and at least as effective.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: XP Plug and Play
Review: This has been a wonderful device for my work needs.I am an academic physician and do numerous presentations for medical students, Residents, and national research meetings. I have numerous graphic intensive powerpoint presentations, journal articals, webpages,etc. on this device and I still have only used a minimal amount of the storage. Now I don't have to worry about how big my files are or whether they will fit on a floppy or a CD. It takes a couple of minutes to get started initially, but then it becomes plug and play, a portable harddrive in my pocket.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perfect product for me!!
Review: This is perfect! I provide software training to corporate customers and I got this because I had to travel to different locations and use a variety of computers. The Micro Vault provided me with an ideal way to carry both my personal and class files everywhere I went.

On another job, the company provided me with a laptop computer, but in order to keep it light weight there was no CD or floppy. I could keep my personal files on the Micro Vault and not have to worry about cleaning them off the customer's computer before returning it. And unlike a CD, this little sucker lets you read AND write.

One reason I went with the Sony even though it's a bit more expensive is that any computer running Windows 2000 and above will recognize it immediately with no additional files required for the driver installation. The few times I have encountered a Windows 98 machine it was an easy task to connect to the Sony site and download the driver.

Even here at home I use the Micro Vault to keep my journal, bookmarks, and password files so I can use them at both my desktop and laptop. I'm seriously thinking of upgrading to a larger size for home use.

It also has a huge "wow factor" and gets attention everywhere I go. IT guys go insane over it. I've taught classes where students went right back to their desks and logged on to Amazon to order one during the break. They really like the fact that they can take big files home from work and update them on the weekend.

I've had this little goodie since December 2002 and I can't think of a single negative thing to say about it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very tough little device
Review: Two weeks after getting my Sony vault, I accidently put the thing through an entire clothes wash cycle (no bleach). Finding it soggy at the bottom of the drum, I figured it was totally trashed. I stuck it into my laptop's usb and WOW it still worked. A few days later the glue gave out, but I put a little epoxy on it and it is fine. I hot swap it between Windows XP, 98Se and W2K without any problems. No complaints, I would buy another.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BUH BAI FLOPPY DISK
Review: Very Very user friendly. Setup time, under 5 minutes.

Specs:
Dell Workstation OPTIPLEX GX150
Windows 2000 Professional


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