Rating: 
Summary: WinXP and USB 2.0 Mini-Drives Degraded Performance-CAUTION!
Review: This is a generic review of Windows XP's support of USB 2.0 mini-drives that are attached to USB 2.0 hardware ports. If this is not your environment, then please pass on this review. Otherwise, you would serve yourself well to share my experiences and testing. The rating of the Lexar Jumpdrive Pro 2.0 will either be a 5-star or a 1-star depending on your environment, so I gave it a 3-star. (There was no problem with any of my 2.0 mini-drives when I tested them on WIN98 with USB 1.1 ports.) I'm not picking on the Lexar.I'll go right to the bottom line and tell you that I've found that these drives may perform VERY poorly in Windows XP SP1. They will appear to perform well, compared with similar USB 1.1 drives, only if you are copying a very small number of very large files. They will perform incredibly slowly compared to their USB 1.1 brethren, if you reverse the scenario and copy a directory of say 500 or more very small files. I'll provide the solution now and then tell you about some tests I've run. THE SOLUTION: Format your mini-drives as "NTFS". (THEY DO NOT COME FORMATTED THAT WAY!) If you do, they will perform very well on USB 2.0 ports under WinXP SP1. It does mean, however, that you won't have portability to a WIN95, WIN98, WINME system (if you want high performance in WinXP). If I've still got your attention, read on please. I own an Iomega 1.1 Mini Drive and have purchased and returned two Lexar JumpDrive Pro 2.0 devices, a SanDisk Cruzer Mini, and almost returned my newest, a PNY Attache 2.0. I've also had a dialogue with someone in a forum who issued a similar complaint about his Sony MicroVault 2.0 device. I kept the PNY to have something to test with as I probed this issue, and have now just purchased another Lexar JumpDrive Pro because it prices well, and it also performs well if formatted as "NTFS". After considerable experimentation and a frustrating 20 or so hours on the internet, I made my discovery! After reading an Amazon reviewer boast that he copied a single 135MB file in under a minute, I decided to try that myself ... and it copied quickly, considerably beating the performance of my Iomega 1.1 device. Astounded at this, I became curious about whether WinXP had an issue with FAT and FAT32 on these devices. I created a benchmark of a directory containing 508 icons totalling only 1MB of data, occupying 2MB of disk. Formatted at the default FAT or FAT32, the copy took an incredible 2 min. 56 secs., and I could read each file name as Windows revealed them during the copy. I decided that, before returning the PNY, I would format it as "NTFS" just "to see what would happen". It copied in 2 or 3 seconds!!!!! To prove to myself this wasn't a freak event, I went back to my earlier benchmark which was a client's web site having a root folder weighing 44MB and containing 1800+ files. It had previous copied to my Iomega 1.1 Mini Drive in 1 min. 34 secs., but on my Lexar JumpDrive Pro 2.0 and the SanDisk Cruser Mini 2.0 the times ranged between 5+ mins. to just under 10 mins. On the PNY 2.0 device formatted "NTFS", it took around 52 secs. My newly purchased Lexar ran in about the same 52 secs. (compared to 8+ mins. when formatted FAT32) My final benchmark was a folder containing 3 files, weighing 44.5MB. They copied in 46 secs. to the Iomega 1.1, in 23 secs. to the PNY 2.0, and in 19 secs. to the new Lexar. To lend a bit of credibility to these tests, I should tell you that I had taken the Lexar 2.0, the SanDisk Cruzer 2.0 and my Iomega 1.1 to a demo computer at Best Buy and the results were consistent. That machine was a Compaq Presario with 6 "Certified" 2.0 ports with WinXP SP1. So it's unlikely that my personal environment was unique. This has been surely an oddball "review", assuming Amazon publishes it, but it should dramatically benefit many of you buying these devices. Thanks for your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful Tech Toy
Review: Many people have commented on the compatibility between a Mac and a Windows machine, and I just want to stick in that, yes, it is possible to format the drive to work on both machines, but that format (called MS-DOS on a Mac and FAT32 on a PC) doesn't allow saving of the large (128x128) icons that OSX and WinXP use, nor the saving of some preferences like folder views. On my OSX machine, if you tried to copy a file with a large icon to the drive while it was formatted MS-DOS, the Finder crashed, meaning there's very little checking for compatibility before copying. So, if you're just using it to transfer files, that's fine, but if you want files to look pretty, you'll have to format it for just Mac, or just PC. Another note; because this drive is so large, it must be plugged into a powered USB port. On a Mac, if you plug this device into the spare USB port on the keyboard, it will turn off the USB port your keyboard's connected to (because there's too much power drain being pulled from that port), and turn off your keyboard. Your computer won't crash, but until you restart, you can't use your keybard to navigate (or mouse, if it's plugged into your keyboard). Not something that kept me from using the device, but something to keep in mind.
Rating: 
Summary: not bad
Review: it's an afforded price and USB 2.0 is really fast
Rating:
Summary: Formatting jump drive as NTFS
Review: I've had my Lexar 256mb Pro 2.0 jump drive only a short time, but it has performed as other reviewers have described. Here's how to format it for NTFS, using Windows XP: From the Start Menu, select Run, and type CMD.
In the window, type: convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs
In the example above, typing "convert G: /fs:ntfs" (without the quotes) would format drive G: with the NTFS format. This takes only a few seconds and as mentioned in a previous review, it does improve the speed noticeably.
Rating:
Summary: A great timesaver in college
Review: The Lexar JumpDrive 2.0 Pro is my first entry into this type storage device. As a College Instructor teaching Computer Applications courses, I am frequently transferring files between various Windows operating systems. With no writable CD drive, transferring files larger than 1.44 MB requires zipping or mailing ' and these are very limited options. For me, the JumpDrive solves many problems including backing up critical files quickly and transferring large files (photos, Access databases, PowerPoint presentations, etc.) between PC's. The first time I plugged the JumpDrive into a USB port, the drive worked. On Win-98 PC's I did need to install the driver. A Sony Vaio laptop running 'XP' and a Sony PC running 'ME' both recognized the JumpDrive immediately. One caveat: Close the JumpDrive before unplugging. This is accomplished by clicking the icon located on the status bar. All in all, the Lexar 2.0/Pro JumpDrive is a great investment, and I found no price better than that on Amazon.com.
Rating: 
Summary: The Drive You Want - IF YOU WANT TO LOSE YOUR FILES
Review: At first, I was very happy with the performance and reliability of this USB drive.
But one day, after having worked for hours on a few files on the USB drive, I tried to retrieve my information and got a "disk not formatted, would you like to format it now?" error. I ejected it, tried it on other PCs and other operating systems, with the same response.
There was no way to retrieve the data, and customer support said it had a "defect".
The scary thing is that once I gave up and reluctantly reformatted the drive, it appeared to work fine. BEWARE, those buying used units. They may have hidden defects which will cause this in the future.
Stay away from this brand. USB drives in general are bullet proof, but not Lexar.
Rating:
Summary: Works Fine, Win98 needs some work
Review: This drive has an actual capacity of about 249-250 MB. It works fine with both Linux [RHL 9] and Windows [2000, XP etc.] so far. The Win98 drivers require some work on your own. Some helpful driver links in this regard would include: [1] http://www.everythingusb.com/hardware/index/Lexar_JumpDrive_Sport_user_reviews.htm
[2] http://outbox.lexarmedia.com/son-download209865/JDSport2.zip
[3] http://www.lexarmedia.com/drivers/files/JumpDrive_2.1.exe
[4] http://www.lexarmedia.com/drivers/index.html Link [2] is especially non-intuitive, and I found it to be the necessary file for the usb drive to work, and I found it via [1]. It's sad that the Lexar website doesn't provide a direct link to that file. Instructions: Download driver file [2], unzip it.
Save all 3 files into a folder in your C: drive. Name it "Lexar"
Now plug in the JDrive Sport. When the Windows 98 wizard asks for a driver, just point it to the folder "Lexar" you created with the driver files inside it. If the windows wizard never popped up, try running the downloaded executable [3], and it will at some point ask for the driver, whereupon you can point it to c:\Lexar etc.
Rating:
Summary: Works great on XP, Win 98SE another story
Review: Love the capacity and the price is very good. The only problem I had like the previous poster, was trying to get it to work on Win 98SE. After playing with it for some time, did get it to work on one 98 pc but it was a different story for another. If you have a 98se, it may not be worthwhile to get this drive. On a XP system, I definitely recommend this Jumpdrive. Another note, a friend has this similiar item and it became defective after some time. He contacted Lexar and they sent him a replacement.
Rating:
Summary: troubles trying to restore the equipment
Review: I have been facing problems trying to restore the equipment. I suppose one user unplugged it with closing the files. Does any one knows how to restore/reset the equipment? I already tried to format it to ntfs as per the other's review without succes, the sistem replys telling that Raw drives could not be formated...????? If some knows the solution, please advise me. arnoldosoto@cantv.net
Rating:
Summary: Never again
Review: I bought this for my husband for Christmas and it was dead by March. I'm actually online right now to get a new one...but CERTAINLY not this brand.
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