Lexar JumpDrive Secure II 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Makes Backing Up Files Easy
Written: Jul 13 '06 (Updated Sep 19 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: Portable storage device that is very easy to use.
Cons: Small enough to easily misplace. Secure II software didn't work right for me.
The Bottom Line: Lexar JumpDrive Secure II 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive is a good, easy to use portable storage device that makes backing up files simple.
dragonfire88's Full Review: Lexar JumpDrive Secure 2 (256 MB) USB 2.0 Flash Dr...
Over the years, I have learned how important it was to back up files. My mother went back to college when I was still in high school and soon after got our first home computer. We both had a lot of papers we had to write that we obviously wanted to save. We both got into the habit of saving documents on a disk. I have used a few different computers since that first one and have used different types of disks to save documents with the different computers. When I got my Dell Dimension 4400 Computer, I went from using disks to using CDs to back up documents since the computer had a CD burner. For the most part anymore, the only thing I really back up are my reviews. I had been thinking about getting a flash drive to use for that for a while. I finally made the decision and got the Lexar JumpDrive Secure II 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive after not one, but two CDs with my reviews went bad. I am still working on recovering my reviews.
USB flash drives are small, light weight portable devices for data storage that connect to a computer through a USB port. My computer, which is several years old now, has three USB ports. I know that newer computers are coming with even more of these ports, so it is very easy for people to use a flash drive to save documents on. Flash drives can hold more data and tend to be faster than the older floppy disks that use to be the standard for saving documents. I have seen different flash drives with storage spaces ranging from 128 MB to 2 GB.
I didn’t check at a lot of different places on the prices of flash drives before I got the Lexar JumpDrive Secure II 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive. Once I decided I wanted to get a flash drive, I just picked this one up at Wal-Mart for $19.99. According to information on the package, this drive will hold as much information as 176 floppy disks. This flash drive comes with a two year limited warranty. It can be registered by going to www.lexar.com and clicking on the link to register a product.
The Lexar JumpDrive Secure II 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive is very small and light weight, so it would be easy to put in a pocket if you needed to take it with you. Since it is so small, it could be easy to misplace it. The flash drive is covered in a silver plastic that is very durable and will protect it if it is dropped. One end of the flash drive is a cap that covers the USB connector. The cap snaps securely in place so it won’t fall off by accident. There is a little hole on the cap that can be put on a keychain.
Using the Lexar JumpDrive Secure II 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive is very easy. There isn’t any sort of driver that has to be installed to use the drive. Once it is plugged into the USB port, it is ready to be used. The drive can be used to save text documents, music files, videos, or photos. The flash drive came with a quick start drive that contains a few short directions on how to use the device.
System Requirements
Pentium PC or Macintosh with USB support Windows 2000 or XP Mac OS v10.2
When the Lexar JumpDrive Secure II 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive is plugged into the USB port, it will appear as a removable drive on the computer when My Computer is clicked from the start menu if you have a PC. I don’t know where it would show up on Mac computers since I don’t have one of those. From this point, you can choose to drag and drop the files you want to save on the drive or the Secure II software can be used to encrypt the files that are being saved. It is very simple to save files with the drag and drop method and it takes no time at all. Using the Secure II software adds a few more steps and takes just a little bit longer. If the drag and drop method is used, once all the files have been saved on the flash drive, it is important to make sure that the files are closed before removing the flash drive from the USB port. When removing it, you need to make sure that the little light isn’t blinking. If it is and the flash drive is removed, data could be lost. According to the instructions, on Mac computers, the drive icon needs to be dragged and dropped in the trash before the flash drive is removed from the USB port.
Secure II Software
Secure II is an encryption program that comes on the Lexar JumpDrive Secure II 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive. The program doesn’t have to be installed on the computer to be used to encrypt files that are stored on the flash drive. To access the software, the flash drive needs to be in the USB port and then the drive needs to be selected from My Computer under the start menu. When the drive is double clicked on, a folder called Secure II will be visible. That needs to be double clicked, which pulls up another list of folders, Mac, Vaults, and Windows. Pick the folder for your operating system and then click on Secure II to open the actual software. A menu with four options will be visible.
This software calls encrypted folders vaults. To encrypt a file, you must first create a vault. The first option, Encrypted Vault needs to be clicked on. That opens an area that has information about the vaults you have on the Lexar JumpDrive Secure II 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive. To create a vault, you just need to click on create and prompts will take you through the steps of selecting the size for the vault and what you want the password to be. Once a vault is created, you can drag and drop files into that will be encrypted. When you are done saving files to the vault, you must click on unmount to close the vault and encrypt the files using 256 bit AES encryption. You can create more than one vault on the flash drive. When you want to access files in a vault, you need to select the vault from the list and then click on mount. After the vault is mounted, you can then open the files saved in it, add more, or delete them.
The second option on the menu is File Encryption. I haven’t used that. It does say that you can encrypt individual files. The third option is File Shredder. That is to be used for sensitive files that you wouldn’t want to be recovered after deletion. I haven’t used that option either. The last option is Settings where you can adjust a few settings for the software. Above all of the options on the menu is a little bar that shows the total space on the flash drive, how much space is used, and how much free space is left.
When I first used the drive, I didn’t realize that I could save files without using the Secure II software. I figured that out a few days later and that is how I use the drive since the Secure II software didn’t seem to be working right for me when I returned to add more files to the vault I had created. The vaults have to be at least 32 MB. I made the first one I created 40 MB and then started to save reviews in the vault. When I stopped that night, I had several of my reviews saved in the vault. A few days later I was working on backing up more of my reviews when I started getting errors about not being able to save the file or something like that. I can’t remember exactly how it was worded now. I tried a different review and got the same error. I made a new vault and was able to save the reviews I had gotten an error on, but I eventually got the error again on a different file. I got very frustrated and stopped at that point. A day later I deleted the vaults and tried again, making the vault even bigger to begin with. I got the same error again after I had saved approximately 190 files in the vault.
I was getting annoyed by that point since I couldn’t get the files saved in the vaults like I wanted. After doing some thinking, I tried just copying files into the flash drive without using the Secure II software. That worked so I deleted the vaults and since then have saving files on the Lexar JumpDrive Secure II 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive. It is much simpler for me to do it this way, especially since I really didn’t need the files to be encrypted. When I was trying to use the vaults, I started getting errors once I had around 190 files saved in a vault. I am still in the process of saving files to this flash drive, but I now have 362 files saved on it and since I stopped using the Secure II software, I haven’t received one error message. I didn’t have anywhere near 40 MB in the vault when I started getting the error, so I really have no idea what the problem was. The software is just too much of a hassle for me to mess with since it kept giving me that error.
The Lexar JumpDrive Secure II 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive is a very easy, convenient way to save important files. The Secure II software that is included on the flash drives makes it possible to encrypt files if that is needed. Personally, it isn’t important for me to encrypt the files I am saving on the flash drive, so I no longer bother with that. I am very happy with this flash drive even though the software really didn’t work well for me.
Lexar JumpDrive Secure II is a USB 2.0 Flash Drive with advanced password and encryption software giving you peace of mind that your data is safe. H...More at MemorySuppliers.com
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