A few weeks ago, I bought one of these. It's the Cruzer Crossfire, made by SanDisk…a little USB connecting flash drive that with the cap on is a bit smaller than the standard-size Pez refill pack. It holds 4.0 GB of whatever you want to put on it. Cute, huh? Well, it would be if it worked.
It did for a time. I copied all my vital files onto it and used it to update them between my three computers. Then a few days ago, the thing stopped working. I plug it into a USB port and nothing happens. I've tried it on eight USB ports on three computers and none of them recognize its existence.
So I called SanDisk…and I'll say this for them. They have people on duty at Tech Support even on Sunday and I wasn't even on "hold" for very long. But really, all the guy there could tell me was that once in while, there's a defective one and they'll replace it if I send it back, or I can do what may be faster, which is to take it back to the place of purchase.
Which brings me to my problem. I put all my vital files on it — credit card data, bank accounts, passwords, pictures of various comic book industry figures naked…do I really want to send this to a total stranger at some distant company? I mean, they say they'll just destroy it and ship me another but do I want to trust this? Maybe it will work on some computer. Maybe it'll work on the computer of that kid at the Returns Desk at Costco.
Hmm. Something to think about…