Home > Consumer Reviews > Corsair Flash Survivor 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive CMFUSBSRVR-8GB

Pros:
+ Rugged
+ Great capacity
+ Fast enough for normal usage

Cons:
- The outside rubber rings
- Minor quality issues with the labels

I bought the unit around Christmas 2007 to replace an old plastic 1GB unit that failed. I carried a flash drive im my pocket so that I always have access to my data, but the old one just wasn't rugged enough to co-mingle with coins and keys.

I purchased this unit specifically because of it's claims to be rugged. In that regard I have not been disappointed. The rubber o-ring on the inside should provide good protection from moisture, but I haven't tried to see if it will float.

I carry the Corsair Flash Survivor on my keyring, which is usually in my pocket. The outside of the aluminum case is showing a little wear from the keys, as I would expect, but drive itself is protected.

I have two issues with the flash drive. First, one of the labels on the drive was not correctly applied in the factory and had to be removed the first week I had it to prevent it from sticking to other items. This alone wouldn't have been enough to lower the rating if it wasn't for the second problem.

The quality and design of the rubber rings on the outside is an issue if you intend to carry this around like I do. Both of them are loose, and the one attached to the flash drive itself spins freely. It has even come detached a few times in my pocket, but so far I haven't lost it.

Overall, this a great product. And if you don't plan to carry it everywhere, you might not experience this issue.

The truth is the light and that said there is no denying Corsair makes what must unquestionably be the slowest drives. This Corsair drive is the slowest writing storage device on the planet bar none. I have two of the 32 gig version of this USB drive and its so slow I would never use it to actually store 32 gigs of information. I am 50 years old and I would not live long enough to see a corsair 32 gig drive complete a 32 gig write. Even with USB2 ports any corsair drive of this type is painfully slow.

The coolness of this corsair drive is not in its speed but in its durability. I do not know what drive some of these reviewers git hold of but, the Corsair 32 gig drives of this type that I have are so much more sturdy than the fragile plastic wrapped crap, most notably the Kingston Traveler series of drives. These drives are like steel trash cans that protect your drive. I have a 370 pound 6 foot 8 inch friend. I gave him one of my Corsair 32 bit drives.

My big biker friend puts USB drives in his back pocket sits down without thinking. I lost 2 cheap plastic 4 gig Kingston Travelers and a 256KB LEXAR drives broken in my big friends back pocket. He is a nice guy, he just forgets. Unknown to me at the time he put my Corsair 32 gig drive in his back pocket and we rode on a motorcycle from Baltimore to Washington DC. I give speeches on autism to parents, doctors and interested people often with the help of PowerPoint Presentations.

My Power Point Presentation was on that 32 gig USB drive in my big friends back pants pocket. I had no spare copy of the presentation. When he reached to take the Corsair drive out of his back jeans pocket, my heart sank. I realized suddenly, I had no power point the drive was dead as the others he can squashed into uselessness. I was mistaken. This drive emerged from his back jeans pocket looking good. We went into the hotel ballroom, gave the drive to the technical dude who inserted the drive into the computer. A few painful seconds later the OS recognised the Corsair drive, there was my powerpoint and all was good.

So yeah when I say this drive is durable it survived, the over 40 mile bumpy motorcycle ride from North of Baltimore to Metro Washington DC. This Corsair USB drive arrived after 40+ miles of hard abuse with itself and its data intact. I can not say the two Kingston Travelers and the LEXAR USB drives survived the same experience useful or intact. The Lexar was so badly broken the memory circuit board connected to the USB connected broke off. I am just an average JOE so what do I know. All I can say is my Corsair USB drive works for me.

I have cerebral palsy, I walk badly fall alot and drop these drives often. I have dropped Kingston Travelers and the brittle plastic end covers crack like cheap china. Lexars bend. This version of the Corsair in its little steel trash can housing has survived all the abuse my cerebral palsy caused falls and dropping can do and they still work. I am buying three more Corsair 8 Gig USB drives to replace the 3 fragile broken 4 GIG Kingston Travelers lost. I killed one my friend killed two. Kingston makes a great USB storage device but it is wraped in the cheapest case money can buy. I would not bother buying the Corsair 32 GIG way too slow. But for safe keeping of 4 to 8 gigs of data Corsair is the BOMB BIGGITY BABY!

I had trouble transferring 7 GB worth of photos between computers and decided to buy an 8GB flash drive. I ordered this on Amazon based on the reviews. Although it shipped quickly it did take about a week and a half to arrive, but that is USPS' fault, not the seller's. The flash drive itself is built like a tank, it has a rubber O-ring to seal out water/moisture when it is closed (making it submersible and water resistant/waterproof) and the aluminum extruded shell could probably be run over by a car without damaging the flash drive (literally). It isn't the fastest flash drive that I've ever used, but it is the most durable by far. Also, it comes with a USB 2.0 extension cord. I can't believe the price--it is a fantastic value as well as a fantastic product.

I've been a big fan of Corsair as I have their dominator memory in my rendering rig... but this Survivor 32gig is the biggest piece of garbage I've set my hands on.

The first one I had was so dreadfully slow it was taking around 6 hours to copy 18 gigs and then crashed. It had all the symptoms that everyone else has been complaining about online... do your homework. So I RMA'd it to Corsair and it took another week and a half to get another which appears to be even slower.

I've had it. I'm returning it to for a refund. It completely infuriates me that companies will produce such garbage with no consideration for people's time. I expect a product to work, and don't have 6 hours to waste testing their product... they should have invested in a little Quality Assurance on this one.

User Profile
Here's a little background about what I use flash drives for. I use a flash drive for three reasons: keep all of my documents on me (school, personal, business, web page design, programming, what have you), keep a good reference library with me, and to run some portable apps.

Pros
*Looks cool
*Very strong casing. I suspect this flash drive could even survive an excursion in the pressure cooker. There are lots of reviews out there where people put this through the washer, run it over, hit it with golf clubs, drop in the pool for days, etc and it seems to do really well there.
*Portable applications run well on the drive
*Comes with keychain stuff, so it is nice to just keep the flashdrive on my keychain with no special usb stick case required
*The obviously larger storage capacity
*10 year warrenty (keep those reciepts scanned into your computer :) )

Cons
*The speed is just average for usb 2.0 flash drives: not horrible, but not excellent. For the price, I'd like excellent.

Final Thoughts
This was a good, worthwhile purchase. I expect this could be my primary flash drive some years until flash drives come in such a large capacity that they are essentially mini-back-up hard drives :) I'm sure this could be useful for 10 years or so if I really wanted it to be. The design seems especially nice if you happen to work in a hazardous place like a chemical plant, power plant, construction site, or some large scale manufacturing place or are especially prone to destroying flash drives.