Home > Consumer Reviews > Linksys Instant USB Disk 128MB

This is a fine USB drive, working without any problems on Windows XP, Windows 98 (comes with drivers for this), and Linux (Red Hat 7.3).

Windows installation is a synch (you just plug it in and it appears as a new drive), but Linux installation can be a bit more challenging. When you plug it in, Linux recognises the drive as a SCSI device, probably attaching it to /dev/sda1 or similar. If your Linux installation recognises new USB devices, it is probably very easy to use from this point. However, I had to create a /mnt/usbdrive directory as root, and mount the drive using "mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbdrive" (not for beginners).

The pack also includes a USB extension lead which you plug into the back of your computer; you can then attach the drive to the other end, meaning you don't have to dig around at the back of your computer to plug it in.

Useful for carrying files between home and work, or to meetings; also useful for taking your backups with you. Transfer speed is great (much quicker than a zip disk). There's no software to encrypt the files you put on the disk, but you could use your own and just transfer encrypted files. There's also no physical lock mechanism to prevent you overwriting the contents.

This plugs into your USB port and acts like another disc. Great for getting large files off another computer, or for sharing files with colleagues. It is very slim which means that I do not have to unplug the power cable on my notebook. Data transfer is fast. It works well on Windows 2000, but check to see if it works on your operating system. In my job it has been one of the most useful gadgets for the last few years.