A great little unit... (Freecom FM 10 64 MB)

Member Name: richard_richard

Product:	Freecom FM 10 64 MB
Date:	05/01/05 (155 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact, Fast Access, Decent memory size

Disadvantages: A bit fragile

Pre-ramble

The Freecom FM10 pro is a flash memory stick for use with PCs. The stick should work with any PC that has a USB drive and uses a version of windows that supports USB access.

In my work I often have to transfer data from computer to computer and often these are not on the same network. In the past I have had to either use floppy disk or CD-R. Both of these options are not ideal, as a floppy cannot contain much data and a CD-R cannot be re-written and takes time to burn the data onto it.

When I heard about the USB flash memory drives I was very interested to purchase one as I thought it would be a much better option for me.

After shopping around the various makes and models, I came across this Freecom FM10 memory stick which I thought offered good capacity for a competitive price. This unit will cost you around £40-£45 and can hold up to 512MB of data.


Specs
The unit itself is about 8cm long so it is very compact and can be easily put into your pocket. It is finished in a matt black colour.

At one end of the stick is an adapter that allows the unit to be plugged into the computer’s USB socket.

As mentioned above, the stick has a capacity of 512MB and this can be accessed at a very high speed, which means data is transferred from computer to memory stick, or vice-versa, extremely quickly. An indicator light on the stick flashes when the memory is being accessed.


In Use
It is a very simple process to use this memory stick. The unit simply needs to be plugged into the USB drive of your computer and then the operating system should pick the drive up.

I use this stick on Windows 2000 computers and the operating system detects the memory stick almost instantly. It is then a case of accessing the drive through My Computer or Windows Explorer to start to use it. The computer should allocate a drive letter to the memory stick and as soon as it has done this, you can start transferring data to the unit.

I tend to move quite sizable program files, 64Mb and larger, onto the memory stick, and have been impressed by the speed at which this is transferred. It is close to a standard hard drive in terms of speed, and light years ahead in comparison to using a floppy disk!

Looking at reliability, I have been using this memory stick for a couple of months and have not experienced any problems with it so far. I would say though that because the unit is only made from plastic and is quite small, it will probably not stand up to very much punishment…so care should be taken not to drop it and then tread on it!!


Conclusion
I would recommend this memory stick to anyone who needs to move data around between computers. It works very quickly, has a decent memory capacity and is priced very reasonably. Overall it is a great little unit!

Thanks for reading!

Summary: