Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: Netac U220 OnlyDisk Flash Drive
Don Bradbury takes a look at a Chinese player in the USB Flash Drive field
| Product | U220 OnlyDisk Flash Drive |
|---|---|
| Company | Netac |
| Web | www.netac.com |
| Price | £29.99 incl for 1GB capacity |
| We like | Small and light; secure partition, support for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Server 2003, Mac OS9.x/X and Linux 2.4x |
| We don't like | Pidgin English docs; some operational oddities; no access to Netac's recovery tool |
| Rating | 7/10 |
| Requirements |
Flash memory is such a useful way to add temporary storage to a computer that it's no wonder there are an increasing number of manufacturers eager to cash in on the idea.
Netac is a Chinese company with an established range of products, but their OnlyDisk USB 2.0 Security Pro is as diddy a flash memory module as you're likely to find, and with a 1GB of total file space on the U220 model we looked at, it offers capacity that's not to be sniffed at for those with the need to transport files between home and office, for example, or perhaps backup critical data off site.
In black and silver, with an end cap to keep dust out of the USB port, and a lug at the other end to which its rather swish neck chain can be attached for on-body transport, there's nothing else but the instruction manual in the bubble package. The latter, with it's rather Pidgin English script - to which we are already accustomed with many foreign products, but which, in this case, is readable - outlines fairly adequately the facilities.
Security
These include Secure Disk/Normal Disk partitions of the overall capacity, the former offering password protection and data encryption to confidential data which, once applied, requires Netac's special recovery tool (not supplied to the public) to reclaim the space if the password is forgotten. Unlike software blocks, the Netac security is hardwired, thus reducing the hacking risk, though it does present the difficulty if that password is forgotten. The security lets owners set a "retry limit" on the password, locking the data if an incorrect password is entered too many times.
Netac claim that their Ultra-Stable Technology, which provides protection against data or disk corruption that could occur if the drive is unplugged or powered down during data transfer, reduces the risk of data damage caused by such maloperation. And usefully, their drive can be set up as a USB ZIP/Hard Disk boot system for those who need the function and have a compatible BIOS.
Adjustable drive capacity
Installation is, of course, easy under Windows OSs later than 98 - for which a driver has to be downloaded from the Netac website. After installation, two new adjustable capacity drives are listed in My Computer. The first is the ND (Normal Disk) and the second is the SD (Secure Disk), and an icon appears on the Taskbar by means of which the storage device has to be "stopped" prior to dismount.
The Secure Disk Tool (not to be confused with the recovery tool), housed on the drive, lets you manage the password for the SD partition and configure the "error times" and "protect time" in a configuration box, or apply the Format facility if required. But Netac point out that "if you forget your password or exceed the error time that's set, the secure zone will be locked. The only way to unlock the disk is by Netac's password reset and formatting software, as we said, but this is not available to anyone outside Netac's R&D team." According to Netac, "this is to protect customers' data safety because if the software is given away freely, somebody might format other people's U220 drive without consent, causing disputes over unauthorized access by formatting and deleting the data inside." Well, that's as maybe.
Other oddities
This Flash device requires that in order to see the entire capacity of the drive reported you have to have entered the secure zone of the drive. The SD part is, of course, hidden unless you enter a password - even though that's blank by default. Further, if you don't enter the SD partition, you'll have trouble closing that part of the drive that is hidden. When you try, as you should before shutdown, you may find Windows will refuse to close the second partition, although the ND part will close correctly.
In conclusion
Oddities aside, the device has an LED that flashes during data transfer, there's a write-protect switch on the side of the device, and beyond that this tiny 13.5g device needs nothing in addition. With a claimed read time of 9.5MB/S (the full 1Gb drive can be read in less than 2 minutes), and a write time of 8.5MB/s via USB 2.0, at this price it's one for consideration. But do bear in mind those aspects that may be new to regular Flash Drive users, especially that you'll be in the hands of Netac for access to their reset and formatting software if you ever need to recover the SD drive.
