My work sometimes takes me into the domain of forensic examination of computers and more often find me digging around virus infections. It is for just these sorts of purposes that a USB Stick (aka Flash drive) with a write-protect switch is essential. This is something that is getting very rare indeed.
Trekstor CS
I've looked previously here at examples from Imation's range, and these look to be getting more difficult to find. Fortunately I also discovered Trekstor's USB-Stick CS has a very good write-protect switch that is fairly large and easy to operate.
As you can see from the pictures it is a straighforward shape with no gimmicks. There's a metal loop for lanyard attachment, and the body of the device is partially aluminium covered.
I've had mine for a couple of years now and it still works and isn't about to fall apart. The body is quite a common one, in that a lot of OEMs use it, but as far as I know only Trekstor currently provides a write-protect switch. In the UK the USB-Stick CS is available from Amazon.
SD Cards
In the past I've been driven to try SD cards as an alternative to USB flash drives with a write protect switch. This approach does have some merit but there are provisos that you should know about before going down that road.
Personally I find SD cards and readers adequate for avoiding virus infection. Once you have readers it can end up cheaper than buying flash drives, especially when capacities of the latter are limited.
Trekstor CS
I've looked previously here at examples from Imation's range, and these look to be getting more difficult to find. Fortunately I also discovered Trekstor's USB-Stick CS has a very good write-protect switch that is fairly large and easy to operate.
As you can see from the pictures it is a straighforward shape with no gimmicks. There's a metal loop for lanyard attachment, and the body of the device is partially aluminium covered.
I've had mine for a couple of years now and it still works and isn't about to fall apart. The body is quite a common one, in that a lot of OEMs use it, but as far as I know only Trekstor currently provides a write-protect switch. In the UK the USB-Stick CS is available from Amazon.
SD Cards
In the past I've been driven to try SD cards as an alternative to USB flash drives with a write protect switch. This approach does have some merit but there are provisos that you should know about before going down that road.
- Write protection will only work if the SD card reader device supports it. The little tab on the SD card determines the locking state via the use of an optical sensor in the reader mechanism. Implementing this function is only an optional part of the SD standard. There are readers out there that will ignore the write-protection tab. In my experience there are fake versions of SD card readers from well known manufacturers on the market. Often these fake versions don't support write-protection when the kosher version does.
- Micro SD cards don't support write protection by themselves. If you use an adapter to regular SD with a write-protect tab, this will work.
- It may be possible for drivers or software to allow write-protection to be overridden. This is not something I've ever seen an example of.
Personally I find SD cards and readers adequate for avoiding virus infection. Once you have readers it can end up cheaper than buying flash drives, especially when capacities of the latter are limited.
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