Digital Trends

Corsair Flash Survivor (8GB)

July 25th, 2007 | by Jason Tomczak

Setup and Use

A major bugaboo for me is the near-deadly plastic packaging that some companies use to seal their products. Opening something innocuous, like a printer cartridge or MP3 player, often requires the use of sharp knives, kitchen scissors, and razor box cutters. I was very happy to discover that Corsair skipped this dangerous packaging in favor of thinner, more easily opened packaging.

Once the Survivor GT is free from its packaging (“commando,” so to speak), unscrew the end closest to the "GT" logo. The 8GB flash memory stick will slide out. Pop it into any USB 2.0 port and transfer files to it. You may want to install the "TrueCrypt43" data encryption program (Windows 2000, XP and Vista), or you can just delete it.

Sample Transfer Speeds TO DRIVE:
Survivor GT - 700MB file - 43 seconds
150X CF card via ExpressCard adapter - 700MB file - 77 seconds
SanDisk Cruzer Micro - 700MB file - 79 seconds

Sample Transfer Speeds FROM DRIVE:
Survivor GT - 700MB file - 39 seconds
150X CF card via ExpressCard adapter - 700MB file - 50 seconds
SanDisk Cruzer Micro - 700MB file - 43 seconds

As the above tests show, the Survivor GT is pretty quick. It may not exactly prove 4-6X faster as advertised, but it is noticeably faster than average USB 2.0 flash drives. This can be very important, especially when you're a very busy person and can't wait around for file transfers to dawdle along.

To test Corsair's claims that the Survivor flash drive is tough, I decided to treat it very badly over a period of several days. I dropped it from my 2nd floor office window, stepped on it, threw it across the room a few times and kept it in my kitchen sink at home while I did some dishes. I even stuck it in a freezer over night and left it on a table in the sun. If the Survivor could think, it would probably have been bored or slightly amused by my tests. Knowing this, I kicked the torture up a few notches and parked my car on top of the flash drive. It survived (no pun intended) without a scratch.

This fueled my intent to push the drive as hard as I could, and only on my 3rd drive-by did the outside case suffer a 1/8" crack. While the Survivor was no longer 100% water proof, the drive itself still worked fine and transfer speeds were 100% up to spec. My tests were great exaggerations of typical flash drive abuse and the fact that the Survivor finally suffered a booboo is in no way indicative of a flaw. Everyone and every device has an ultimate breaking point. The Corsair Survivor's breaking point is very impressive - something most people will likely never experience.

Yes, the Survivor lived to tell about it