Retractable USB Thumb Drives

Posted by Chad Criswell Mar 28, 2008

Most thumb drives come equipped with a small cap to protect the USB connector from damage while not in the computer. The problems with these little caps is that they are so... LITTLE! It is very easy to forget about the cap or have it fall off entirely as it hangs around your neck. I have used several different methods of preserving my caps (such as supergluing a small piece of string between the cap and body of the thumb drive). None of these methods work for very long and eventually the cap goes missing. Not long after the end of the thumb drive inevitably gets damaged.

SanDisk and other vendors are now coming out with thumb drives encased in a retractable shell (similar to a utility knife setup) where the USB connector can be pulled back into the body of the drive when not plugged into a computer. The SanDisk Cruzer Titanium comes with the U3 software suite installed on it to provide quick and easy access to portable applications such as your email and browsing software. The Cruzer sells for more than thumb drives of comparable size, but the durability of the unit adds to its value and overal attractiveness.