USB Flash Drive 8Gb - Kingston Data Traveler 2000 DT2000 / 8GB

Jury is still out on this will continue updating long term
By DH on November 13, 2012
Size: 16GB
Verified Purchase
Just a note for people coming into this review late; I recommend that you slow format this drive the first time. Don't use it from the factory or do a quick format from Mac or PC. If you use it with a Mac, a few things to watch out for further on.
Nov 13 2012 - Purchased one last weekend, got it, changed the password (which was easy) and mounted it from my Mac. Threw some files on, used it several more times the next day, mounted it from my Android tablet, was able to access the files. Took a plane flight that night, it got x-rayed, then on Monday my Mac, PC and Android all said unrecognizable partition. I had done a quick-format ExFAT partition from the Mac originally. So this time I did a FAT32 partition and slow format from a Windows 2008 server. I've since put files back on it and have been able to use it from all the same devices again, no problems.
So, what went wrong, no idea, but I'll have to give it some time before I'd feel confident having the only copy of important files on the device. I'll keep using my PGP-encrypted desktop drive as the primary copy.
I'll come back and update this review after some time passes as it's only been a few days. If the device proves reliable after time and a few more runs through an airport x-ray then I'll increase the rating.
Dec 11, 2012 - no issues yet, no plane flights yet either but I do have two coming up so it will get some x-ray zapping soon enough and we'll see what happens.
Jan 2013 - have flown about three round trips so it's been scanned six more times, no issues to report. No explanation for what caused that initial failure; will post a long term update later on and adjust up to five starts if nothing goes wrong in the future AND the password change I plan to make in five or six months goes successfully.
March 2013 - still no new issues to report; bumping up the stars. :-) I just bought one of their encrypted 1TB hard drives too.
Dec 2013 - still working flawlessly. I'm buying another one for a friend who noticed it and asked about it. Updating to five stars, but my recommendation of doing an initial slow format still stands. I'm going to edit the first part of the review to reflect this too.
June 2015 - downgrading to four stars. You buy these things to secure your data in the event you lose the USB drive, you don't buy them to hold irreplaceable data (or at least that should not be why). I bought a 32 gig model a few months ago, put it into use, and let my 16 sit around. Just one random day, the drive blinks green after entering my PIN like it's unlocked, but my Mac won't see it. If I leave it plugged in, about a minute later I'll get a flip flop of green and red LED flashes. Nothing I could do would make it recognized. I did factory reset (fortunately I didn't have irreplaceable data on it), still won't work. I RMA'd it to Apricorn, they confirmed it had died, sent me a new one.
In the mean time, I get my 16gig back out, the battery had died. I plug it in to my desktop iMac, enter the PIN, update the data on it, forget to eject, unplug. Few hours later, I plug into my MacBook since it had not had enough time to charge up for PIN entry, enter the PIN, MacBook reports it's damaged and do I want to initialize? WTF?! I had just left on a trip and needed the data on there, so great. I didn't have my data either way, so I didn't initialize it yet. When I got back home, my desktop now would not read it either. I initialized, this time I went with HFS+ journaled instead of exFAT since I've been using mostly Mac's these days, thing is working again. You of course should never forget to properly unmount a file system, and it was exFAT which I'm not sure how well it handles improper activity, but man, some bad luck for me it feels like since I've forgotten to eject other volumes before.
So at this point, I've had some really random failures of these things, either up front when I don't slow format, after some x-ray activity (who knows if that was really the cause), one new 2015 32gig model that died after two months, random unexplained file system or partition corruption when not properly ejected (albeit with exFAT, not NTFS or HFS+), etc. Apricorn has replaced the dead one, and so far both continue to work, but I'm downgrading to four stars since I've now had several unexplained issues over the three years I've been using these.
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Ideal when security is key
Kingston’s DataTraveler 2000 is designed to be secure, with an alphanumeric keypad that locks the drive with a word or number combination, for easy-to-use PIN protection. Its auto-lock feature is activated when the drive is removed from a device and it deletes the encryption key after 10 failed intrusion attempts. DT2000 features hardware-based, full disk AES 256-bit data encryption in XTS mode. Encryption is done on the drive, not on the host computer, and no trace of the PIN is left on the system. DataTraveler 2000 is OS independent and can be used on any device with a USB or USB Gen1 (USB ) port. It’s compatible with Windows, MacOS, Linux, Chrome OS, Android (used in nearly half of the shipments of devices in today’s market), thin clients and embedded systems, and the drive requires no software or drivers. It’s FIPS 197 certified, to meet a frequently requested corporate IT requirement, and its durable design protects the drive from everyday elements such as water and dust.
Kingston DataTraveler 2000 is using DataLock Technology licensed from ClevX, LLC.
Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2: 'Security Requirements for Cryptographic ; For more information, visit the CSRC website.
Customization only. Dual password not supported with Linux.
Some of the listed capacity on a Flash storage device is used for formatting and other functions and thus is not available for data storage. As such, the actual available capacity for data storage is less than what is listed on the products. For more information, go to Kingston’s Flash Memory Guide.

which their excellent customer support staff was able to rapidly resolve
By Leon Smiff III on September 23, 2017
Size: 32 GB
Verified Purchase
I can't speak highly enough about Kingston, and their [[ASIN:B00G31OPB0 Kingston Digital 8GB Data Traveler AES Encrypted Vault Privacy 256Bit USB Flash Drive (DTVP30/8GB)]]. A slight hiccup at the beginning, which their excellent customer support staff was able to rapidly resolve, and now several weeks of perfect service from a drive that I use to shuttle work from the office to my home, and back.
Why lug a laptop back and forth, when you can securely transfer all one's work, and supporting files, via this featherweight drive?
Note 1: While I process files on the [[ASIN:B00G31OPB0 Kingston Digital 8GB Data Traveler AES Encrypted Vault Privacy 256Bit USB Flash Drive (DTVP30/8GB)]], I don't overlay the old version. Rather, I write a new version of an updated file. In a couple of months I'll consolidate the files, reorganize the drive, and then start the cycle anew. This way I'll avoid multiple writes to identical memory locations, which Flash memory doesn't really like.
Note 2. I use MS "SynchToy" to keep the contents of the Kingston drive in synch with a folder corresponding to the drive's contents on servers at both ends of my commute. No sense risking ever losing data!
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