Ready Boost & SanDisk® Cruzer Micro 4GB USB Flash Drive ?

My friend -- who has zero skills with computers -- needs to buy a flash drive to store stuff off his e-mail when he is traveling. He goes to Kinkos as he would rather not carry his laptop.

He is out of town now and about to go To Radio Shack. I found on line that they have SanDisk® Cruzer Micro 4GB USB Flash Drive both with and without Ready-boost. The one with -- believe it or not -- is $5 cheaper.

Which should he get. I am being risk-averse that he might run into some need for knowledge because the thing doesn't "work-right" and neither of us have any laptops with Vista -- we only have XP.

Any recommendations? (The prices are $29.95 with Ready Boost, $34.95 without <-- it was explained to me that the one without is a discontinued item, so it is not "on-sale" and just has a permanent "discontinued price" whereas the one with Ready Boost is on sale right now.)

 

Well the Readyboost feature is negated since you use XP, but it should still have faster read/write speeds since it is classified as one whereas the other one isn't. Therefore, go for the cheaper one that has readyboost, it can't be any worse than the one without.

 

i ordered 2 of these. If you create a new gmail account and then check out you can get them for 14.95 each with free 7-9 day shipping if you select it!

http://www.buy.com/prod/sandisk-4gb-cruzer-titanium-usb-flash-drive-w-u3/q/loc/101/204069834.html

 

I would be surprised if Radio Shack has one without readyboost. The only difference between one with or without would be one without readyboost has been sitting on the shelf for a while and was manufactured a good while ago. I have Windows XP and a purple Cruzer Micro that is readyboost capatible and U3 enabled. It works just the same on any system I plug it into whether that system runs Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, OSX, or Linux. As it should, I firmly believe a flash drive is a flashdrive no matter what logo is on it and that they all work just the same.

 

Those unfortunately are not the RB models -- trust me, I ordered and recieved it, and it clearly doesn't have RB in the SKU. It seems like it would still work with ready boost but it doesnt have the "designed for ready boost" sticker.

Blueproton and JandR.com are both selling the RB model for 24.99 + shipping (2.95) if you would like.

 

Oddly enough, they did. Leftover stock as you suggest. Their pricing scheme is weird but typical of bureaucratic corporate decision making in extremely large enterprises like radio Shack.

Well, that is great to know because I had my friend pick-up one for free.

Thanks, everyone, for your responses!