Sandisk Cruzer Edge – Flash Drive Review
There are several flash drives available in the Cruzer range, the Micro, the Slice and then the Blade. Now meet Edge, the latest addition to the line up.
First Impressions
The Edge feels plasticy and very light when first released from it’s blister pack. There is, however, a very nice solidity as you open and retract the USB connector.
I don’t think this will easily pop out in a pocket or if it’s dropped.
On inserting the Flash Drive into the USB port, i found you really needed to keep you thumb firmly in place to stop the connector retracting, and this was made more difficult by the nature of it’s small size when there were other drives or cables in the adjacent slot. I found it awkward to keep the connector fully extended during insertion, and I had the very same issue with the Cruzer Micro.
Gallery
Free Space
On insertion, Windows detects the drive at 7.45GB capacity.. A device advertised at 8GB is actually 8billion bytes or 8,000,000,000 bytes.
Divide this by 1024 to get the number of Kilobytes, divide again for Megabytes, and again for a Gigabytes.. 7.45
7.38GB Free Space
Add on the file system overhead, and useable capacity is 7.38GB.
Speed
First testing shows the Edge has a slow write speed, but with a faster Read speed.
Our first test is CheckFlash 1.16 in Logical Drive more, this is an operating system independent test that writes directly to the flash drive.
CheckFlash - Logical Drive Test
Second test, with CheckFlash again is Temporary
CheckFlash 1.16 - Temporary File Test
Results
Test Program - Read MB/sec - Write MB/sec Check Flash Logical - 18.45 - 4.70 Check Flash Temporary - 18.50 - 4.52 Average Read & Write - 18.48 - 4.61
Compare this to the Cruzer Blade review, and there is only a marginal decrease in Write speed, (Blade 5MB/sec average,) and the Read speed has increased by about 2MB/sec.
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I'm Mad About Technology.. 
Just bought a Sandisk Cruzer Edge (16GB) with the purpose of having it on my keyring (I suppose that it was designed for that).
When I took it out of the packaging my first disapointment: all cheap plastic (Well what did I expect for that price?). Even the tip of the male connector. The slider goes hard in, but much to easy out that the connector often is unprotected in my pocket.
Wonder how long it will last functioning on my keyring…
when i try to copy a 5 GB movie file, it says volume too big. retry after formatting, same pop up message. so I decided to try with a smaller one, 3 GB file and it works well. i deleted the software that came up in the flash drive, should i re-install again?
You shouldn’t need any custom software, check the Flash Drive file system – Fat32 has 4GB hard limit, you cannot copy a file larger than this, you need to have NTFS partition for a 5GB+ file.
Format your Flash Drive to NTFS and retry. You may also have limited free space on your computer, some systems need free space to copy large files, what computer OS do you use?
windows 7, i’m going to try it now
thanks for the tip gadge cat (: i have one more question though, whats the best setting for “data allocation size”?
Allocation Unit is a relatively new term, I used to deal with clusters and it’s a throwback to physical medium, like HDD.
I dont really know how cluster size affects flash drives – but it sets up the smallest chuck of space a block of data can accommodate. So 10Kb on a 64Kb cluster size disk, will take up the whole cluster, which is inefficient for small files, but more efficient for larger files, as the OS has to seek fewer clusters.
Technically, all addresses in flash ram should have the same access time.
Personally, I use my flash drive for large files, so I use 64Kb Allocation Unit size out of preference.
This wiki on block data storage is of no real use but explains the concept better.
the larger the allocation the more space taken but faster browsing/writing/reading/searching/etc and vice versa
alright thanks
Dear Rawr
My Cruzer Edge just broke off from the bunch of keys after nearly 3 months.
And the conector did easily pop out in the pocket.
So I must say I am very disappointed of SanDisk. Poor industrial design combined with lousy material. A pity I do not have the receipt anymore to request my money back.
My SanDisk Edge (4GB model, SDCZ51-D04G) was reporting 9.4MB/s write using CheckFlash 1.6.1
Better speeds are reported on the 4GB and 8GB models, maybe the quality of the internals are higher but still maintain the price point?
Please avoid sandisk, try the Busbi Bolt – 16GB USB 3 compatibility (works with USB 2) from PCWorld website – now all sold out..
http://goo.gl/lQfbDfor £15through USB 3 interface –
I using sandisk cruzer edge 8gb pendrive. Its writing speed is 2.8MB/SEC ,can you suggest what i am do to increase the speed?
Unfortunately I doubt there is much you can do, these cheap and cheerful drives are not fast, my recommendation for a speedy drive is the Corsair Flash Voyager GT/GTR or Patriot XT Rage, with these drives you get what you pay for.
Look out for the Busbi Bolt USB 3 review coming soon.
da hell! this is how i will start my comment. i bought this peace of sh! for 40$ 16GB version at bestbuy. the price was much higher than similar drives of different brands. i was hoping that SanDisk, the name will stand for itself, but found out that this is the slowest usb drive you can possibly find. very, VERY Dissapointed. unfortunately i have to drive 2 hours to the closest bestbuy to return it so i guess i’ll just throw it away to save my nerves.
I have to confirm other people’s reviews on the 16GB version.
My write speed was tested (by H2testW) at 2.72 MB/s, read 14.2 MB/s.
This is not only a huge disappointment, this is simply ridiculous!
Even my 3 years old Kingston drive (also USB2) provided 10 MB/s on the same USB port!
I would love to return this piece of crap, but since you need to cut open the whole effing package to get it out, there’s no way I can do this!
Sandisk? Never again, thank you
sharcy
Larguem de fazer propaganda da kingston e corsair, seus gringos de uma figa.
A San Disk é ótima e nunca tive problema com ela, e voces deveriam parar de cagar no prato que comem pois a SanDisk é Americana.
Sandisk may have it’s corporate Headquarters at 601 McCarthy Boulevard, USA, but it’s an MNC with operations in the PRC, India and Korea, and I’m sure the majority of it’s goods, along with those of Kingston and Corsair are designed and fabricated in China.
Maybe the translation to Portugese didn’t work out right for you, the reviewed Sandisk products are rubbish. Re-read the article – tentar este http://goo.gl/KrJ6z – então responder.
If you dont agree with my review, or the comments of others, maybe you could share your opinions instead of vulgarities. I review based on my experience and opinion, regardless of the source of the product.
I bought recently a 4GB drive of these and has worked fine. Writing files I usually get over 7 MB/s (I use TeraCopy, not the default file transfer method of Windows) and reading is very fast too. I’m very shocked to see the comments, but well, I’m gonna give it some time.
When you have similar priced drives that can do 30 meg/sec you will understand why this is such a waste of money.