Microsoft is looking to make their OS more portable.  With Windows8 one of the features the Redmond Washington company is featuring is a bootable OS.  True, we’ve seen both Windows and Linux distro’s bootable off a flash drive, but what makes this a bit different is 1)  being legal and 2)  officially supported.  This seems a very smart move to keep Microsoft positioned to as an option as virtual desktop and thin client systems continue to rise in popularity. Many power users already run virtual laptops off of USB drives enabling them to work on a single consistent environment at both home and work without fussing with a laptop/briefcase. This should cement the concept and help keep MS moving towards more secure OS options comparable to VPMs.

With an official version of bootable Windows OS, IT managers could now use a USB Duplicator to mass produce their installation and/or restore media in a much faster time frame then using an old school optical duplicator.

An additional caveat of the portable Windows system is the speed of the environment.  Granted, there is nothing like running off a hard disk, but running of NAND flash will be almost as smooth…and with memory performance getting better with USB 3.0 flashdrive devices, it will become two of the same.

Video of Windows8 running on a MacBook Pro after the jump

Review: Nexcopy 3.0 USB Duplicator

EverythingUSB posted a review of the Nexcopy 3.0 USB Duplicator with a bunch of “thumbs up” marks.  Lets take a closer look.

As far as USB duplicators go, the Nexcopy SSUSB160PC is actually pretty stylish. Its form certainly flows from its function, but Nexcopy has made it to look in a German engineered car sort of way. Because of this form from function design, it is rather rectangular with flat boxy sides. However, Nexcopy did add in some flare where they could. For example, having the top slope downwards from back to front does give it a more aggressive styling. This dash of styling does makes it even more functional as sticking in the 16 flash drives into the 16 USB 3.0 ports on that self same top is actually easier when they are slightly offset in the vertical plane. It’s also a lot easier to check all 32 status lights for the 16 ports (red for bad, green for good).

Where the Nexcopy USB 3.0 duplicator is a serious tool meant for serious work, there is no plastic fascia to be found anywhere. It is made from metal and metal only. Once again, Nexcopy did manage to sneak in some pizazz by having the front’s company logo be CnC’ed milled out. This allows air to be sucked in from the front (as well as the sides through copious amounts of air holes), flow over the internals and then be exhausted out the back of the case via the rear fan. This is a great example of form and function done properly.

I first made an image file of my minted Windows 7 64-bit installation flash drive using the included basic software. (As a note, professional version or upgraded version of the software includes the ability to write protect drives, partition drives or set them as USB CD-ROM devices.) When that was completed, I setup a new batch job; pointed the software at the location of the newly created .IMG file on my hard drive; and then took

Corsair has always gotten good reviews about the speed and performance of their 2.0 USB flash drives.  So it is no surprise to see Corsair enter the market of 3.0 USB sticks.

As we said years ago, USB 3.0 will start to catch on, and the price points Corsair is publishing for the 8, 16 and 32GB drives proves the point.

The USB 3.0 Flash Voyager looks like all their others, and comes in at a price of:

• 8GB = 19.95
• 16GB = 29.99
• 32GB = 69.99

These seem like great prices for individuals.  The next question becomes, how does a corporate company who bought a pallet full, perform the data load function.  Maybe this USB 3.0 Duplicator would help.

Here is the company line from their press release:

The new Flash Voyager USB 3.0 models bring SuperSpeed USB 3.0 performance to the Flash Voyager family, and share the same durable rubber housing and stylish looks that have made the Flash Voyager family a favorite of consumers looking for fast, reliable, and portable data storage. All Flash Voyager USB 3.0 models are shockproof, water-resistant, backward compatible with USB 2.0/USB 1.1, and provide easy plug-and-play compatibility with most operating systems.

It’s clear USB 3.0 is coming.  It’s an unstoppable train which is building momentum with each new day and each new product launch.  Millions of PC and peripherals will ship this year with the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed bus interface.  With that said, it’s no wonder the timing of the Nexcopy SuperSpeed USB duplicator couldn’t be at a better moment.  Now it’s possible for users to manage these new peripherals without using legacy 2.0 products.

The SSUSB160PC is a 16 target USB duplicator which works off the USB 3.0 technology.  What you need to remember is that a USB 2.0 stick won’t jump to the 3.0 speed just because it’s a new interface.  Fortunately, the 3.0 system will easily handle 3.0 hard drives, which seem to be the most prevalent in the market, as well as 3.0 flash drives which are just starting to show as mainstream.

The SSUSB160PC is a slick looking product with a light weight aluminum body making it ideal for on-site duplication and data loading.  The USB duplicator has a built in 120 watt power supply and will copy at your devices maximum transfer rate.  For some ideas, it’s reported by Nexcopy that 32GBs of data can copy in about 6 minutes.

We’ve reported on other products from Nexcopy – maybe it time I request an evaluation unit…some glamor shots after the jump…

We’ve reported about Nexcopy several times before, ranging from their USB duplicators to SD and Compact Flash duplicators, and today we are here to tell you about the Nexcopy standalone USB duplicator.

With flash drives getting bigger in capacity and cheaper in price, it’s natural to think data loads are getting bigger too.  Several years ago, it was common to put a PowerPoint or PDF of a trade show swag USB, but today, with the popularity of YouTube and the ease to make video, the promotional content is getting much bigger.  The Nexcopy standalone USB duplicator copies at a maximum speed of 30MB per second, that’s about 1800MB per minute.  Granted you wont get that data transfer from a typical trade show flash drive, but with more advanced USB sticks it’s definitely possible.

The Nexcopy standalone USB duplicator family comes in two sizes.  There is a 16 port system and a 32 port system.  Each system loses one port for the master device and I figure this is why the Nexcopy part numbers are USB115SA and USB131SA…as that’s 1 master to X number of blanks.

We couldn’t find a price on the Nexcopy website as the products are only sold through authorized dealers.  Release date of the new USB duplicator systems is the first week of September 2010.

To find out more about the standalone USB duplicators, visit the Nexcopy site.

Source:  EverythingUSB.com.

These days there isn’t much to flash drives, other than look and some advanced functions, so for this post I thought the video Mimobot put together for introducing their next 4 models would be the best way to entertain the readers…so enjoy:

Mimoco presents Core Series 2.5 from MIMOBOT & mimoZine on Vimeo.

Mimobot product page.

Nexcopy is getting ready to release a USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Duplicator with a 16 port capacity. Nexcopy is currently optimizing the SuperSpeed thumbdrive copier so details are still somewhat sketchy. What Nexcopy is reporting is the USB 3.0 Duplicator will be out in about 5 weeks. It can copy at a peak rate of 65MB/s for a single flash drive; interestingly, performance can jump to 72MB/s with multiple devices connected. For USB 3.0 hard drives, transfer speeds come in at 95MB/s. The number is consistent with either 1 or 8 devices connected to the duplicator.

Nexcopy reports the primary target market are USB 3.0 hard drives as they are more prevalent in the market today, but expect demand for USB 3.0 flash drive duplication to pick up as more become available. In related news, Nexcopy plans to offer USB 3.0 flash drives in 16GB and 32GB size with custom branding as option. They will be sold for $89 and $149 respectively. As for the duplicator pricing, the company hasn’t made any announcement yet.

Source:  EverythingUSB.