| PRODUCT DETAILS | | Aleratec USB Copy Cruiser Plus |  | |
Aleratec USB Copy Cruiser Plus
Aleratec USB Copy Cruiser Plus is new and unique. The USB Copy Cruiser Plus copies digital pictures, MP3 files and other data between USB drives without a computer. With the USB Copy Cruiser Plus you can quickly transfer data between USB drives and Flash Memory cards where ever you are. The easy to use control buttons and LCD display allow you to choose specific files, folders or all files and folders to copy.
Manufacturer: Aleratec
Price Range: $64.16 - $99.00
 Aleratec USB Copy Cruiser Plus
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| User Reviews |  | Works as advertised
rating: 4
This is a very useful gadget for saving pictures in the field. It saves the expense of having a large number of cards for your camera. It works as advertised.
Unlike the competing Belking USB Anywhere it allows you to copy, list, or delete files on a FAT formatted drive. While you can buy an integrated device which will do all of this, the cost is much greater. The display is limited because it is a small lightweigt field device. As with most portable devices the controls take getting used to. The biggest enhancement would be to have the messages show the arrow key as < or > rather than using words like escape and enter. The terminology is a bit geeky.
The main disadvantage is that it can not handle any format except for FAT. Forget using it with either an iPod or Zune, but then neither of these is designed as a storage device, and they are very closed products. If you really need to use a hard drive over 32Gbytes, you may have to get a third party formatter because Win XP will only format a maximum 32Gbyte FAT drive. FAT32 will only handle up to 4Gbyes/file, but this should not be a significant limitation. Alaratec does not recognize multiple drives on the same device. Also like any similar device it does not supply enough power to power a portable drive. For portable drives you would need a separate USB power supply which are available for battery, car, or wall socket. You could also get an inexpensive powered USB hub. Be sure to get one which supplies enough current for the drive you wish to use. It does work with thumb drives, memory cards, and many players such as the RCA Lyra. It would be handy if Alaratec listed compatibility of players. Be sure to check and see if your memory card is compatible or has an inexpensive conversion card. If not, you may have to add an outboard USB memory card reader.
The big advantage of having an outboard rather than integrated device is that it can be used with a variety of drives and players. It is less expensive than an integrated unit especially if you already have a compatible player or drive. Also it can copy any direction unlike standard digital players, or portable picture storage devices such as Wolverine picture storage. Currently standard players and portable picture storage devices can only store (download) and require a computer to transfer (upload) pictures. So a a field device where you can not lug around a computer it is a good deal.
Eventually media players may support both USB and memory cards along with bidirectional transfer. The RCA Lyra is a start in that direction.
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Works for me
rating: 4
I bought one of these and it has worked pretty well for transferring files without using a laptop or PC, it can work with CF cards and a USB device powered from the built-in USB port. Many of the smaller portable drives work, I've used an Ultra Slim USB HDD (Western Digital) and it did fine with no external power (the Copy Cruiser runs off batteries so you have to make sure those are good, but I've had no problems. I use rechargables.) Some of the small WD portables in lower capacities are available very cheap now.
Works fine as a card reader when attached to your PC, too. Pretty much as advertised.
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Barely functional product
rating: 2
The Copy Cruiser Plus would not recognize my brand new powered Maxtor drive. When I called Aleratec customer support, a tech guy answered on the first ring, but it was downhill from there. He told me my hard drive has to be 'FAT32'-formatted, for which he claimed I need a WINDOWS system (I have a Mac). That's insane: the product box promises Mac compatibility.
I subsequently, through trial and error, found that Apple's Disk Utility enables you to format a drive as an MS-DOS device (remember the eighties horror that was MS-DOS?). After I did that, the drive mounted on my Mac desktop as before, but now the Copy Cruiser finally recognized it too. Imagine the hassle if I'd had 100-plus gigabytes of information on that drive and I'd had to reformat! This cumbersome (if one-time) process alone makes the Copy Cruiser a poor choice for Mac owners. Not that you have to look very long for other flubs and misses.
Before I started experimenting with the Copy Cruiser, I put three fresh brand-name AAA batteries in it. I don't think I had the device switched on for more than 45 minutes total before the indicator on the display showed there was no power left. The thing doesn't even suck juice because of the backlight, because there IS none. The display is dim and almost impossible to read in low light.
The interface, like everything about the Copy Cruiser Plus, is barely adequate. One major shortcoming is that the buttons are silkscreened with redundant arrows, no text. So when the display tells you: "DELETE ALL FILES (Y/N?): ENTER=Y, ESC=N," well, I hope you remember from reading the manual which button means ENTER and which one means ESC! Another interface blunder that would have been simple to avoid is that the Copy Cruiser has jacks to connect two USB devices, but when you do, the icons in the display are useless in making clear which is which. You're supposed to remember that the USB icon with the light lettering on the dark background is 'USB STORAGE 1' and that the almost-identical icon next to it (dark lettering on a light background) is 'USB STORAGE 2.' Good luck with that. And when you copy the contents of one volume to another, the progress bar in the display shows indivdual files being copied, instead of indicating how far along the ENTIRE copy operation is. Ugh.
This thing is useful in theory, and it could easily have been a glorious addition to the toolbox of professional photographers and others who want to be able to copy digital data in the field without lugging a laptop around. But Aleratec seems to have decided that the Copy Cruiser only needed to be 'good enough.' With just a bit more effort, this would have been a four-or five-star product; as it stands, giving it two stars seems almost embarrassingly generous.
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Review: USB Copy Cruiser Plus from Alertec
rating: 4
The USB Copy Cruiser Plus is a USB copy device with the additional convenience of an 8-in-1 card reader. The unit will copy from one memory device to another or from one memory device to a USB flash drive without the need of a PC. This OTG (On-The-Go) USB technology is very useful and the USB Copy Cruiser Plus proves to be just that, useful. For the small foot-print and compact size, just bigger then your palm, the product performs well, is easy to use and provides clear and precise feedback. [...]
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Works well (Within reason, of course...)
rating: 5
I needed a way to transfer photos from a flash memory card to another storage device while I was travelling out of the country. I did not want to bring my laptop for fear of damage or theft, so I bought this product because I need to back up digital photos from multiple compactflash cards to a 2.5" self powered USB hard drive. It worked very well.
I ran into a couple of problems as previous reviewers have (and for which they gave this device low marks) but I will explain why I still give this device 5 stars.
This device cannot power an external drive. So I bought a self powered external drive and that solved that problem. The other solution is to use a 1 or 2 GB USB flash drive.
I ran into the problem of the device not transferring all photos. I changed the batteries and it performed without a hitch. All photos were transferred.
Despite being advertised as USB 2.0, it runs rather slow. Okay, there's no solution around this one... I simply backed up my compactflash cards at the end of the day when I wasn't pressed for time.
So one might ask "If it cannot power an external drive, and the battery life isn't all that great, and it is slow, what good is this device?" My response is that it is good for the exact purpose I got it for: an inexpensive way to back up camera flash memory when I'm not in a hurry. And by bringing this device on my trip instead of my laptop, I prevented loss or damage to my laptop. Hence, 5 stars.
My advice:
Buy this if you need to BACK UP pictures when you are not pressed for time.
Consider this product if you only have one or two memory cards and you need to offload the pictures to another storage device so you can reformat your memory card to shoot more pictures. You should always carry spare AAA batteries to power the device. Also consider buying more memory cards instead of risking losing your pictures in the transfer.
Do not buy this product if speed or ABSOLUTE dependability is of paramount importance to you, i.e., if your job or someone's life is at risk. You'll be better off buying more memory cards, or spending much, much more on professional level equipment.
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Aleratec USB Copy Cruiser Plus
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