Product: ATP EarthDrive 2GB
Manufacturer: ATP
MSRP: ~$30.00
Author: aliencam (Cameron Kopas)
Links:
ATP EarthDrive Product Page
ATP Earth Drive “Microsite” (more specific product information)

The ATP Earth Drive is a “green” option in the realm of previously environmentally harmful computer accessories. It wasn’t too long ago that nearly every component of computers was fulled with toxins that could potentially hurt the planet if not disposed of properly. This USB flash drive compensates for these with a biodegradable PLA (a kind of plastic that can be made from corn) plastic casing, and a very small form factor. The components of the flash media are completely encapsulated, like one of the coin-sized flash drives or a micro SD card, so the flash drive is water and dust-proof, and it is resistant to some physical trauma. ATP also donates a portion of all EarthDrive sales to American Forests, which plants trees.

Packaging and First Impressions

Unfortunately, even though this drive is focused around being good for the environment, it comes in a clamshell package. This packaging makes it very difficult to open, creates a lot of waste that cannot be reused, and is both dangerous and annoying to cut open.  It was also nearly impossible to remove from the package, even after I cut it open, it was stuck in there very tightly.  My first impression of the product was that it was quite fragile and I was afraid of breaking it with normal use, but after handling it for awhile I found that assumption to be false. The glossy finish also gets scratched very easily, even removing it from the package scratches it a little bit on the sides (there is no way for the end-user to avoid this). Carrying it on your keys certainly would scratch it a lot. I realized the scratches are only visible in bright light, but I still cannot stand any scratches or blemishes on my items (this is why I generally try to avoid all things with a glossy finish).

I noticed later that ATP does offer the EarthDrive in a package other than the annoying blister pack, however it is for some reason, not available in North America (I certainly don’t know why). This other package is what looks like a small recycled paper box with a big green label on it. I would much prefer this packaging to anything else for a few reasons. On a store shelf it would stand out more to me, I would not have to deal with opening a blister pack, and the packaging certainly looks recyclable.

Overview

The drive comes with a small loop of string with a large jewelry-style clasp that attaches to a loop on the end of the USB drive, and although is not the most rugged way to attach the drive, it does clip onto a keyring or anything else quite well. The EarthDrive is very small for a regular flash drive, being only 3.5cm long when the drive is retracted, 4.8cm when extended, then 1.6cm at the smallest width and 2cm at the widest, and finally thickness (z-axis) ranging from 0.5cm to 0.7cm. The drive is glossy black on three sides, with one side glossy white. The actual flash memory and the USB interface extends and retracts into the base of the drive by moving a small sliding plug back and forth. This is one of the best engineered parts of the drive, and impressed me very much. The plug must be pressed down slightly in order to extend or retract the drive, however the amount it must be depressed is so little that it is completely imperceptible if you are using it traditionally. This means that the drive will not ever be pushed in when you are trying to fit it into a USB port. The only reason I even noticed it was when I pressed on it with a card straight across and it did not budge. The light on this drive is very bright for it’s size, and is a little bit annoying when transferring big files on my laptop because the blinking blue light is right in my field of vision.

Benchmark

The benchmark between 1 and 5 MB had an average read speed of 17.5036 MB/s and an average write speed of 7.599 MB/s. The benchmarking software used was Flash Memory Toolkit. Screenshots of this are below.

I also did a real-life test, transferring enough files to just about fill the flash drive. I used media files, including images, music, and movies. I used rsync and the “time” command to gauge the speed.

The full time it took to fill (within 1.5MB) the flash drive was 5 minutes and 45.509 seconds (5:45.5), with an average of 5.517 MB/second (5785332.3 bytes / sec = 5.51732283 MB / sec).

Miscellaneous

The drive comes with utilities for partitioning the drive, and for password protecting/encrypting files on it.  One thing I am  glad for regarding these is that while the programs are available, they do not try to autorun when inserting the drive, so yo don’t have to worry about any annoying software dialogs when you just want to transfer some files even on computers that have autorun enabled.

I was easily able to get a persistent Linux installation running on this drive. I used the Ubuntu USB Startup Disk utility in order to do this, and I tested out booting from the USB drive on many different computers, all of which worked flawlessly.

Dissection

This is my new (and favorite) segment of all of my reviews starting with this one. I will take apart the product for review if I think I can without breaking it. I would likely do this to all of the products anyway, so including it in the review just makes it a little more fun for everyone else. Taking apart the ATP EarthDrive was quite difficult at first, but with the help of my very small screwdrivers, and some plastic prying tools that I have just for this occasion, I was able to accomplish it without any visible damage (something that is especially hard to do with these plastic pieces that fit together without screws.

From what I understand, only the external shell of the drive is biodegradable (ATP, correct me if I am wrong please, I made this assumption by the display I saw at CES [sorry, I didn't get any pictures]) so when one is finished with the drive, you should take apart the drive as I have and keep the “guts” out of your compost pile. In this case, you would still have a completely working flash drive!

I noticed that there was some text on the flash when I took it out of the tray or sled. In order to get at the text, I peeled off the strip of Teflon (which was affixed using double-sided tape). The text on the flash media reads:
AF2GUFP1      TAFD0-08080007
81321M4S      E0835C

The unit does work taken apart, but the flash media by itself is not thick enough to make contact with the USB port, so it needs the tray, but with that it works well.

The above is a video of the reassembly of the drive. I was able to take it apart, reassemble it, and the drive still worked perfectly.

The completely enclosed nature of the memory is the reason why the flash drive is water, dust, and and “shock” proof, there really isn’t anything you could do to this flash drive that would damage the data short of smashing it pretty well (the actual flash media would have to be broken).

I am also feel I need to to show that ATP Posts on their website a generic diagram of this, including a reverse teardown of something that is very much not the EarthDrive (unless it is a progression over time), compared to a generic flash drive.

Pros

• Small Form Factor
• Biodegradable and “Earth Friendly”
• Great Sliding Mechanism
• Supports Bootable Linux Installation
• Survived aliencam’s Chop Shop

Cons

• LED Too Bright
• Glossy Finish Gets Scratched

Conclusion

I very much liked this flash drive. It is small enough to not be a bother if you carry it everywhere, and rugged enough to survive most accidents (functionally survive, not aesthetically). The drive also is visually appealing, the tuxedo black and white with a little bit of green for the print on the back is quite tasteful (and happens to be my favorite colour scheme). I would recommend the ATP EarthDrive to anyone looking for a small flash drive, especially to those concerned about the environment.

Check back soon to see the review of the ATP ToughDrive, and watch it get run over by a bus.

Tags: ATP, Drive, EarthDrive, Flash, flash drive, Green, Stick, USB