OCZ ATV 4GB USB flash drive review

It might be a boring old cliché to say that we 'live in an information society these days', but that fact is also ostensibly true.  As more and more of our life becomes digitised in some shape or form, we find ourselves needing to carry or transfer such data around.  In the same vein, as this data becomes richer, moving from simply text to audio and video, so our storage requirements when moving this data become ever larger.

One of the real revolutions of data transfer and sharing in recent years has been the USB flash drive, allowing people to dispense with the antiquated idea of using floppy disks, and pulling people away from the time-consuming and harder to transport medium of burned CDs and DVDs.  USB flash drives are now not only a relatively cheap and long-lasting form of storage, but also hugely convenient.  Little wonder that most of us spend at the very least our working days walking around carrying such a flash drive in our pockets or around our necks, and quite often some of our personal time to boot.

Of course, when you're carrying important data around on a USB flash drive almost twenty-four hours a day, nightmare scenarios begin to emerge.  Aside from actually losing the device, what if you drop it under a herd of trampling feet?  Or worse, what if it lands square in a large puddle or kitchen sink? 

Many USB flash drives are rather flimsy when they come up against the more physical aspects of life, which is where the subject of today's review comes in.  OCZ's ATV drive is, despite what its moniker may tell you, not a USB flash drive that doubles as an All Terrain Vehicle, but it isn't all that far off - No, instead the ATV is a series of ruggedized flash drives, designed to survive those dual data disasters of water and impact.  So, how does it perform, and does it mind being thrown with a lot of force from a first-floor window?  We check it out.