Flash Drive Problem in the Lab

Recently we had a patron in the lab who was attempting to configure his JumpDrive with partitions and passwords. He received the following message:

"In order to run JumpDrive Secure, you need Adminstrator privileges on the computer that you are using."

JumpDrive Secure is a software program that comes on flash drives made by Lexar. It comes with the Lexar drive and must be installed on any computer that you'll be using the jump drive on. The software lets you put files in a secure, password protected section of the drive. You can also select how much of the drive's storage space you want to protect this way. So you have to install the software, then go through a configuration process before you can save files to the drive.

My wife has one of these JumpDrives by Lexar. Unfortunately, it came with no documentation that explained this. So she began transferring files to it and a message appeared stating that the drive was full. We had to go to the Lexar web site to find out about the security software.

IMHO, this security feature has avantages and disadvantages. One of the nice things about most jump drives is being able to use them on any computer. I can easily transfer files from my desktop computer to the Tablet PC, my home computer or any computer in the building. Having to install software on each computer can be troublesome, as our patron discovered. On the other hand, it's good to be able to protect your files in case you lose the drive. On the final hand, I never keep mission critical files on my flash drive. I mainly use it to back up PowerPoint presentations, course handouts and lesson plans.