ATP ToughDrive USB Flash Drive Review

Are you rough on your gadgets? What if you had a device that contained all kinds of important data, but one that you didn’t have to worry about destroying no matter how hard you tried? The ToughDrive USB Flash Drive from ATP might be that device for you. I wasn’t content to trust their claims, so I put one through several torture tests.

The ToughDrive is available with a regular Black case, or in a special Camo version. ATP sent me the Camo version to review. Capacities are 1GB – 8GB. These days, 8GB almost sounds whimpy (see my Kingston 32GB DataTraveler review). This drive is also ReadyBoost compatible.

Included in the package is the flash drive and a nifty mini carabiner clip.

The casing around the ToughDrive is a synthetic polymer that makes the drive shock and waterproof. It feels like rubber and doesn’t have any seams to split apart like the typical plastic shells used in other USB flash drives.

photo courtesy of ATP

ATP uses a special packaging process called SIP (System-In-Packaging). This helps to protect all the components from damage due to water, shock, etc.

The first thing I did with this drive was to plug it into my Mac to make sure it worked fine BEFORE I started my torture tests 🙂 As you can see from the image above, the ToughDrive has a large Blue status LED on the front.

7.45GB of space available, with 500MB being used by some password protection software (for Windows). This can be deleted.

I copied several files to the drive so that I would have something to access after each test.

Water and Heat Torture Test

I decided that I would kill two birds with one stone by testing both the ToughDrive’s ability to be waterproof and heat resistant. But before I got started, it occurred to me that maybe any old USB flash drive could also survive the tests that I would be doing. So, I sifted through my stash of flash drives and pulled out a junky old 512MB Lexar drive.

The Lexar looks like it’s already seen its better days, but it would do.

For the first test, I filled a small pan with water, plopped the ToughDrive into the pot and turned the burner up to HIGH. Once the water reached a rolling boil (212 degrees F), I set the timer for 5 minutes and waited for my flash drive soup to finish. When it was done, I did the same test with the Lexar. Then I took the sufficiently cooled drives back to my Mac to see if they were still alive.

Lexar – PASS

ToughDrive – PASS

Frozen Tundra Torture Test

Boiling had no effect on either flash drive, so I decided to do the opposite – Freeze test! And what better way to freeze something then stick it outside in the good old Indiana winter night.

Last night at 8:41pm my wireless thermometer displayed an outside temp of -2.2 F. Yes, that’s negative 2. Can you say brrrrrrr? I put the ToughDrive and Lexar flash drives in a ziploc baggie, opened my front door and threw them on my porch. At 11pm when I went to bed, I checked the temperature again and it had dropped to -5. The next morning at 7am, the temp was a mind numbing -12.2 degrees Fahrenheit. I brought the drives back in the house (the plastic bag was a little icy) and took them down to my Mac to test them.

Lexar – PASS

ToughDrive – PASS

Hmmm, they won’t freaking die! I’m actually getting somewhat disappointed…

Shake and Bake Torture Test

I’ve boiled them and froze them… Next up, let’s see how shock proof they are by running them through a load of wash!

I put some clothes, the uncapped ToughDrive and Lexar flash drives and a cup of detergent (poured right on top of the drives) in the washer and ran them through a 6 minute cycle. Then I put the clothes and drives in the dryer. For the next 30 minutes, I could hear them both banging against the dryer drum. When the buzzer went off, I took the drives to my Mac to test them.

Lexar – PASS

ToughDrive – PASS

Gah! Come on, die already!

USB Drive Meet my Tire Test

I know how to kill at least one of these drives – I shall drive over them with my car! The Lexar’s plastic case will definitely break. I just know it!

Don’t judge me by my dirty tires… I live down a gravel road 🙂 So anyway, I placed the USB drives side by side behind one of my back tires and backed out and then forward over them. I got out of my car so sure that I’d see little silver pieces of plastic laying there. But no! They both were unscathed except for a little dirt. Grrrrrr…

I put their caps back on and I brought them back into the house to test with my Mac and guess what happened when I pulled the cap off the ToughDrive…

Destruction! The metal USB connector casing pulled right out of the body of the drive along with a thin plastic spacer that fell out as well. It was easy to reassemble the pieces, but when I tested the ToughDrive with my Mac, this is what I saw.

Whoops… This is not what I expected at all folks…

Conclusion

The ATP ToughDrive is definitely tough. It did survive boiling, freezing and clanging around in a hot dryer for 30 minutes. But ummmm, so did an older than dirt Lexar drive with a two piece plastic shell body and exposed components just like the image from ATP above. The only thing that finally killed the ToughDrive was driving over it with my car. So that begs the question, is it really worth spending around $50 for an 8GB ATP ToughDrive when you could spend less than $20 for an 8GB Sandisk or Kingston flash drive that will probably survive all the abuse that you can throw at it? What do I think? I think that…

Lexar – PASS

ToughDrive – FAIL