It all started with a promise to look after Mum in the UK for a couple of weeks whilst my brother and sister-in-law took a break.

It was at this stage that I thought an Encrypted USB flash memory card might be a good idea. That’s when I saw Remo using an IronKey and thought, good idea.

I bought a 1GB IronKey S200 online with my PayPal account and it arrived very promptly by express mail.

Now I use computers daily at home, and have done since the Amstrad 6128 was launched, however I like them to be maintenance free, and not something neither my PC nor my wife’s laptop have been recently. My PC is creaking from age but still upgradeable to Windows 7 from XP apparently, and her laptop creaks in Vista and crashes often, that is until I inadvertently loaded a release of Linux Mint8 over Vista and all her files. Even the so-called smart back up disc wouldn’t work on my PC so perhaps we have lost that data too! However, the key arrived before this parlous state of affairs but after my computer had stopped talking through web browsers to the internet!

It was then that in addition to getting ready for the trip I was faced with a sharp learning curve of things I’d rather not know, and frankly am not to keen to undertake, e.g. computer techie! Well the good thing is that the key worked OK in the Vista Laptop (whilst it was still in Vista) but then wouldn’t work in the XP desktop. It was then I discovered there was a firmware update for the key so I downloaded that but Vista crashed in the process and the key wouldn’t work in either machine. I duly informed Remo at Top Gadgets as well as registering for support from IronKey.

Remo got back to me straightaway, and IronKey who are USA base emailed me with two files, I skipped the PDF and found the other file unusable. I said something to that effect and received a similarly tetchy reply from the IronKey techie to read the PDF as it contained detailed instructions on how to rename and unzip the other file, as it was bootable. It seems just one other thing to frustrate anyone happy with the almost rock solid performance of XP is that in Vista there is the need to turn on file extension naming, which of course we hadn’t done with the Vista laptop, well why the hell should you have to, when its already there in every other Windows system before Vista! Anyway, to cut a long story short I unpacked the exe file and ran it and it fixed the crash on the key and I was able to use the built in browser to access the internet as designed on the vista machine but was still finding it useless in the XP machine.

However whilst still fuming about Vista and its poor performance I bought a magazine for the DVD on the cover which promised a loadable version of Linux Mint8. I inserted this in the DVD drive on the XP desktop and it ran from disc and found the intent connection straightaway. After running for while in Linux I closed out and found it had restored my XP browser connections as well so XP was up, running, and wonders of wonders the IronKey was working OK. That was when I decided to divide the hard disc on the laptop and load Linux dual bootable, however something went wrong with the disc division and it seems we now only have Mint 8 on the laptop. Too little time to bother sorting that out as holiday loomed and angry wife needed much hosing down.

The only problem I then encountered was how to load files onto the key so I could take encrypted copies with me. Remo solved that, as the blurb on the IronKey site was like the firmware update, unclear. I have promptly forgotten what he dropped into my place of work to show me, but I loaded on the files I needed and they open OK on Windows 7 and XP machines I have tried in both the USA and here in the UK where I am taking time out to write this blog. I will give it another go in a moment but I think what you do is copy the file to the 2nd drive that comes up in explorer and then open a link to it by right clicking in the management screen. I have pointed out to IronKey that their instructions are a little non-techie unfriendly and hopefully they will rewrite these ASAP, in the meantime the amazingly helpful Remo will tell you how it’s done though if you’re in Perth he won’t pop in and do it personally!

As to IronKey, a great product, which provides peace of mind about password security and will even be used at home to make logging in quick, easy and secure. Only thing is it’s a bit hard to use if you don’t read the instructions – curiously, I had stopped doing that, as no one else does these days, but I am ever so happy to need to do so again!

Cheers David