This was posted 10 years 10 months 21 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

Related
  • expired

Toshiba 4GB USB Stick Only $0.99 Each at Harvey Norman (FREE Pickup or $5.95 Shipping)

2820

I saw these at my local HN today, these are OK drives at a very good price. There's a limit of three sticks per sale (or per person?). Stock was plentiful at HN in Hobart. They're also listed as a 'Red Hot' deal on HN's website.

Related Stores

Harvey Norman
Harvey Norman

closed Comments

  • Just saw this and about to post.

  • +22

    Damn, I paid $2 for them last time.

  • +1

    Normally i would think this is a great buy and grab some.. But 4GB are so 2010.
    Need a 16GB to get my excitement now these days.

    • +14

      but $1 for 4GB is not so 2010.

    • you're almost right, I remember picking a few up from MLN boxing day, massive long line but was worth it, few years back

      • +6

        so you're the one in front of me trying to stay awake while waiting…. :p
        4GB FOR $1 = insanely good.

        I got a few of these and was very happy about it - I scored.
        I use 2 and gave the rest to family and friends as gift.

        a few months later.
        they died one by one without warning.
        my one died. no sign of physical damage, just simply die one day.
        PC would stop recognising them (tried many PCs) and not recoverable.
        faimly members having the same problem and lost their important personal stuff.
        My sister only used it a few times and it died too.
        she's still mad at me for this.

        May be just a bad batch.
        But enough to scare me away from this brand and this model.

        • I had the same problem with my 16GB Toshiba. Only used a few times and it just wouldn't read or recognise by the computer one day so I lost all the photos and docs in there!

        • faimly members having the same problem and lost their important personal stuff.

          It isn't too important if you are storing it in such an unreliable way, I tell people this all the time, they never seem to learn.

    • Need a 16GB to get my excitement now these days.

      buy 4?

      • +10

        You can build a USB Drive RAID.

        • -3

          Think of the transfer rate. Also RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks so that must mean that all your data is stored redundantantly i.e. backed up.

    • judging by my last purchase of a crap Toshi 16g that died, I bet these 4G ones are just the 16G ones that failed and relabeled.

      Maybe they meant 16Gb of text files (HW compression)

  • -5

    Postage for me = $5.95. No thanks.

  • +2

    Ordered 3 for pickup! $2.97 total.
    Thanks OP

    • +2

      Me too. I also use them to boot OSes off so they might come in handy. :)

      • +3

        could "come in handy" if you fill with pR0n

    • I paid cash for 3 and got 5 cent back also for donation

  • Wow…..

  • in store will limited 3/ person

  • +1

    These are excellent for kids USB drives for school. Younger kids classes don't really need them to be high capacity and transfer speeds are inconsequential with their hardware. I know there are multi-packs that offer really good value but they're usually 8GB and up.

    [Case in point - my year 3 son's USB drive data topped up at a massive 25MB and only because he had PPT's with lots of images. I think he only had 5 files in there.]

  • +2

    I find 4GB a perfect size for a boot drive as most OS come between 2-4 GB last time I checked. With enough left over space for drivers. Thanks OP, I'll pick some up after work

  • +3

    Price Beat at Officeworks + ING = $0.893475
    Nice.

    edit: Damn, doesn't look like Officeworks sell it. Too much of a smartass..

    • +12

      Now that's what I call dedication… I take my hat off to you Sir/Madam.

      edit. I retract my hat off and replace it with… Meah.

    • haha, brilliant

  • Had 2, both failed DOA but at $1 still worth a punt

    • +2

      try to open it, you will realised that the memory soldering pin is rusty and drop off……

      the controller is perfectly fine.
      pure bad manfacturing…….. normally the 0.2% failure is because of the controller or memory defect. but manfacturing defect on soldering is not acceptable.

  • just so u know the read/write speeds on these are abysmal. i was getting as low as 1mb/s

  • Cool, bought 3. Will use one as rescue drive with Linux installed, two for the car audio.

  • +2

    Yeah, got a couple last year. They're ok for installing OSes from USB sticks, that's what I use mine for.

  • oh well, good enough for a USB cap

  • Just bought 6 of them in 2 orders. Thanks op

  • its toshiba.. oh well… no reason not to buy..

  • +1

    You can't USB's even from China in bulk for $1 unless your talking volumes of well over 1000.

    True bargain!

  • Bought 3. Thanks OP.

  • +5

    you mean limit three per professional

    • +2

      I am professionally employed by 2 different organisations so I translated this as meaning I could buy 6 and subsequently did :)

  • Bought the 16GB version of this last year at a Hardly Normal sale. Great for a few docs here and there, but painfully slow transfer rates for anything else, eg. boot drives, movies, etc.

  • +1

    Just bought 6 (2 orders),
    surely nobody will mind a little greedy on my part :)

  • +1

    Might pick up some for work, good for some 'throw' away sticks for sending data to people.

    • +15

      For this price you could afford to throw these sticks at people you don't like too.

  • +6

    the last time I got these it was $1, now it's 1c cheaper!
    my inner ozbargain-er is gutted!

  • +6

    These are perfect for swapping Game of Thrones between people at work.

    • +1

      GoT stick?

      • I've got milk… does that count?

  • Thanks. ordered.

  • +5

    I left the window open while I went to the loo. I came back to this, a popup saying "Hey Ozbargainer"!

    • Sounds like they are preparing themselves to be OzBargained! :)

    • +11

      I left the window open while I went to the loo.

      We use air-freshener at my place..;)

      • At least he didn't leave the door open as well :)

        • +1

          Hello Ozbargainer - Need any advice, talk to a Harvey Norman expert now.

          pffttt… they only hire experts there? dont they realise we are professionals damn it….

        • Why would professionals need to talk to expert?

  • Was already in town and picked up three from HN Hobart. Thanks!

  • Just got 6 from Dandy :-)

  • +3

    Bought x3

    ..and Yet I have no use for any of them

  • +1

    Guys quick question
    If I wanna store photos of family etc priceless stuff on this usb drive and store it away, how long would it last and would it be safe?

    • +4

      QUOTE from Ask. Metafilter:

      The core of every flash ROM bit is a tiny capacitor. The difference between a "1" and a "0" is that in one of those the capacitor is discharged and in the other it has a charge. (I don't remember which is which, and it doesn't matter.)

      The capacitor is well insulated, so the charge in it doesn't leak away. However, there is a slow tendency for the charge to dissipate as a result of exposure to environmental radiation, including cosmic rays.

      All of which means that flash is not forever. It's hard to say exactly how long it will last, but likely a few years before bitrot sets in. It isn't permanent, in the sense of an eternal archive.

      Optical disks are subject to a different kind of bitrot, and they're not eternal either. Again, they're good for years but not for decades.

      A USB hard drive is a better choice, but that's not eternal either. There are yet other environmental factors which cause a slow rate of degradation.

      In the end, the only way to be sure is to keep multiple copies, and to refresh them yearly.


      TLDR — Flash memory is reliable for long term storage, but not for too long.

      • +1

        See above. It seems these usbs die very easily.

        Wouldn't store anything important on them.

    • Plus the flash depends on a controller chip. I know people who had stuff stored on SSD disks, only to have a controller failure make the whole drive useless.

      +1 for multiple copies and multiple locations.

    • +1

      Twisty:

      Since reliability is not the core reason anyone here is purchasing these USB drives, in answer to your question I would buy 3 and store a mirrored copy of your photos on all 3.

      And given that you're talking about less than 4GB of photos, please store them on a cloud server somewhere too!

      • Thanks

  • +5

    748 left at Chirnside Park, Victoria.

    • +1

      Did you count them all?

      • +1

        Rainman style?

      • Store supervisor claimed to have 1000 so brought their inventory listings up on their computer. The store's inventory for 4Gb Toshiba showed 748 remaining.

        • Is that you coming out, Rifter? R u an HN "expert" staff? :p

        • Ambiguity rules.

        • Wish i was as good as u r at hiding yr secret identity,sir.Unfortunately, I get this all the time :(

  • Thanks for that just stocked up on them now!!

  • Toshiba USB is pretty good. I have used a lot of my 16GB for more than a few years.
    Very happy with this brand.

    • Older Toshiba sticks were excellent—this particular model, however, has really slow transfer rates. I'm not complaining, though—the price is great, and these are perfectly adequate for having as spares, or as Linux boot disks.

  • They have them in Adelaide Harvey Norman incorrectly priced at $7 but they are selling them for 0.99cents.

    • +1 City Cross still had around 30 or so sitting in the display when I went past tonight.

      • +1

        3 of those are waiting for me to pickup tomorrow. So leave 3 please…

  • Thanks got 3x. always handy for those unreliable people that don't return them, then I'll charge them $5
    to replace it. :P

  • Was looking for a cheap USB, then I found this!!! :)

  • +2

    bought 3….that's another $2.97 gone to something i think i need, but don't really need…

  • Bought 3. Thanks for that.

  • haha HN recognises us :)
    http://tinypic.com/r/a4qt6f/5

  • +4

    bought three from Sydney MLC store. staff mentioned it's great deal for one dollar, I corrected him it's 99 cents, and paid cash to save another 2 cents from rounding. thanks OP.

    • +2

      Martin Place? I ordered 6 from there and they said they won't process 3 of them.
      It's okay though, my local store were happy for me to buy 17 from them :)

      Someone had removed the sign about limit of 3 per customer (nope it wasn't me) so everyone was ripping in.

    • OzBargain level up!

  • Brisbane City store (Broadway on the Mall) had lots a couple of hours ago. In a display bin near the front counter pricemarked $4 but scan up as described 99c. (Docket says price $9.96, discount $8.97 each). Great deal, thanks OP.

  • Picked up 5. Lady had no problem, tempted to pick up some more tomorrow, im forever losing them…

  • The sticks were at $7 ea at City Cross Adelaide Rundle Mall. Didn't bother asking staff as I was on a short lunch break. It's Thursday late night shopping though, so I will pick some up elsewhere soon.

  • Picked up 3 at Munno Para, as did my Fiance and Father. Checkout lady mentioned only 3 while we were looking at them before I even went to buy some lol . Will use mine for my car MP3 player where it doesn't matter if they die.

  • Tons at Garden City (QLD), the bin says $4 but scanned at 99c, thanks OP.

    • craploads at Oxley (QLD). Possibly because they are marked at $6 and a limit of two. I don't think they got the memo.

  • I got 12…

  • Thanks OP. 3 x less available.

  • Online ordered 3 x 2. Will pick up at weekend.
    Do we need to wait for the call to confirm it is ready for pickup?

    • There will be an email mention it ready for pick up.

  • Awesome deal. Bought 3 :-)

  • Picked up 3 from Blacktown HN in NSW, They have plenty in stock.

  • Picked up 6 from Chadstone,VIC. Plenty stock

  • Picked up 3 from Fountain Gate, Narre Warren, Vic. Heaps more available.

  • +2

    Picked up 3 from Woodville, SA (100+ stock left at closing time 9pm Thur 30/5)

    **UPDATE, worst performing USB stick I own. [email protected]/sec [email protected]/sec
    I did buy this with the intention to use as a disposable/give away stick

    • thanks for the speed tests
      im buying them for disposability too, just remember which one to give out :)

Login or Join to leave a comment