A flash drive is a compact storage device that is used to transfer data between computers and other digital products. They have become very popular in the last five years as a convenient way to save files quickly and safely. With almost all computers having USB slots they are now being used extensively throughout the world. They can be carried on a key chain, around your wrist or just an integral part of a businessman’s computer tools. Their capacity has now risen to an incredible 32Gb.

Using a USB Flash Drive

A flash drive is easy to use. Just create a file (e.g. Word document, Excel data sheet) plug your flash drive into a USB port and the USB port will appear as a system folder in “My Computer”.
It has never been so easy, and this is one of the prime reasons why they have become so popular. When saving your data by selecting “Save As,” you will find that your flash drive will appear as an additional drive.

The benefits of a USB Flash Drive

Flash memory is non-volatile. This means that no power is needed to maintain the information stored in the chip, also flash memory offers fast read access times and better kinetic shock resistance than hard disks. These major characteristics describe why flash memory in portable devices is very popular. They are very durable, and are able to withstand intense pressure, extremes of temperature, and even immersion in water. (Please don’t try to prove these features)

The speed of data transfer has improved and now the new flash drives have USB 2.0 connectivity. The fastest drives now available use a dual channel controller, even though they still fall significantly fall short of the transfer rate achievable from a current hard disk. Currently fast drives claim to read at up to 30 megabytes/s (MB/s) and write at about half that. Older "USB full speed" 12 Mbit/s devices are limited to a maximum of about 1 MB/s.