what is a flash drive?

What are flash drives and how do they work?

A flash drive, also known as a USB (Universal Serial Bus), is a small storage device used to store files and transfer them from one computer to another. You would normally plug the flash drive into the USB port in your computer, and then from there you can transfer files simply by copying them to and from the flash drive and your computer.

Benefits of Flash Drives over other methods of Computer Storage:

• They’re portable and easy to carry around, unlike saving things on your computer and having to send it to wherever it’s needed (eg. school) to continue working on it, or taking your laptop everywhere. Some USBs have even been made to look like bracelets so that you can carry them around your wrist without people knowing it’s actually a USB.

• They’re very useful as they can transmit many electrical currents at a same rate as the data transfer, thus making the transfer rate faster.

• You can be sure that all computers have USB ports to plug your flash drive into.

What are the storage capabilities of flash drives and what are the limits?

Although relatively small, flash drives can have the capacity to store a lot of things like pictures, documents or videos, depending on the type of flash drive you have. You can basically store anything on them. Usually the amount of storage in a USB is displayed for people buying them. Now days they can store from 32MB (Megabytes) up to 64GB (Gigabytes) for affordable prices.

Are Flash Drives a recommendable investment for the future?

Yes they are a recommendable investment for the future as more and more people are relying on them as a way to easily carry around personal files, especially as you can get simple 1GB USBs for as low as $5 in some places, as opposed to how expensive they used to be.

Suggest three specific flash drives and explain the differences in each type

There are many different USB drives available on the current market. Some are just simple storage devices, others can have antivirus protections already installed in them, and from others you can attach earphones and listen to the music you’ve installed in the USB. Here are three different USB drives:

1- “Sony 2GB Micro Vault Tiny USB 2.0” - Can store up to 2GB. It’s compatible with Windows XP Professional/Home Edition, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Mac OS 9.0 and higher. It has a high transfer speed, weighs about 1.5 g and is very small.

2- “SanDisk Ultra Cruzer” - Can store up to 8GB, costs $30, and is compatible with Windows 2000 and XP, Mac and Linux. It can transport applications as well as data, is password protected, waterproof, crush resistant up to 2000 pounds, has sync software, antivirus and Skype IM software, retractable USB connector, and U3 dashboard loads automatically when connected. Problems: the U3 technology is being replaced.

3- “IronKey Secure” - The last USB can store up to 4GB and costs $140. It’s compatible with Windows Vista, 2000 and XP, Linux 2.6 and above and Mac OS X, 10.x and above. It’s password protected and waterproof. It has AES hardware encryption and is programmed to self destruct after 10 failed attempts at the password, or the data is erased if the casing is breached. You can also have anonymous web browsing. Problems: too expensive for most users.

Recommend one flash drive as the most appropriate choice for a school student.

Out of the three above mentioned USBs, the most appropriate for a school student would be the 1st USB, as it is the simplest and easiest to carry around. 2GB of storage is more than enough for school work documents, and the other two USBs can be seen as “too much” by some because of its excessive features. These features could probably be useful when storing extremely important and secret information, but because most students do not encounter secrets that can, for example, result in the deaths of many people, they don’t have to buy USBs like IronKey Secure that will erase all data if the casing is breached.

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Bibliography

http://www.consumersearch.com/usb-flash-drives/com... (Updated March 2009)

http://kb.iu.edu/data/aqhj.html (Last modified on May 13, 2009)

http://homeworktips.about.com/od/computertips/qt/f... (Grace Fleming, About.com)

http://www.sony.com.au/product/CompareProducts.act...

http://www.content4reprint.com/technology/the-whol... (By Musa, Tue, 18 Nov 2008 3:49 PM)

As said by Anne, it is a data storage device using flash memory and doesn't contain moving parts. It is on a USB. The memory storage varies much more than it did even last year, ranging from 1GB to 32GB (if you go over 32, just get an external). The point of them is that they're small enough so that you can put it on a key chain and do school presentations or business presentations without having to go through the hassle of E-Mailing it to yourself or what not. It's basically a small, easy-to-use USB hard drive.

A flash drive is a small, ultra-portable storage device which, unlike a hard drive or optical drive, has no moving parts. Most connect to the PC via a built-in USB port. Storage capacity ranges from as small as 16MB to as much as 64GB and more.

Flash drives can be written and rewritten to an almost unlimited number of times, much like a standard hard drive.

Also Known As: pen drive, USB drive, solid state drive

There is a lot that i can say about Flash Drive. But for assignments it's best you have it with pictures and good explanations. It's easy to search for all of this information online.

Here is one

->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_drive

I myself learned a lot of new things about flash drive that i never knew from that site.

Here is another, browse through it.

->http://www.google.com/search?btnG=1&pws=0&q=Flash+...

Good luck, hope this helps.

I believe a flash drive is just the sane as a USB drive or thumb drive.

A data storage device containing flash memory that has no moving parts and does not need batteries or a power supply.

A USB flash drive is a device applied for data storage that contains a flash memory and an integrated Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface. Most USB flash drives are rewritable and removable. Physically, they are small, reliable and durable. The larger their storage space, the quicker they tend to operate. USB flash drives are automatically very robust because there are no moving parts. They derive the power to work with the device to which they are linked via the USB port.

its a USB; A small electronic device containing flash memory that is used for storing data or transferring it to or from a computer, digital camera, etc

Means USB KEY, there synonyms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive

why not just buy a regular hard drive? LOL they are already small anyways. I found some cheap here.... http://www.magnusdeal.com/default.asp