USB Flash Drive - The best way to carry and exchange computer data

The best way to carry and exchange computer data
Small Devices such as this hold anything up to 4GB of data and are automatically compatible with most PCs.
Data can be very quickly written to, or read from, this convenient portable device.
(Dime included to show size)
Here is a great way to backup 'must have' files when you're traveling, or to conveniently swap data between computers.
Do you need a USB Flash Drive
If you're traveling and your laptop becomes lost or broken, what would you do if you had a vital Powerpoint presentation trapped on its hard drive?
Or if you want to conveniently take some files from the office to home, work on them, and then return them? How would you do that?
Traditionally, all computers had floppy disk drives, and their 1.44MB capacity was more than enough to handle any reasonable type of file you'd ever need to transfer. These days, many new computers don't have any floppy drive at all.
As programs and files became larger, CDroms - a technology that almost died as a non-mainstream curiosity and which Bill Gates championed - became more common and now are almost universal. CDrom writers also became more common, and transferring larger files was commonly done by burning them to a CDrom.
Various other technologies, such as Iomega's Zip (100-250MB) and Jaz (1-2GB) drives, also briefly appeared and then disappeared again.
Flash forward to the present day. Few computers even have a floppy disk drive. While most computers have CDroms, not all have CD burners, and even though the cost of single use CDs has dropped down to less than 50c each, the technology to write onto them is cumbersome and slow. A newer technology - DVDrom - is appearing; happily DVDrom drives usually read CDroms too.
A new type of universal data storage format was/is needed. Increasingly it seems that the USB flash drive might be exactly what is now needed

64MB is only US$5.30

USB Flash Drives are compact and easy-to-use devices that are similar in use to your computer hard drive. USB Flash Drives slip into your pocket, conveniently around your neck or on a keychain for ultimate portable storage. Now, USB Flash Drives have become one of the most popular and innovative promotional items. We can imprint your logo and preload any data on the USB drives to create the ultimate promotional product. We guarantees our pricing to be the absolute lowest and our delivery times to be the absolute fastest in the industry.

What is Flash drive?

A flash drive, related to a solid state drive, is a storage device that uses flash memory rather than conventional spinning platters to store data. Unlike a USB flash drive or keydrive, flash drives tend to physically imitate conventional hard drives in size, shape, and interface so that they may act as a replacement for hard drives.

A Flash drive in a standard drive form factor.
These products are typically used as low power, rugged replacements for hard drives, especially in installations exposed to extreme conditions. The flash memory cells tend to fail after around a million writes which made early devices unsuitable for storage which is often updated in place, such as swap files. To address this problem, some flash disk vendors have introduced wear-levelling techniques that track usage and transparently relocate the data in highly utilized extents of storage to extents that have been less utilized. Unlike solid state drives, flash drives do not generally require backup battery systems.
Another use for flash drives is running light weight operating systems designed specifically for turning general-purpose PCs into network appliances comparable to more expensive routers and firewalls. In this situation, a write protected flash drive containing the whole operating system is used to boot the system. A similar system could boot from CD, floppy disk or a traditional hard drive but flash memory is a good choice because of very low power consumption and failure rate.
As of 2001, limited quantities of consumer electronics (such as notebook PCs) have become available including flash drives in place of conventional hard drives[1]. It is widely assumed that this trend will increase over time as the cost of flash drives decreases and the performance needs of consumer electronics continue to increase.

Portable apps for USB flash Drives

A flash drive, related to a solid state drive, is a storage device that uses flash memory rather than conventional spinning platters to store data. Unlike a USB flash drive or keydrive, flash drives tend to physically imitate conventional hard drives in size, shape, and interface so that they may act as a replacement for hard drives.

A Flash drive in a standard drive form factor.
These products are typically used as low power, rugged replacements for hard drives, especially in installations exposed to extreme conditions. The flash memory cells tend to fail after around a million writes which made early devices unsuitable for storage which is often updated in place, such as swap files. To address this problem, some flash disk vendors have introduced wear-levelling techniques that track usage and transparently relocate the data in highly utilized extents of storage to extents that have been less utilized. Unlike solid state drives, flash drives do not generally require backup battery systems.
Another use for flash drives is running light weight operating systems designed specifically for turning general-purpose PCs into network appliances comparable to more expensive routers and firewalls. In this situation, a write protected flash drive containing the whole operating system is used to boot the system. A similar system could boot from CD, floppy disk or a traditional hard drive but flash memory is a good choice because of very low power consumption and failure rate.
As of 2001, limited quantities of consumer electronics (such as notebook PCs) have become available including flash drives in place of conventional hard drives[1]. It is widely assumed that this trend will increase over time as the cost of flash drives decreases and the performance needs of consumer electronics continue to increase.

USB 2.0 Hi-speed Flash drive roundup 2004

Whether you refer to it as a pen drive, jump drive, thumb drive, key drive, or memory stick, you have to admit, the USB Flash drive is pretty darn cool. Just stick it into the USB port on your computer and within a few seconds a new drive appears on your desktop. So simple and so easy. What makes them so good is that they have a spate of desirable features such as no need for batteries, solid state storage, good transfer speeds, durability, portability, and expected data retention of ten years. All of these features allow these little babies to practically replace the floppy, the Zip disk, and the CD-R/RW all in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately, when comparing USB Flash drives side-by-side in a computer or electronics store, it can be awfully difficult to decide which is best for you just by looking at the drive and the packaging. It would be easy to make an assumption that all drives are pretty much the same and that shopping for the best price is the smartest way of deciding. We are here to inform you that USB Flash drives are not a commodity and can be very unique offerings. As you will soon find out, some are clearly better than others while others come bundled with nifty features that can really make your day. In short, not all flash drives are created equal.

The top 10 weirdest USB drives ever

USB drives comes in thousands of designs and colors, but these 10 are extraordinary weird. Or what do you think? Go ahead, check them out. They are weird! Promise. Hehe.

custom packaging for usb flash drives

Click Here to view our wide variety of packaging options which includes boxes, pouches, clamshell inserts and even Customized Packaging Services for serious corporate marketing and image promotion.

Transcend Unleashes New Flash Drives

Transcend has released a slew of new pen drives to the world which are relatively faster than most present generation flash drives. The Ultra-Speed USB 2.0 Flash drives belonging to the JetFlash 160, the JetFlash 168, the JetFlash 110 and the JetFlash 2A are equipped with dual Hi-Speed SLC NAND Flash chips. Their transfer rates are rated at Max. Read 30MB/s, Max. Write 25MB/s. They are engineered using top quality components to ensure better performance and a longer lifespan. This device is a combination of style and superior performance that will be appreciated by those who need high-speed data transfer rates. The Ultra-Speed JetFlash Drives conveniently plug into the USB port on any desktop, or notebook computer, so you can fast transfer, store, and share files. It is now available in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB (JetFlash 2A only) capacities. These Ultra-Speed JetFlash drives are enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost technology, which not only can accelerate program loading speed, but also can increase memory performance.




Also released by Transcend is the new JetFlash V85 series with zinc alloy body. It measures only 49.5 mm long by 15.8 mm wide, and it is so thin (7.4 mm) that it easily slides into tight-fitting stacked USB ports. It conveniently plugs into the USB port on any desktop, or notebook computer, for users to easily transfer, store, and share files. Each JetFlash V85 comes with a short chain, so it can be hooked to a key ring. It is now available in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB capacities, and is backed by a lifetime warranty for the peace of mind that users deserve.

Second generation

Modern flash drives have USB 2.0 connectivity. However, they do not currently use the full 480 Mbit/s the specification supports due to technical limitations inherent in NAND flash. The fastest drives currently available use a dual channel controller, although they still fall considerably short of the transfer rate possible from a current generation hard disk, or the maximum high speed USB 2.0 throughput.

Typical overall file transfer speeds are about 3 Mbytes/s. The highest current overall file transfer speeds are about 10-25 Mbytes/s. Older, "full speed" 12 Mbit/s devices are limited to a maximum of about 1 Mbytes/s.

First invention and sale

Several companies claim to be the first to have invented the USB Flash Drive in 1998 through 2000. Trek was the first company to sell a USB Flash Drive (ThumbDrive) in early 2000. However, their patent does not describe the USB Flash Drive; instead, it describes a very broad family of storage devices, of which the USB Flash Drive is one.

M-Systems (accquired by SanDisk in November 2006 [2]) has been working on developing the USB Flash Drive since 1998. The domain www.diskonkey.com was registered by them on October 12, 1999 [3] and indicates that the USB Flash Drive was already in development. In 2000 Dan Harkabi joined the M-System team and led the development of DiskOnKey. The industrial design was done by Ziba and the product won the IDEA award in 2001. M-System's patent rigorously describes the USB Flash Drive and its implementation.

The Singapore Court of Appeals confirmed the validity of Trek Technology's patent for its ThumbDrive, calling it "novel and inventive" in the decision published in The Straits Times. The city-state's highest court also quashed the plea of four companies—Israeli firm M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers, Electec, FE Global Electronics and Singapore-based Ritronics Components—and ordered them to stop selling similar devices. The decision is expected to have a ripple effect on other similar law suits which the Trek group has pending in Britain, Japan and Taiwan.

Netac Technology of Shenzhen, China also hold a 1999 Chinese and 2004 US patent on USB flash technology which they have licensed to major manufacturers

Internals of a typical flash drive

Internals of a typical flash drive
(Saitek brand USB1.1 pictured)

1 USB connector
2 USB mass storage controller device
3 Test points
4 Flash memory chip
5 Crystal oscillator
6 LED
7 Write-protect switch
8 Space for second flash memory chip

USB flash drive

USB flash drives are NAND-type flash memory data storage devices integrated with a USB (universal serial bus) interface. They are typically small, lightweight, removable and rewritable. As of April 2007, memory capacities for USB Flash Drives currently are sold from 32 megabytes up to 64 gigabytes [1]. Capacity is limited only by current flash memory densities, although cost per megabyte may increase rapidly at higher capacities due to the expensive components. (USB Memory card readers are also available, whereby rather than being built-in, the memory is a removable Flash memory card housed in what is otherwise a regular USB flash drive, as described below.)
USB flash drives offer potential advantages over other portable storage devices, particularly the floppy disk. They are more compact, generally faster, hold more data, and are more reliable (due to both their lack of moving parts, and their more durable design) than floppy disks. These types of drives use the USB mass storage standard, supported natively by modern operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, and Windows.
A flash drive consists of a small printed circuit board typically in a plastic or metal casing, making the drive sturdy enough to be carried about in a pocket, as a key fob, or on a lanyard. Only the USB connector protrudes from this protection, and is usually covered by a removable cap. Most flash drives use a standard type-A USB connection allowing them to be connected directly to a port on a personal computer.
To access the data stored in a flash drive, the drive must be connected to a computer, either by plugging it into a USB host controller built into the computer, or into a USB hub. Flash drives are active only when plugged into a USB connection and draw all necessary power from the supply provided by that connection. However, some flash drives, especially high-speed drives utilizing the USB 2.0 standard, may require more power than the limited amount provided by a bus-powered USB hub, such as those built into some computer keyboards or monitors. These drives will not work unless plugged directly into a host controller (i.e., the ports found on the computer itself) or a self-powered hub.