USB Flash Drives: Upholding World in Your Pocket

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Here is one experience shared by an user:

That was an old USB flash drive, not in working condition, placed in a plastic case in my almirah. I released its seal and found that there was a small printed circuit board carrying the circuit elements and a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connector inside that small device. That small chip is basically a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 interface.

As I needed another one for my personal usage, I preferred going through a USB guide book before purchasing the same. These pen drives are great maintenance tools for your computer. Whether you have to analyze your disk usage analysis or install an operating system (OS), these mini sized devices are simply the best. Finally, I came to some interesting facts about USB flash drives:

• Pen drives can store a host of portable applications that can be directly used from drives without being installed on a computer.
• These are used for the same purposes as of floppy disks a few years back. But these are smaller, faster, more durable and have greater storage capacity. In 2010, you can find a USB drive even 250 GB memory.
• A simple, small pen drive lets you set up MP3 player, handle email between computers using Thunderbird, and access productivity applications including a full office suite.
• These are rewritable, and allow over 1 million write or erase cycles easily, with a 10-year data retention cycle.
• With a high data transfer rate than other optical disc drives, these USB drives can also be read by most other systems such as the PlayStation 3.

In the market, a few shopkeepers insisted me to buy a larger capacity Hard Disc instead of USB drive. Comparatively, flash drives use little power and are small & light. Most of these do not even include a write-protect mechanism (which makes a device suitable for repairing virus-contaminated host computers). But those beautiful USB flash drives, insulated electrically and protected inside a plastic, metal, or rubberized case, stole my heart. I purchased one that can be carried easily in a key chain or necklace. The future for these USB 2.0 drives is quite bright, as several value-added resellers are using a USB flash drive as part of small-business turnkey solutions.