Flash Drives

The USB flash drive was once thought of as a computing luxury, but today it's thought of as a must have accessory! We take for granted the flexibility that a USB drive offers us, it allows us to quickly and conveniently copy data from one location to another in a flash. The simple drag and drop mechanism is why so many people feel confident in using these storage devices, because they are so simple!

In the majority of cases a USB drive should simply plug and play, which means you simply plug them into your USB port and your computer will install the relevant software without you having to do anything! A flash drive should also be cross platform which means they will work on both MAC and PC! This will vary from product to product so if you specifically require this then check the product specifications.

As the files we use become larger and larger it used to be quite time consuming to transfer a large file from your computer onto the USB drive, but most computer manufacturers now opt for USB2.0 ports as standard. This means that data can transfer upto 480MBps, which in short means faster data transfers from your computer to your USB drive. To get the full benefit of this quicker transfer speed you will require a USB2.0 flash drive, which most come as standard!

USB drives come in a variety of memory sizes and styles. They are available in memory sizes of 64mb, 128mb, 256mb, 512mb, 1gb, 2gb, 4gb and now a massive 8gb. All of this storage capacity in a drive that is often no bigger than your thumb (which is sometimes why they are referred to as thumb drives).

It's not hard to see why millions of USB flash drives are sold each year!

Matthew Money is the online editor for USBFlash which is a leading UK supplier of USB gadgets including custom shape usb flash drives