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Computers and Electronics

Cool Flash Drives

Cool Flash Drives

Do you remember floppy disks? The 5 and 1/4 inch disk were first. These were actually floppy. The 3 and 1/2 inch were more rigid. The maximum storage on these devices was 1.44 mb. For a long time, this was the primary method of installing software or backing up files. Remember how you would purchase software and it would come with 20 numbered floppies?

Thankfully the USB drive (or flash drive) has replaced these items. USB drives are small and compact. But they can hold up 2gb, 4gb, 8gb and even up to 256gb of data. They hold so much data that an entire operating system can be stored on one. You can install the entire Linux Ubuntu operating system on a flash drive and boot from it, which is great for recovery from viruses or damage. Flash drives are the method of file storage and transferring.

But why have a plain USB drive that looks like every other one? Choose a USB drive that expresses your personality and stand out from the crowd.

Flash Drive Advantages

Flash drives have no moving parts. This means there is little chance of mechnical malfunction, outside of physically crushing the drive by running over it with your car.

They consume very little energy. That energy is derived from the USB port when it is plugged in . This means the USB drive is getting power from the computer it is attached to.

Flash drives are unaffected by magentic fields. Contrast this to floppy disks which could be erased by magnets.

Thanks to the plastic protective shell, USB drives withstand minor physical damage and scratches. Dust is unlikely to penetrate the case. Some flash drives are waterproof and can survive a trip through the washing machine without loss of data.

USB drives are lightweight and easily transportable. You can fit a dozen of them in your pocket.

Flash drives have much more capacity than other data store media. DVDs can only hold 4.7gb of data. A standard 16gb USB drives hold more than three times the amount of data. Plus DVDs are severely restricted in the number of writes allowed. A standard DVD can be written one time. Even a rewrittable DVD is restricted to less than 10 writes.

Flash Drive Disadvantages

All flash memory has limit to the number of times the cells can be erased and rewritten. Therefore a flash drive has a number of saves it can do before it fails.

The small size of a flash drive can be a problem. They are easy to misplace and lose. Connecting them to a necklace or large object may help prevent their loss.

The male USB interface and drive protrude from the USB port. This makes it easy bump the device and potentially damage the USB interface while connected.

Hard drives are less expensive than flash drives on a per unit storage capapility. However, the plug and play natrue of the device plus the ease of transportation make up for the price.

Flash Drive Lifespan

Flash drives do have limited lifepsan. Eventually they will wear out. Both primary components. the flash memory and the USB interface will break down over time.

The flash memory of a typical USB drive will allow for 5,000 writes. That means after a number of saves to the drive, it will stop functioning. The failure mechanism for flash memory cells is like metal fatigue. The USB drive simply refuses to write new data to individual cells that have experienced heavy use.

There is no practical limit to the number of times the data my be read. Some flash drives have a read only switch that you use to preserve it. Using such a switch will prevent further writes to to the drive.

The USB interface can also wear out. Manufacturers build the male adapter to function through 1,500 uses. This means that each drive should last for fifteen hundred plug in remove operations. Of course, the device may actually function beyond that, but you should not count on it.

I personally an never lost a flash drive to either failure. I have manage to smash them and misplace them. But none of mine have every failed to work.

Have you ever had a Flash Drive Malfunction?

USB drives are not permanent storage devices and can wear out. Have you ever had one fail? I don't mean you stepped on it and broke it or that you lost it. I mean did it stop working one day? I am of the opinion that this is rare, and I have never had one fail.

Flash Drive Alternate Uses

Did you know you could use a USB drive for purposes other than storage? The primary use of USB drivers is file storage or transfer device. But they be used for more.

The windows 7 operating system includes a feature ReadyBoost. This allows a USB drive to used as RAM. The USB drive will function like the swap file or page file, and get used as virtual RAM. Virtual RAM is slower than regular RAM beside of the time required to perform I/O. Since the I/O of USB Flash Drives is slower than the internal hard drive, the USB Drive Virtual RAM is slower.

In addition, virtual RAM requires near constant writing to the USB drive. This will quickly reach the 5,000 write limit and render the device useless. You can expect only about 30 days of uses from a USB drive used as virtual RAM