What is a Flash Drive?
Flash drives, which also may be called jump drives, pen drives, or thumb drives, are small flash memory drives with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connection. Most computers have at least two USB ports which are typically located in the back of the computer tower or on the sides of a laptop computer. Some computers will have USB ports located on the front of the computer tower which is the case for all lab computers on Lake Land College campuses. Flash drives can hold from 64 MB to upwards of 2GIG of data. The 64 MB flash drive can store data equal to that of approximately 44 floppy disks. This makes flash drives much more convenient to carry from home to school than floppies or zip disks. Flash drives are read and write disks which means you can open (read) and save (write) files to the disk. It is important to remember that while flash drives are more reliable than floppy disks, they are not fail safe. Back-up data stored on flash drives often by copying the files to your computer’s (C
A flash drive is a small, portable data storage device that plugs into the USB port of a computer (or another USB-equipped device, such as an MP3 player). Depending on your operating system, you can typically move data to and from the flash drive just as you would any other storage medium (e.g., a hard drive or floppy disk). Flash drives are popular because they can hold a considerable amount of data and are fast, reliable, and portable. For more information on flash drives, see the USB Flash Drive page on Wikipedia.
A USB Flash drive is a convenient, portable device that uses flash memory to store data. A USB Flash Drive can be used in place of a floppy disk, zip disk or CD. When a USB Drive is plugged in to a USB port, the Computer recognizes it as a removable drive and assigns it a letter. USB drives do not require external power support and will work with any operating system. USB Flash drives today come with many useful features such as password protection, enhanced software, and some even offer fingerprint recognition for ultimate security such as the Transcend Finger Print JetFlash220 Flash Drive. Their small size makes USB drives convenient for transferring data between a desktop computer and a notebook computer, or for personal backup needs.
A USB Flash Drive uses flash memory to function as a portable hard drive and allows you to store and transport any kind of computer file on a very small device. They can hold surprisingly large amounts of data and are made as small as the size of your house keys – to easily fit on a keychain, in your pocket, in your wallet or purse, or even around your neck on a lanyard.
