A USB drive, shown with a 24 mm US quarter coin for scale.

A USB flash drive is essentially NAND-type flash memory integrated with a USB 1.1 or 2.0 interface used as a small, lightweight, removable data storage device of up to 8 GB. Depending on the drive type and OS version, and in some cases what patches are installed, the drives generally work with Windows 98/ME/2000/XP (Windows 98 requires a driver to be installed; often, inconveniently, a specific driver for each type of flash drive), Macintosh, Linux, and other Unix-like platforms that support USB. Image File history File links USB_flash_drive. ... Image File history File links USB_flash_drive. ... The quarter is 1/4th of a United States dollar or 25 cents. ... ... A USB Flash Memory Device Flash memory is a form of EEPROM(Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) that allows multiple memory locations to be erased or written in one programming operation. ... Note: USB may also mean upper sideband in radio. ... A gigabyte (derived from the SI prefix giga-) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one billion bytes. ... In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ... Microsoft Windows refers to a series of operating environments and operating systems created by Microsoft for use on personal computers and servers. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984. ... Tux, a cartoon penguin frequently featured sitting, is the official Linux mascot. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Guide to UNIX Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ...

USB flash drives are also known as "pen drives", "thumb drives", "flash drives", "USB keys", and a wide variety of other names. They are also sometimes erroneously called memory sticks, which is a Sony trademark describing their proprietary memory card system. A USB drive, shown with a 24 mm US quarter coin for scale. ... 128 MB Memory Stick with MagicGate support Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, launched by Sony in October 1998, and is also used in general to describe the whole family of Memory Sticks. ... Sony Corporation (Japanese katakana: ソニー) (TYO: 6758 , NYSE: SNE) is a global Japanese consumer electronics corporation based in Tokyo, Japan. ... A trademark (Commonwealth English: trade mark) is a distinctive sign of some kind which is used by a business to uniquely identify itself and its products and services to consumers, and to distinguish the business and its products or services from those of other businesses. ... A 32 MB High Speed CompactFlash Type I card A memory card or flash memory card is a solid-state electronic flash memory data storage devices used with digital cameras, handheld and laptop computers, telephones, music players, video game consoles, and other electronics. ...

A flash drive consists of a small printed circuit board encased in a robust plastic[1] or metal casing[2], making the drive sturdy enough to be carried about in a pocket, as a keyfob, or on a lanyard. Only the USB connector protrudes from this protection, and is usually covered by a removable cap. Most flash drives feature the standard type-A USB connection allowing them to be connected directly to the port. Some small drives have been made with a thin plug designed to mate with a standard USB port[3] but these are very rare. Close-up photo of one side of a motherboard PCB, showing conductive traces, vias and solder points for through-hole components on the opposite side. ... A key fob is a decorative item which many people carry with their keys, on a ring or a chain, often to provide a better grip or to simply make a personal statement. ... a lanyard fixed on an infantry sabre handle A lanyard is a rope or cord often worn around the neck or wrist to carry something. ... Type A USB connector Dual images of the two Type B USB connectors, mini and full size, side and front view, compared with a U.S. 5¢ piece (nickel) in both images for scale. ...

Flash drives are active only when powered by a USB computer connection, and require no other external power source or battery power source; key drives are run off the limited supply afforded by the USB connection (5 volts and up to 500 mA). To access the data stored in a flash drive, the flash drive must be connected to a computer, either by direct connection to the computer's USB port or via a USB hub. Some need most of the power a standard USB port can supply and therefore cannot be used with a bus powered hub. Four double-A (AA) rechargeable batteries In science and technology, a battery is a device that stores energy and makes it available in an electrical form. ... A USB hub A USB hub is a device that allows many USB devices to be connected to a single USB port. ... A bus powered (USB) hub is a hub that draws all its power from the host computers USB interface. ...

History

The flash drive was first invented in 1998 at IBM as a floppy drive replacement for the ThinkPad line of products. Although there is an IBM disclosure, they did not patent it. IBM later contracted M-Systems to develop and manufacture it non-exclusively. M-Systems holds the patent to this device, as well as a few other related patents. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) NYSE: IBM (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, NY, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services. ... IBM ThinkPad R51 IBM ThinkPad R32 The Japanese lunchbox that inspired the ThinkPad design ThinkPad is the brand name for a highly successful range of portable laptop and notebook computers currently manufactured and marketed by Lenovo, which purchased the IBM PC division in early 2005. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive and...

The first flash drives were made by M-Systems under the "Disgo" brand in the following sizes: 8MB, 16MB, 32MB & 64MB. These were marketed as "a true floppy-killer" and this design was continued up to 256MB. Asian manufacturers soon started making their own flash drives cheaper than the Disgo series.

Modern flash drives have USB 2.0 connectivity, however they do not currently use the full 480Mbit/s the specification supports due to technical limitations. Note: USB may also mean upper sideband in radio. ...

Components

This photograph shows both sides of the printed circuit board (PCB) inside a typical flash drive (circa 2004). The flash drive in this photograph is a 64 MB USB 2.0 device with its plastic case removed. Close-up photo of one side of a motherboard PCB, showing conductive traces, vias and solder points for through-hole components on the opposite side. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

One end of the device is fitted with a single male type-A USB connector. Inside the plastic casing is a small, highly cost-engineered, printed circuit board. Mounted on this board is some simple power circuitry and a small number of surface-mounted integrated circuits (ICs). Typically, one of these ICs provides an interface to the USB port, another drives the onboard memory, and the other is the flash memory. In electrical and mechanical trades and manufacturing, each of a pair of mating connectors or fasteners is conventionally assigned the designation male or female. ... An electrical connector is a device for joining electrical circuits together. ... Surface-mount components on a keydrives circuit board Surface mount technology (SMT) is a method for constructing electronic circuits in which the components are mounted directly onto the surface of printed circuit boards (PCBs). ... Optical Microscope image of an integrated circuit showing defects in the aluminium layer deposition. ... A USB Flash Memory Device Flash memory is a form of EEPROM(Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) that allows multiple memory locations to be erased or written in one programming operation. ...

This particular flash drive is badly designed: The PCB is too big to fit alongside other USB devices. The connector frequently breaks off when repeatedly forced into a compact USB hub.

Essential components

The parts of a typical flash drive are as follows:

• Male type-A USB connector - provides an interface to the host computer. (item 1 in the diagram)
• USB mass storage controller - implements the USB host controller and provides a seamless linear interface to block-oriented serial flash devices while hiding the complexities of block-orientation, block erasure, and wear balancing. The controller contains a small RISC microprocessor and a small amount of on-chip ROM and RAM. (item 2 in the diagram)
• A NAND flash memory chip - stores data. NAND flash is typically also used in digital cameras. (item 4 in the diagram)
• Crystal oscillator - produces the device's main 12 MHz clock signal and controls the device's data output through a phase-locked loop (the crystal itself is item 5 in the diagram)

Note: USB may also mean upper sideband in radio. ... Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC), is a microprocessor CPU design philosophy that favor a smaller and simpler set of instructions that all take about the same amount of time to execute. ... Read-only memory (ROM) is used as a storage medium in computers. ... Random access memory (sometimes random-access memory), commonly known by its acronym RAM, is a type of computer storage (in practice only computer chips) whose contents can be accessed in any (i. ... A SiPix digital camera next to a matchbox to show scale. ... A crystal oscillator is an electronic circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a physical crystal of piezoelectric material along with an amplifier and feedback to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency. ... In synchronous digital electronics, such as most computers, a clock signal is a signal used to coordinate the actions of two or more circuits. ... In electronics, a phase-locked loop (PLL) is a closed-loop feedback control system that maintains a generated signal in a fixed phase relationship to a reference signal. ...

Additional components

The typical device may also include:

• Jumpers and test pins - for testing during the flash drive's manufacturing or loading code into the microprocessor. (item 3 in the diagram)
• LEDs - indicates data transfers or data reads and writes. (item 6 in the diagram)
• Write-protect switch - indicates whether the device should be in "write-protection" mode. (item 7 in the diagram)
• Unpopulated space - provides space to include a second memory chip. Having this second space allows the manufacturer to develop only one PCB that can be used for more than one storage size device, to meet the needs of the market. (item 8 in the diagram)
• USB connector cover or cap - reduces the risk of damage due to static electricity, improves overall device appearance. Some flash drives do not feature a cap, but instead have retractable USB connectors.
• Transport aid - In some cases, the cap contains the hole suitable for connection to a key chain or lanyard or to otherwise aid transport and storage of the USB flash device. However, this increases the risk of the device being lost during transport. For this reason, most devices now have the hole on the main device body, though this requires the entire keychain to be attached to the computer. Some, therefore, have holes in both places.

Detail from an early model 386 board showing jumpers and shunts In electronics and particularly computing, a jumper is two or more connecting points that can be conveniently shorted together to set up or adjust a printed circuit board, such as a computers motherboard. ... Red, pure green, and blue LEDs. ... Write protection, (also known as record protection) is a mechanism that prevents erasure of valuable data by the accidental recording or storing of new data. ... Close-up photo of one side of a motherboard PCB, showing conductive traces, vias and solder points for through-hole components on the opposite side. ... Static electricity is a class of phenomena involving the net charge present on an object; typically referring to charged object with voltages of sufficient magnitude to produce visible attraction, repulsion, and sparks. ... A key fob is a decorative item which many people carry with their keys, on a ring or a chain, often to provide a better grip or to simply make a personal statement. ... a lanyard fixed on an infantry sabre handle A lanyard is a rope or cord often worn around the neck or wrist to carry something. ...

Strengths and weaknesses

Flash drives are impervious to the scratches and dust that plagued previous forms of portable storage like compact discs and floppy disks, and their durable solid-state design means they often survive casual abuse (impacts, being dropped or crushed, run through a washing machine, or even dropped in coffee). This makes them ideal for transporting personal data or work files from one location to another (such as from home to school or office) or for carrying around personal data that the user typically wants to access in a variety of places. The near-ubiquity of USB support on modern computers means that such a drive will work in most places. However, Windows 98 does not support generic USB mass storage devices out of the box; a separate driver for each manufacturer's USB drive used on the machine must be installed. Versions of Windows 95 with USB support are even worse, with drivers being almost totally unavailable. Interference colors. ... A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a ring of thin, flexible (i. ... Windows 98 (codename Memphis) is a graphical operating system released on June 25, 1998 by Microsoft. ... Windows 95 (codename Chicago) is a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit graphical user interface-based operating system released on August 24, 1995 by the Microsoft Corporation. ...

Flash drives are also a relatively dense form of storage - even the cheapest will store dozens of floppy disks worth of data, and a moderately priced one can hold as much data as a CD or more. Historically, flash drive capacity has ranged from a few megabytes in size up to a few gigabytes. In 2003, most flash drives ran at the USB 1.0/1.1 speeds of 1.5 Mbit/s or 12 Mbit/s. 2004 saw the release of newer flash drives featuring USB 2.0 interfaces. Although USB 2.0 can deliver 480 Mbit/s, these flash drives are limited by the bandwidth of the underlying flash memory device, with maximum read speeds of around 100 Mbit/s and write speeds a little slower. In ideal conditions, the flash memory in the drives can retain data for 10 years. Interference colors. ... A megabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to approximately one million bytes. ... A gigabyte (derived from the SI prefix giga-) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one billion bytes. ... 2003 (MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A megabit per second (mbps or mbit/s) is a unit of data transmission equal to 1,000 kilobits per second or 1,000,000 bits per second. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Flash drives implement the USB mass storage device class, meaning that most modern operating systems can read and write to flash drives without any additional device drivers. Instead of exposing the complex technical detail of the underlying flash memory devices, the flash drives export a simple block-structured logical unit to the host operating system. The OS can use whatever type of filesystem or block addressing scheme it wants. Some computers have the ability to boot up from flash drives, but that capability must be supported in the computer's BIOS, and (like other mass storage devices) the flash drive must be set up to do so and loaded with a bootable disk image (rather than a conventional filesystem image). The USB mass storage device class is a set of computing communications protocols defined by the USB Implementers Forum that run on the Universal Serial Bus. ... In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ... A device driver, often called a driver for short, is a computer program that enables another program, typically, an operating system (OS) (e. ... See Filing system for this term as it is used in libraries and offices In computing, a file system is a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. ... A drawing of the everyday computer. ... A BOOTING is any exercise of the verb to boot. ... This article is about the software. ...

Like all flash memory devices, flash drives can sustain only a limited number of write/erase cycles before failure. In normal use, mid-range flash drives currently on the market will support several million cycles, although write operations will gradually slow as the device ages. This should be a consideration when using a flash drive as a hard drive to run application software or an operating system. To address this (and the space limitations common on flash drives), some developers have produced versions of operating systems (such as Linux) or commonplace applications (such as Mozilla Firefox) designed to run from flash drives. These are typically optimized for size and set up so as to place temporary or intermediate files in memory rather than nonvolatile storage (to avoid excessive writing to the flash memory in the flash drive). Tux, a cartoon penguin frequently featured sitting, is the official Linux mascot. ... Mozilla Firefox is a free, cross-platform, graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation and hundreds of volunteers. ...

A few cheaper USB flash drives have been found to use unsuitable flash memory chips labelled as 'ROM USE ONLY' - these are intended for tasks such as Flash BIOS for Routers rather than for continual rewrite use, and fail after a very small number of cycles. [4] A router is a computer networking device that forwards data packets across an internetwork toward their destinations, through a process known as routing. ...

Size and style of packaging

When purchasing a flash drive, you should consider the size and shape of the casing, as some manufacturers, in an attempt to differentiate themselves, use a stylised and bulky shell which may not allow the flash drive to be inserted into some USB ports, due to limited space around the port. This is particularly an issue with laptops or computers with front USB ports that are deeply recessed (or too close to neighboring ports that are also in use). Most manufacturers supply a USB extension cable (sometimes a slim one, sometimes a normal thick one) to work around this problem, but this is far less convenient to carry around than just the flash drive itself.

Common uses

Network administration

Flash drives are particularly popular among system and network administrators, who load them with configuration information and software used for system maintenance, troubleshooting, and recovery. The external write protect switch on the flash drive is particularly useful, as it allows the system administrator to plug a flash drive containing anti-virus, spyware-removal, or trouble diagnosis software into a suspect machine without risking the transmission of a virus or worm. Write protection, (also known as record protection) is a mechanism that prevents erasure of valuable data by the accidental recording or storing of new data. ... In computer security technology, a virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. ... A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program, similar to a computer virus. ...

Flash drive for applications

Flash drives are used to carry applications that run on the host computer without requiring installation. The Mozilla Firefox browser has a configuration for flash drives. U3, backed by flash drive vendors, offers an API to flash drive-specific functions. airWRX is an application framework that runs from a flash drive and turns its PC host and other nearby PCs into a multi-screen, web-like work environment. Mozilla Firefox is a free, cross-platform, graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation and hundreds of volunteers. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... API redirects here. ...

A Creative MuVo, a small solid-state digital audio player in a flash drive form-factor.

Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 300 KB)Image of a Creative MuVo digital audio player / keydrive A copy of nl:Afbeelding:Usb mp3. ... Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 300 KB)Image of a Creative MuVo digital audio player / keydrive A copy of nl:Afbeelding:Usb mp3. ... 4th Generation Grayscale Apple iPod Creative Zen Micro A digital audio player (DAP) is a device that stores, organizes and plays digital music files. ...

Flash drives as audio players

Many companies make solid-state digital audio players (MP3 players) in a small form factor, essentially producing flash drives with sound output and a simple user interface. The most successful of these have been Apple Computer's iPod shuffle, iPod nano and the Creative Labs MuVo.. In physics, the solid state is one of the three phases of matter (solid, liquid, and gas). ... 4th Generation Grayscale Apple iPod Creative Zen Micro A digital audio player (DAP) is a device that stores, organizes and plays digital music files. ... MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format invented and standardized in 1991 by a team of engineers working in the framework of the ISO/IEC MPEG audio committee under the chairmanship of Professor Hans Musmann (University of Hannover - Germany). ... Form factor refers to the linear dimensions and configuration of a device as distinguished from other measures of size (for example Gigabytes; a measure of storage size): in computing, form factor is used to describe the size and format of PC motherboards (see AT, ATX, BTX), but also of hard... Apple Computer, Inc. ... An iPod shuffle with earphones. ... The iPod nano is Apples fourth digital audio player, combining features of the iPod shuffle and iPod. ... The smaller USB drive section of an updated version of the MuVo - the Creative MuVo TX FM. The Creative Labs MuVo is a Flash memory-drive based digital audio player. ...

Flash drives to boot operating systems

In a way similar to that used in LiveCD, one can launch Linux and other Unix distributions from a bootable flash drive. Gnoppix 0. ... Tux, a cartoon penguin frequently featured sitting, is the official Linux mascot. ... In computing, booting is a bootstrapping process that starts operating systems when the user turns on a computer system. ...

Security

Some flash drives feature encryption of the data stored on them, generally using an encrypted filesystem rather than a conventional one. This prevents an unauthorized person (who has found or stolen the drive) from accessing confidential data stored on it. The disadvantage of this is that the drive is accessible only in the minority of computers which have the same encryption software (for which no portable standard is widely deployed) unless the encryption software is stored unencrypted on the drive, and the user must carry the (large, and frequently impossible-to-remember) cryptographic key around by some other means. Disk encryption is a computer security technique that encrypts data stored on a computers mass storage and automatically decrypts the information when an authorized user requests it. ... A key is a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm. ...

Some encryption applications (such as TrueCrypt, CryptoBuddy, and Private Disk) allow running without installation. The executable files can be stored on the USB drive, together with the encrypted file-image. The encrypted partition can be accessed on any computer running Microsoft Windows. The newer Lexar JumpDrive Secure allows the user to configure secure and public partitions of different sizes. Executable files for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux are usually included on the drive. TrueCrypt is a free open source on-the-fly encryption (OTFE) program for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows XP/2000/2003 and (Linux. ... Microsoft Windows refers to a series of operating environments and operating systems created by Microsoft for use on personal computers and servers. ...

Newer flash drives support biometric fingerprinting to confirm the user's identity. As of mid-2005, this was a relatively costly alternative to standard password protection offered on many new USB flash storage devices.

Some manufacturers deploy physical authentication tokens in the form of a flash drive. These are used to control access to a sensitive system by containing encryption keys or (more commonly) communicating with security software on the target machine. The system is designed so the target machine will not operate except when the flash drive device is plugged into it. Some of these "PC lock" devices also function as normal flash drives when plugged into other machines.

Flash drives present a significant security challenge for large organisations. Their small size and ease of use allows unsupervised visitors or unscrupulous employees to smuggle confidential data out with little chance of detection. Equally, corporate and public computers alike are vulnerable to attackers connecting a flash drive to a free USB port and uploading hacking software such as rootkits or packet sniffers. To prevent this some organisations (particularly government departments and larger corporations) forbid the use of flash drives, and some computers are configured to disable the mounting of USB mass storage devices by ordinary users (a feature found only belatedly on Windows XP, being introduced only in its second service pack). In a lower-tech security solution, some organizations disconnect USB ports inside the computer or fill the USB sockets with epoxy. It is very difficult to get vendor ID and Product ID of the USB drives used in a computer. Some system administrators use Devicelock software to control usb usages. A rootkit is a set of software tools frequently used by a third party (usually an intruder) after gaining access to a computer system. ... Packet sniffers (also known as network analyzers or Ethernet sniffers) are software programs (usually) or computer hardware which can intercept and log traffic passing over a computer network or part of a network. ... Windows XP is a major revision of the Microsoft Windows operating system created for use on desktop and business computer systems. ... Epoxy or polyepoxide is a thermosetting epoxide polymer that cures when mixed with a catalyzing agent or hardener. Most common epoxy resins are produced from a reaction between epichlorohydrin and bisphenol-A. The first commercial attempts to prepare resins from epichlorohydrin occurred in 1927 in the United States. ...

Naming confusion

No commonly recognized term for these devices has emerged. The resulting confusion makes them more difficult for manufacturers to market and for consumers to research. This problem may have slowed the adoption of this technology. Manufacturing is the transformation of raw materials into finished goods for sale, or intermediate processes involving the production or finishing of semi-manufactures. ... Marketing is the process of planning and executing the pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods, ideas, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals. ... In economics, consumers are individuals or households that consume goods and services generated within the economy. ...

All of the following names (optionally prefixed with "USB") have been used:

• chubidubi - primarily in Cuban Spanish
• data stick
• data key
• disk on key
• dongle - regarded by some as an inaccurate use of this word
• doofer - Commonly used in Northern Ireland. Is also be used to describe various small electronic devices (Almost always prefixed with "USB").
• finger drive
• flash disk
• flash drive
• flash memory drive
• gigachip
• geek stick - used by Geek Squad agents to refer to the special-use, branded USB flash drives with special diagnostic tools pre-loaded onto them.
• jump drive - a trademarked name used by Lexar
• key
• keychain drive
• keydrive
• keyfob - widely used in the Seattle area
• magic key
• magic stick - common in some Ohio towns
• memory key
• memory stick - inaccurate use of a Sony trademark (Memory Stick, capitalized) for a non-USB proprietary flash memory module
• micro hard drive
• mobile drive
• nerd necklace - used when worn around the neck
• nerd stick - uncommon term
• pen drive
• piripicho (primarily in South American Spanish)
• pocket drive
• stick
• thumb drive
• thumb key
• USB - sometimes used as a shorthand
• vault drive - Sony's USB storage devices started using this name in March 2005

In the computer industry, the word dongle can refer to a small hardware device that connects to a computer and acts as an authentication key for a particular piece of software. ... Royal motto: Quis separabit (Latin: Who will separate?) Northern Irelands location within the UK Official languages English, Irish, Ulster Scots Capital and largest city Belfast First Minister Office suspended Area  - Total Ranked 4th 13,843 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 4th 1,685,267 122/km² NUTS 1... A Geek Squad badge A Geek Squad uniform The Geek Squad is a company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that was founded in 1994 by Robert Stephens. ... City nickname Emerald City City bird Great Blue Heron City flower Dahlia City mottos The City of Flowers The City of Goodwill City song Seattle, the Peerless City Mayor Greg Nickels County King County Area   - Total   - Land   - Water   - % water 369. ... Sony Corporation (Japanese katakana: ソニー) (TYO: 6758 , NYSE: SNE) is a global Japanese consumer electronics corporation based in Tokyo, Japan. ... A trademark (Commonwealth English: trade mark) is a distinctive sign of some kind which is used by a business to uniquely identify itself and its products and services to consumers, and to distinguish the business and its products or services from those of other businesses. ... 128 MB Memory Stick with MagicGate support Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, launched by Sony in October 1998, and is also used in general to describe the whole family of Memory Sticks. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ...

Comparison to other portable memory forms

Flash storage devices are best compared to other common, portable, swappable data storage devices: floppy disks, Zip disks, and CD-R/CD-RW discs. 3.5 inch floppy disks and Iomega Zip disks are still available as of late 2005, despite their declining popularity. While for many purposes it would be ideal to transport files between computers wirelessly, not all computers are equipped with wireless cards, and networks are not readily available. A CD-R (Compact Disc-Recordable) is variation of the Compact Disc digital audio disc invented by Philips and Sony. ... Compact Disc ReWritable (CD-RW) is a rewritable optical disc format. ... The Iomega Corporation NYSE: IOM is a supplier of portable computer storage devices and media. ... Later (USB, left) and earlier (parallel, right) Zip drives (media in foreground). ...

Floppy disks were the first publicly-popular method of file transport, but have essentially become obsolete due to their low capacity (1.44 MB) and relatively low speed. Virtually all new computers include USB ports, and many of them are now sold without a floppy drive (the Apple iMac being the first to ship this way). Floppy disks are still in use because of their low cost and ease of use with older systems (particularly Windows 98, which is still fairly common and cannot support USB flash drives without extra drivers). Attempts to extend the floppy standard (such as the Imation SuperDisk) were not successful because of a reputation for unreliablity and the lack of a single standard for PC vendors to adopt. A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a ring of thin, flexible (i. ... The current Front Row iMac G5 The iMac is a desktop personal computer designed and built by Apple Computer. ... Windows 98 (codename Memphis) is a graphical operating system released on June 25, 1998 by Microsoft. ... This article is about the American company, for the Russian company involved in a pyramid scheme, see MMM (pyramid) 3M Company (NYSE: MMM) (until 2002 formally Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) is an American corporation with a worldwide presence that produces over 55,000 products, including adhesives, abrasives, laminates, electronic... Also known as the LS-120 and the later variant LS-240, the SuperDisk was introduced by 3Ms storage products group (later known as Imation) circa 1997 as a high-speed, high-capacity alternative to the 9cm (3. ...

The Iomega zip drive enjoyed some popularity, but never reached the point of ubiquity in computers. Also, the larger sizes of Zip (now up to 750MB) cannot be read on older drives. Therefore, unless one were to carry around an external drive (and possibly drivers, cables, etc.), their usefulness as a means of moving data was rather limited. The cost per megabyte was fairly high (though admittedly cheaper than flash), with individual disks often priced at $10 USD or higher. Because the material used for creating the storage medium in Zip disks is similar to that used in floppy disks, Zip disks have a higher risk of failure (such as the click of death) and data loss. Larger removable storage media, like Iomega's Jaz drive, had even higher costs (both in drives and in media), and as such were never really feasible as a floppy alternative. The Iomega Corporation NYSE: IOM is a supplier of portable computer storage devices and media. ... Later (USB, left) and earlier (parallel, right) Zip drives (media in foreground). ... Click of death - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... The Jaz drive was a removable disk storage system, introduced by the Iomega company. ...

CD-R and CD-RW are swappable storage media alternatives. Unlike Zip and floppy drives, DVD and CD recorders are increasingly common in personal computer systems. CD-Rs can only be written to once, and the more expensive CD-RWs are only rated up to 1,000 erase/write cycles, whereas modern NAND-based flash drives often last for 500,000 or more erase/write cycles. Optical storage devices are also usually slower than their flash-based counterparts. Compact discs can also be inconveniently large and, unlike flash drives, cannot fit into a pocket or hang from a keychain. There is also no standard file system for rewriteable optical media; packet-writing utilities like DirectCD and InCD exist, but produce discs that are not universally readable, despite claiming to be based on the UDF standard. The upcoming Mount Rainier standard addresses this shortcoming in CD-RW media, but is still not supported by most DVD and CD recorders or major operating systems. A CD-R (Compact Disc-Recordable) is variation of the Compact Disc digital audio disc invented by Philips and Sony. ... Compact Disc ReWritable (CD-RW) is a rewritable optical disc format. ... A CD-R (Compact Disc-Recordable) is a thin (1. ... DirectCD is packet writing software, originally from Adaptec and now supported by Roxio. ... InCD is packet writing software by Nero AG for Microsoft Windows. ... For other less-common meanings of UDF, see UDF (disambiguation). ... Mount Rainier is an expansion to the Universal Disk Format (UDF). ... Compact Disc ReWritable (CD-RW) is a rewritable optical disc format. ... A CD-R (Compact Disc-Recordable) is a thin (1. ...

Flash storage devices, compared to other storage media, are fast, high-capacity, durable, and compact. Also, traditional removable media cannot make incremental improvements due to the need for drive/disk compatibility, instead improving in infrequent but large steps. Since flash drives have a generic USB interface (and no user separable parts beyond it), manufacturers can use technical improvements (such as larger and faster flash memory chips or controllers) as soon as they are available without compromising backwards compatibility. Furthermore, unlike Zip and floppies, flash memory lacks moving parts, making it ideal as a simple solution, requiring only a port to interact with a system. The popularity of flash storage devices may be attributed to their compact size, operating system compatibility, and their use of the standard USB interface. In technology (especially computing), backward compatibility has several related but differing meanings: A system is backward compatible if it is compatible with earlier versions of itself, or sometimes other earlier systems, particularly systems it intends to supplant. ...

Future developments

Semiconductors corporations have striven to radically reduce the cost of the components in a flash drive by integrating various flash drive functions in a single chip, thereby reducing the part-count and overall package cost. As of 2004, some manufacturers plan to include more ICs so that the storage and logic/communications functions are packaged in a single ultra-low-cost device. 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In efforts to focus on increasing capacities, 32MB and smaller capacity flash memory has been largely discontinued, and 64MB capacity flash memory is being phased out.

Trivia

In 2004, the German punk band WIZO was the first artist to release music in MP3 format on a USB drive titled the "WIZO Stick-EP." 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... WIZO (pronounced Vee-Zoh) is a Punk Rock band from Sindelfingen, Germany. ...

See also

• USB Flash Drive Alliance
• List of Portable Applications
• Pocket hard drive
• Sneakernet
• Cfdisk

The USB Flash Drive Alliance, founded in December 2003 by Samsung, Lexar Media, Kingston Technology and others, is promoting the use of USB flash drives (also called keydrives). ... A portable appplication is a software program that you can carry around with you on a portable device, such as a USB flash drive and use on any computer without necessarily modifying that computers hard disk. ... The pocket hard drive is a higher capacity variant of the flash drive. ... SneakerNet is the term used (generally with ironic intent) for transfer of electronic information (see: computer file) by physically carrying removable media (magnetic tape, floppy disks, compact discs) from one personal computer to another. ... cfdisk is a curses-based disk partition table manipulator for Linux. ...

External links

Keydrive applications

• Bootdisk-Images - Bootdisks for using them on the USB-Drive
• USBApps - Listing of USB keydrive applications
• TinyApps - Tiny applications for your USB keydrive
• Sony Apps - Sony applications for your USB keydrive
• StandAlone - Stand alone applications for your USB keydrive
• airWRX - USB Keydrive application framework
• kikizas.net - Freeware programs to run from a USB stick
• Portable Freeware - The Portable Freeware Collection
• RUNT - ResNet Network Tester for USB Keydrives
• CryptoStick Software - Encryption, Private Internet Browsing, PestPatrol, all for your USB Device
• Dekart Private Disk - User-friendly disk encryption software for Windows XP/9x/2000 - AES 256 bit encryption
• Truecrypt - Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows XP/2000/2003
• KeePass Password Safe - Password management utility (use the ZIP version)
• Gaim - a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows.
• Portable WXtrack - Portable Visual Satellite tracking software
• Portable OpenOffice - A complete office suite for your USB pen drive
• Portable AbiWord - the popular word processor AbiWord optimized for USB pen drive use
• Portable Mozilla Stuff
  • Portable Firefox - Web browser
  • Portable Thunderbird - Email
  • Portable Thunerbird with Enigmail and GPG - Email plus built in encryption
  • Portable Sunbird - Calendar application
  • Portable NVU - Complete Web Authoring System
• Web Server on a Stick - Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Typo3 CMS

HOWTO pages

• Encrypted thumb drive and autoplay howto - Open source tools and a very clear walkthrough
• Combining encryption and mobility howto - A guide on using Portable Firefox, Thunderbird, Instant Messenger in a secure way

GNU/Linux distributions for USB

• Damn Small Linux (DSL), a small derivative of Knoppix, tailored to USB.
• Knoppix USB Based.
• Featherlinux - distribution specifically created for USB sticks
• Flash-Puppy a mature distro designed for keydrives
• Generic Howto on USB booting, incl. with using a floppy/CD for the initial boot if the BIOS does not support USB
• Installing Debian from a USB stick
• LiveDistro.org - Operating systems and HOWTOs for LiveUSBs
• Minimalistic SLAX versions
• USB on Linux