Today, without information technology, the entire economy would grind to a halt. We simply cannot even dream of a world without digital devices such as computers, laptops, digital cameras and mobile phones. All these devices rely on the power of silicon processors and an operating system to execute a variety of tasks. These devices churn out a huge amount of data in their routine operations.

The main (primary) device to store this data in computers is the hard disk. It cannot be removed and is fixed inside the CPU. This poses problems in transporting the data from one place to another. For this, a range of removable storage media exist such as portable hard disks, CDs, DVDs, tape drives and floppy disks.

Optical disks such as compact disks (CDs) and Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs) have been ruling the world of portable storage devices for many years now. Billions of these disks have been produced and there is hardly any computer in the world today which does not have optical disk drives.

In the last six or seven years, however, a brand new portable storage device has emerged – the USB (Universal Serial Bus) drive. They have become so popular that in the US alone, 150 million are getting purchased every year by computer users. USB drives have truly shaken the portable digital storage media industry and have become a mass market product.

USB drives are so small that they are referred to as thumb drives because they are no bigger than a human thumb. Each USB drive is made up of a case of tough plastic or metal. Inside is a printed circuit board that contains NAND flash memory to store digital data. The entire assembly has a single USB connector that protrudes out of the drive body on one of its ends.

This, in turn, remains capped for protection when not in use. The connector goes inside the USB port of a personal computer so that data in the drive can be accessed. USB drives offer solid-state memory and there are absolutely no mechanical or moving parts inside.

Benefits of USB Drives

Extreme Portability: USB drives are very small and can easily fit into the palm of your hand. These can be dangled from a key chain or from a chain around your neck. They are quite lightweight and can be easily carried anywhere. They truly provide good value for money.

Security: USB drives due to their small size provide data security. You can easily conceal them anywhere and nobody would even get to know that you are carrying a huge amount of data on your person. Wherever you go, you can take your confidential data with you.

High Capacity: Ordinarily available USB drives have a capacity of 1 GB. If your data storage needs are more, drives of up to 8GB are also available. Some state-of-the-art high-end drives can have a whopping capacity of 50 GB or even more! USB drives provide very dense data storage and boast of high capacities that are truly out of proportion to their small size. Now you can get rid of those unwieldy dozens of CDs that you have stacked up on your computer table.

Ease of Use: USB drives are easy and flexible to use. Their USB interface allows “hot-swapping” or plug-and-play, that is, you can just connect them to a computer that is running, and it will be instantly recognised by the operating system. You can then begin using the drive for storing or modifying the data it contains. Unlike parallel or serial ports, USB interface, especially USB 2, allows very fast data transfer speeds and can be used without any fuss.

versal Usage: The wide availability of USB ports on computers ensures that USB drives can be used anywhere in the world with any machine. All operating systems today carry built-in support for USB drives and you do not need any software drivers to be loaded before you can use them. Just plug the USB drive in and start using it right away.

Durable: The tough plastic metal casing of the USB drives ensures that it suffers minimum damage because of exposure to the elements. Some USB drives are known to work even after getting submerged in water! They are quite durable and can be used safely for a number of years. There is no danger of the drive developing any mechanical fault as it has no moving parts.

Rewritable: USB drives are eminently rewritable. In fact, you can write and rewrite on them up to five times more than a CD-RW! Because of this, there is already some talk of high-capacity USB drives replacing hard drives in laptops in the near future due to their low power consumption (as it has no moving parts).

Ideal for Data Backup:drives make ideal media for taking backups or transferring data from one place to another. They are small, light and durable and have very good rewrite capabilities. Their cost is getting more and more competitive with time and, in the next couple of years, they are poised to challenge optical disks as portable storage media of choice.