No your computers NOT trying to hitch a ride with a USB Thumb Drive!

I cannot believe it. I would have thought that everyone would know all about these handy little gadgets by now, but I still keep getting asked what a USB Flash (or Thumb) Drive is, whats it for, and why do I need one. Hence the reason for this post in the "Todays Technology info for those Not in the Know" blog.


Well first a little background info.

The term "Thumb Drive" derives from the first Flash Drive made by a Singapore company back in 2000 who dubbed it the "Thumb Drive", and the name stuck for a while. IBM was really the first company to market in the US the same year with its Flash Drive dubbed "DiskOnKey".

I'm sure you remember the days of saving files to a floppy disk at a maximum storage of 1.44mb, then for a short while we got a larger version "Zip Drive" holding a whopping 100mb of storage.

(Just for reference for those who don't have a clue about digital storage space:

1000bytes = 1kb (kilobyte): 1000kb = 1mb (megabyte): 1000mb = 1gb (gigabyte): 1000gb = 1tb (terabyte)

The average generic text file is usually at least a couple KB in size. The average Word Document file is usually at least 1 MB in size. A Digital Photo can vary from a couple hundred KB to a few MB depending the picture resolution. The average Music File can vary from 2-20MB depending on the saved file format. The average digital home video clip can range from a couple MB to nearly a GB in size. The average full length DVD movie is usually around 2-3GB or an HD movie is at 4-7GB in size.)

Next came the Writable CD-Rom (CD-R) drive giving us 650 - 700mb of storage, but you can only Write on them once, so then we got the Re-Writable CD-Rom (CD-RW) Drives that gave us the ability to Re-Write a CD that you can fully erase and re-use approximately 1000 times or you can format it so you can keep it in the drive and delete individual files and write new ones without erasing the entire disk, but formatted it only held 350mb, but still more then a Zip Drive.

Then we got the Writable DVD-Rom (DVD-R) drive giving us 4GB of storage, then the Dual Layer DVD-Rom (DVD-R_DL) drive giving us 7.5GB of storage, again only to be written on once. Not so handy to grab a bunch files and take to work or a friends then re-use again.

That was the main problem with the larger capacity Optical Rom Drives, they held quite a bit of storage, but mostly to be used once for data backup (or maybe more times for long term storage), but to just grab a couple larger files from work or from home and take elsewhere was quite a pain, and wasteful.

Next we got the USB External Harddrives giving us much more storage capacity (today up to 2TB) that we can re-use over and over, great for entire system backups, and of system file storage, but still not to great to grab a few files and take elsewhere. Sure you can unplug it and just go, but the problem is that you have to be very careful not to drop it or jar it (especially when powered up) or you can damage the mechanical moving parts or even the disk itself where the data is stored. Not to mention its still a little big and bulky to be carrying around, and you have to have somewhere to plug in the power cord to use it.

Now we have the USB Flash Drive. Currently not quite as much storage capacity as the USB external harddrive (capacities range from 1mb - 256GB), but very portable. there small enough to put on a keychain, do not require a power plug, and they have to mechanical or moving parts to damage. All the data is stored on a chip, and the transfer rate at which the computer can read write files to and from the newest USB 2.0 (and soon USB 3.0) drive is much faster than any other drive to date. Not to mention the cost per MB is really inexpensive. Simply plug the drive into a free USB port, the computer sees it as yet another storage drive, copy files to it, unplug it, stick in your pocket and go.

I keep all of my all of my handy dandy computer repair utilities on one flash drive and personal or work related transfer files on another.