subject: Thumb Drives [print this page] Call it a thumb drive, or a flash drive, or a jump drive, the USB drive is now ubiquitous enough to be recognized by even the most casual of computer system users. Flash drives can be cheap enough to manufacture and convenient enough to carry that they've become the go-to item for promotions and trade shows. Colleges give them out in their orientation packets, exhibitors at conventions hand them out by the bucket, and musicians leave them in conspicuous places as viral marketing. But what many people do not realize is that not all USB drives and devices are created equal, above and beyond the mere difference of capacity.
USB 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0
To use a personal example, a few weeks ago a friend gave me a flash drive containing some rather large files. I opened up the front panel of my computer system, plugged the drive into the port, and tried to copy the files over to my desktop, only to find that the transfer was going to take a surprising estimate of two hours. Frowning, I unplugged the drive and stuck it in one of the USB ports in the back of the computer to try again, and my new transfer time was more around two minutes.
How does that work? It's pretty common, actually: improvements in hardware over the years have made for varying tiers of USB devices. USB 1.0 and 1.1, released in the late 90s, transfer data at a fairly slow rate compared to the the current standard of USB 2.0, that is about forty times faster than its predecessors (1.5 and 12 megabits per second for 1.0 and 1.1 respectively compared to 480 megabits per second under 2.0). Though most existing computers dont have the hardware to support the incoming USB 3.0 standard (that marks roughly a tenfold improvement in speed over 2.0), as early as January 2010 manufacturers began showing their 3.0 devices. The key thing to keep in mind regarding USB devices is usually that while you can generally achieve backward compatibility when it comes to plugging a higher tier device into a lower tier port, youre still limited by the speed of the port - hence my vast gap in transfer times.
Pre-loaded applications
Quite a few models of drives come with preloaded applications with the intent of allowing portable applications, the most notable of which would be the U3 software which comes with a great deal of SanDisk models. This design allows the user to run programs directly from the Flash drive without installing them onto the computer system directly. While newer users may find this helpful, some more experienced users prefer to remove the software both in order to open up more of the drives capacity and to remove the potential security risk posed.
Scam drives
If the dread of having to remove pre-loaded applications or the allure of a lower price point drives you to seek out generic brand flash drives or purchasing secondhand drives online, you can want to reconsider your choice. Though most generic brand drives are legitimate if a bit shoddily made, there are some drives which pack a hidden surprise. The drive claims a certain capacity, and when you plug the drive into the computer software on the drive tricks the computer into displaying that capacity. However, when you begin to fill up the drive the ruse is revealed: the drive is actually a much lower capacity and youve been scammed. This mostly happens on eBay with generic brands, however there are a large number counterfeit brand-name drives that
All told
So, to sum up: make sure that your ports as well as your drives match up when it comes to protocol, make sure to purchase your drives from a reputable source, and decide for yourself regardless of whether you want onboard software or a blank drive. Finally, no matter what you do, try not to consider why they dont simply put the chip part in the middle of the plug for a symmetrical design so that you dont always try to plug it in the wrong way the first time. That way lies madness.
