USB Thumb Drives

What is a Flash Drive?

USB Flash Drives are compact and easy-to-use devices that are similar in use to your computer hard drive. USB flash drives slip into your pocket, conveniently around your neck, or on a keychain for the ultimate portable storage.

Despite the different brands and names you’ve heard for USB flash drives – Jump Drives, Pocket Drives™, Pen Drives™, and Thumb Drives™ - they all pretty much operate the same way. The difference is mostly in price, capacity, design, functions, and features (for example, some even have built-in MP3 players). What’s really important, though, is what they share: they’re all pluggable, portable, and powerful.

• USB flash drives share some other characteristics, too:
• USB flash drives are getting smaller every year, some the size of a car key.
• USB flash drives can hold large amounts of data.
• If you share a computer, USB flash drives are a great way to store personal information.
• According to the manufacturer’s specs, USB flash drives can maintain data for 10 years.
• However, as with anything physical, they can and do fail. Make sure you use them as temporary storage or back up the data.

Safe Removal of USB Flash Drives

• Click on the right mouse button on the USB flash drive icons on the toolbar
• Click on the “safely remove hardware” message that pops up
• The dialog box will pop up. Click stop.
• The “stop a hardware device” dialog box will appear, asking you to confirm. Click “Ok.”
• A message will appear on the toolbar informing you that the USB flash drive can be safely removed.
• Remove your USB drive from the port.