UniYatra BlogGadgets: USB Flash Disk
Flash Disk, USB flash disk, flash drive, thumb drive? Any of these terms sound familiar?
If you haven't tried one, you'll be amazed by the small size, simplicity and usability of these devices. You can plug a USB flash drive into just about any computer and use it just like a floppy disk (just faster, more reliable, and with larger capacity).
Maybe you are interested in the technology behind these devices?
For over two years I have been using a variety of flash disks from SANDISK, their 128MB version, 256MB version, and 1 gigabyte version.Right now, a great price point is the 1GB SANDISK Flash Disk. The 1GB model was originally priced around $300, but you can find them now for under $80.
USB flash disks do have some limitations, though. They do not last forever and can, especially after being used for a while, fail or corrupt information you store on them. My USB flash disks have failed twice. The first time, I lost several files; they just disappeared after I tried to copy some files to it. The second time, I lost a large email archive I had stored. No warning, no errors, just *gone*.
So, think carefully about how you use a USB flash disk. One of its most convenient uses is to carry critical files with you when you go back and forth from home to the office or when you are travelling. As much of a pain as it is to make backups, save the information on your USB flash disk regularly and often. I use a free program called SyncBack. It can either backup or synchronize the files on your USB flash disk (or any other disk for that matter).
Also, remember one of the most important points of using removable storage devices: when you are done, stop the device from Windows before disconnecting it. A quick, illustrated how-to can be found on this How To Remove A USB Device web page.
You can scope out the features and performance of different USB flash disk models in the ArsTechnica "Son of the USB 2.0 Hi-speed Flash drive roundup" article.
If you are looking for something else to do with your USB flash disk besides store files, check out Portable Firefox and Portable Thunderbird. These hacked versions of your favorite Firefox and Thunderbird will run completely off the USB flash disk -- convenient when you're traveling or wanting to check your email with your own email client at an Internet Cafe.
In a future post, I will write about options for encrpyting information on your USB flash disk or other storage device.
If you haven't tried one, you'll be amazed by the small size, simplicity and usability of these devices. You can plug a USB flash drive into just about any computer and use it just like a floppy disk (just faster, more reliable, and with larger capacity).
Maybe you are interested in the technology behind these devices?
For over two years I have been using a variety of flash disks from SANDISK, their 128MB version, 256MB version, and 1 gigabyte version.Right now, a great price point is the 1GB SANDISK Flash Disk. The 1GB model was originally priced around $300, but you can find them now for under $80.USB flash disks do have some limitations, though. They do not last forever and can, especially after being used for a while, fail or corrupt information you store on them. My USB flash disks have failed twice. The first time, I lost several files; they just disappeared after I tried to copy some files to it. The second time, I lost a large email archive I had stored. No warning, no errors, just *gone*.
So, think carefully about how you use a USB flash disk. One of its most convenient uses is to carry critical files with you when you go back and forth from home to the office or when you are travelling. As much of a pain as it is to make backups, save the information on your USB flash disk regularly and often. I use a free program called SyncBack. It can either backup or synchronize the files on your USB flash disk (or any other disk for that matter).
Also, remember one of the most important points of using removable storage devices: when you are done, stop the device from Windows before disconnecting it. A quick, illustrated how-to can be found on this How To Remove A USB Device web page.
You can scope out the features and performance of different USB flash disk models in the ArsTechnica "Son of the USB 2.0 Hi-speed Flash drive roundup" article.
If you are looking for something else to do with your USB flash disk besides store files, check out Portable Firefox and Portable Thunderbird. These hacked versions of your favorite Firefox and Thunderbird will run completely off the USB flash disk -- convenient when you're traveling or wanting to check your email with your own email client at an Internet Cafe.
In a future post, I will write about options for encrpyting information on your USB flash disk or other storage device.
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