The data storage drive consisting of flash memory with an internal USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface is known as a USB flash drive. These drivers are removable and rewritable as well, and appear smaller than an optical disc. Most of the USB flash drives weigh less than 30 grams (that is 1.1 oz). By the month of January, 2013, around 512 GB (gigabytes) USB drives were available. At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2013, a one Terabyte (TB) drive was introduced that became available in the market the same year. Soon, USBs with storage capacities that would be as large as 2 TB are currently planned with various improvements in size and price. Some of the drives also let you enjoy 100,000 write and erase cycles. However, this depends on the kind of memory chip used. These devices have storage time of 10 year shelf.
USB drives are generally used for similar purposes for which floppy disks or CDs were used, that are for the purposes of storage, transfer of computer files and back up as well. They are small, quicker and have more capacity than CDs and are even more reliable and durable as they don’t have any moving parts. Moreover, they are not influenced by magnetic interference (whereas floppy disks are influenced by the same) and are not at all harmed by surface scratches as well. Till the year 2005, most laptops as well as desktop computers were provided with floppy disk drives along with USB ports but now floppy disk drives are not widely used since they have lower capacity when compared to USB drives.
USB mass storage standard is used by USB flash drives and these are supported by modern operation systems like OS X, Linus, UNIX, Windows, BIOS boot ROMs, etc. These drives with USB 2.0 feature can store larger data and transfer quicker than several larger optical disc drives like DVD RW or CD RW drives. These drives can be read by several systems like Xbox 360, DVD players, handheld devices like smartphones, tablet computers, Plat station 3, etc., although SD card is better for such devices.
Small printed circuit board consisting of various circuit elements, USB connector, electrically insulated and protected in a metal, rubber or plastic case that can be carried anywhere like a key chain, are some things that a flash drive has. The removable cap may be given to protect the USB connector or it is generally done by retracting it into the drive’s body. However, even if it is not protected, it doesn’t get damaged easily. Most of the flash drives have type A USB connected that lets the drive connect with the port on a PC, however, there’s an existence of drives for other interfaces as well. With the help of a USB connection, USB flash drives gather power to work. Some of the devices club the digital audio player function with USB flash storage. Such devices need a better battery when they are used to play music for users.