USB Flash Drives

USB Flash drives have become increasingly popular and more widely used in recent years. Having started off with very small capacities, they have now reached a whopping 256GB and you can commonly buy 8GB and 16GB drives at very competitive prices.

What makes them so attractive is their size. Typically they can be attached to your key ring and so provide great portability and convenience taking them wherever you go. This also potentially has its downside in that they can be easily mislaid if carried separately. If you have sensitive data saved on the drive you would be advised to buy one that has encryption protection. That way at least if you do lose the drive your data and identity will not be compromised saving you from a lot of worry hassle. Some drives now have 256 bit encryption that make them equivalent to military level security. This is done by a separate partition that is locked when the drive is detached from the computer and only unlocked when a password is entered.

One other factor that previously detracted from the widespread usage of USB Flash drives was the speed of transfer, particularly as drive capacities increased. Transferring large files could be quite slow when copying onto the drive, however with the introduction of USB 3.0 becoming more common, this should no longer be an issue. You would definitely be better off opting for USB 3.0 if the drive you are buying is in excess of 64GB in capacity. Obviously this would only work if the desktop or laptop USB connection is also USB 3.0.

Although technically USB Flash drives are not external hard drives, the rapid rise in their storage capacity now makes them a viable alternative as a portable external drive and as such can be considered an option when making a purchase.