22 November 2010
USB flash drives a.k.a memory sticks, USB sticks, USB memo keys, and pen drives are hugely popular these days due to their compact, sleek and very portable nature. CD-Rs and DVD-Rs by comparison require bulky cases to carry and even then, run the risk of getting broken, scratched or damaged. USB drives also have the convenience of being encased in robust material, making it impervious to scratches and dust. They are generally water-proof and pretty unbreakable, too. Already the tech world is abuzz with excitement over USB flash drives which have been drowned in water but after drying out still remained working.
Soon USB flash drives will store up to 256 GB, comparable to external desktop hard drives.
USB flash drives can be accommodated by virtually every computer today. They store data of amazing density, even more than DVDs or blu-ray discs. Compared to hard drives, they use very little power and have a very long working lifespan. While CD-Rs, DVD-Rs and –RW types only function for up to 1000 erase and write cycles, USB flash drives can go to 500,000 or more cycles with an astounding 10-year data retention capacity.
The future of USB flash drives is even brighter as semi-conductor corporations, realising the potential of this product, have feverishly worked to bring down the prices of its components by incorporating into one single chip the various flash drive functions. Furthermore, work is underway for USB flash drives that can store up to 256 GB, comparable to external desktop hard drives.
USB flash drives are now everywhere, being used by employees to bring work to the office, by students to store anything from lessons to music and photos, by businesses to showcase their brands and services and by music artists to market their soundtrack albums.
A serious downside with USB flash drives is that they are small enough to lose. They can slip from your pocket, get stuck in your pocket and end up in the washing machine or simply get lost in a drawer full of little trinkets.
As USB flash drives become larger in storage size, we tend to store more and more important things on them, exposing this data to the numerous potential hazards such as virus attacks, accidental deletion of the files and forgetting of the passwords on password-protected areas of the flash drive.
When the worst happens, and your USB flash drive fails, isn’t recognised by your computer, or is even physically damaged, speak to the data recovery experts here at Kingdom Data Recovery who regularly rescue files and data from failed USB flash drives, much to their owners relief.
