The Role of Thumb Drives

Contributed by Jay Schroyer

Physically transporting computer files from one computer to another has evolved drastically over the past two decades. Years ago you had two options for taking information from one computer to another: the 3-1/2” and 5-1/4” floppy disks. These formats had a slew of limitations including small memory capacities, inconvenient shape and sizing, slow access and transfer rates, and were quick to break or corrupt on you when you needed them most. As non-solid state forms of data storage, they were subject to physical malfunctions that could completely ruin weeks and even months of hard work.

One day, someone got the bright idea of creating a hard disk drive that you could take with you so that you could quickly and safely take your information from one place to another. And thus the thumb drive was born. Also known as a jump drive or memory stick, the thumb drive revolutionized the way that data is stored, shared, and transported.

Thumb drives work the same way that you computer hard drive works. You can save and delete any type of file to the drive, but the difference is that you can take it with you. The drive does not rely on the rest of the computer to function. As long as the computer you’re using has a USB port, you can plug the thumb drive in and Windows® will instantly recognize it. The drive will appear in the computers list of disk drives and you can click and drag files of all sorts to it for storage.

Thumb drives are extremely fast and you can easily save a gigabyte of information to a drive in a matter of minutes. Your USB port version will also affect how quickly you can transfer data to the thumb drive. Most computers before 2000 feature 1.1 ports with later models utilizing the 2.0 which is rated at up to 480 mb per second. The computer will actually give you a time estimate when you begin transferring files.

Thumb drives come in all sorts of storage capacity sizes. I’ve seen ones as small as 8 megabytes and ones as large as 2 gigabytes. With each larger drive that comes out, the cost of the smaller ones decrease. Currently, you can get a 1-gigabyte drive for as little as $50. This is a small price to pay for the safety and convenience that a thumb drive provides.

Size and shape can vary, but for the most part, thumb drives are about three inches in length, three-quarters of an inch wide, and half an inch thick. They look like small disposable cigarette lighters. Some feature a removable cap that covers the USB connector and others feature a retractable connector. The retractable models are popular as they prevent you from misplacing the cap. Most come with a lanyard of some type so that the drive can be worn about the neck, but because of their small size, you could easily fit them into a shirt pocket or even on your key ring. They’re outer covering is a tough plastic that can withstand accidental falls and other pressures that may befall the thumb drive.

The best part about thumb drives is that you don’t need computer-learning software to figure out how to use them. They are literally a plug and play device that requires no driver installation or configuration.

To keep your thumb drive a safe and reliable form of data storage, manufacturers recommend that when removing the drive from your USB port that you stop all activity on the drive. Whenever you plug in a thumb drive, a tiny icon featuring a square and a green arrow will appear at the bottom of your Windows screen in the toolbar. When you’re ready to remove the drive, double-click on this icon and a window will appear listing the portable devices currently attached to your computer. Choose your thumb drive and press the “Stop” key to tell the computer to halt all activity involving that drive. The computer will then tell you that you can safely remove the drive. If it tells you that the drive is busy, you may have to close the program that you were using to access files from the drive. Removing your thumb drive this way assures you that you will not lose any data by accidentally removing the drive during operation.

Here are some common uses for thumb drives. You can see how versatile and useful they are for both work and play.

• Presentations: Because they’re so small and portable, you can save a huge PowerPoint® presentation to your thumb drive and board a plane for a meeting across the country secure in the fact that your presentation will arrive safely with you. If your presentation includes media such as sound files and movies, you can also place them on the drive with the presentation so that you can link them in PowerPoint, assuring that they will play back correctly during presentation.



• Photos: High-resolution photographs can take up a lot of memory, but on a thumb drive, you can store hundreds of images and share them with family and friends or take them to a local printing service to have your favorite shots reproduced.



• Music: Music files are not small and if you want to share them with someone, thumb drives are the only way you’re going to get that much information to go. Try fitting your iTunes® library onto a 3-1/2” floppy disk!



• Backup: With larger thumb drives, there’s so much available storage space that you could potentially back up your entire disk drive assuring that important files are never lost.



• Alternate Operating Systems: Again, with thumb drives so large, you could actually boot up your computer using an entirely different operating system version straight from the thumb drive. You could also run other types of programs (even diagnostic programs like anti-virus) right from the thumb drive that you don’t have installed on the computer that you’re currently using.

Windows and PowerPoint are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, registered in the U.S. and/or other countries. iTunes is a trademark of Apple Computers, Inc., registered in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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