Flash+Drive

= = =Fascinating Flash Drives= Spring 2009 Frostburg State University
 * Group Members: Chelsea Hay, Kristen Synder, Katie Pierce, Kelly MacMillan**



Which is politically correct? Flash drive, thumb drive or a jump drive? All of these names are correct. Flash drives are small portable drives that connects to the computer directly through a USB port. These little devices are very handy because they are able to hold any type of data and they are compatible with both PCs and Mac’s. Ranging in sizes from 256MB to 16 GB. These little devices are rapidly becoming the best friend of students and teachers alike.

Dr. Fujio Masuoka is credited for creating the first flash drive. He invented NOR and NAND Flash Memory while working for Toshiba. The first removable flash drive was released in 1984.Trek Technology and IBM first introduced flash drives into the market in 2000(Come On In...). Flash drives are known by many names, but the official name is the U.S.B. flash drive. This new flash drive became popular when people wanted a portable storage device with a higher storage capacity. Floppy disks or diskettes can store 1.4 megabytes of data and are known to be slow in writing data. The flash drives can store 32 megabytes to 2 gigabytes. They are also a lot faster at writing and retrieving data(Marriot, 2004). Flash drives are becoming the main use of storage from classrooms to offices. The flash drive has become the standard, in which almost everyone is using now.

When flash drives became popular, hackers quickly discovered how to install viruses to affect flash drives. This problem has been corrected by having a virus scan on the computer each time the flash drive is inserted into the computer. Another problem is that flash drives are not password protected and if left unmonitored, they could quickly be stolen and valuable information could be lost. Several large companies have experienced this problem. With time and use, flash drives can slow down in speed. While this problem has not been solved, experts predict soon this will not be an issue. While portable and convenient, the flash drive is a very useful technology; the user should take proper precautions when storing important information on it however.

In recent years, portable USB flash drives have become increasingly popular for transporting and transferring computer files. As a result of the popularity, these flash drives, also known as thumb drives, pen drives, or jump drives are available in a wide variety of styles and memory capacities. With this recent popularity of flash memory devices, competitive pricing of the flash drives has come into play; because of the competitive prices, many flash drives are now very affordable (McKinley, 2006). The advances in flash drives are considerable; not so long ago, flash drives were considered a luxury item. Now with the popularity of these items, they seem like a more common thing and everyone has one or knows what they are. Companies that sell flash drives need to work harder to get the customer to buy their product over another; this could not only make flash drives more affordable, but it also causes advancements in their technology to improve (McKinley, 2006).

Since the flash drive has hit the main stream in the early 21st century flash drives rapidly replaced other forms of information storage. Flash drives, just like any other information storage device, have flaws, and despite these flaws flash drives are still popular among professionals from all spectrums of the working world.

__**Works Cited:**__

// RPE4USB. (2009). Come On In...We'll Flash Drive You! // Retrieved February 19, 2009, from http://www.ask.com/bar?q=Who+Invented+the+Flash+Drive&page=1&qsrc=6&zoom=How+Do+You+Copy+Files+to+a+USB+%3CKW%3EFlash+Drive%3C%2FKW%3E%7CHow+Does+a+%3CKW%3EFlash+Drive%3C%2FKW%3E+Work%7CHistory+of+%3CKW%3Ethe+Flash+Drive%3C%2FKW%3E&ab=0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rpe4usb.com%2Finvented_usb_flash_drives.html Boyer, B. (21 Jan 2009). //As flash drives proliferate, don't let fragmentation slow them down.// In MSNBC Marketwire. Retrieved 10 Feb. 2009 from . Boyer, B. (2009, January 26). //Flash Drives: Speed and Convenience -- That Still Must Be Guarded//. Retrieved February 8, 2009, from [|www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28862199/]. Dawson, C. (2009, February 5). //Education IT mobile edition//. Retrieved February 8, 2009, from http://education.zdnet.com // Lam,Kenny Lau,Derek and Lui, Dennis (2004, September). __USB Thumb Drive____:__ __Designer Reference Manual.__ Retrieved February 7, 2009 from http://www.freescale.com/ // Marriott, M. (2004, September 23). From: __Storage, a New Fasion__. The New York Times//. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from [] McKinley, J. (2006, September 17.) "Promotion Strategies: How Small Flash Drives Offer Big Marketing Opportunities." __Intelligent Life on the Web.__ Retrieved February 18, 2009 from [] = = Published on: March 11, 2009