How a USB Flash Drive Works

Flash Memory

A USB Flash Drive is a tiny device built for writing and rewriting data to flash memory. Flash memory means it is meant to be accessed again and again. To be specific, most flash drives can have their data changed up to 1 million times before natural data loss and drive failure begins to occur. The smallest flash drive available is around 60MB in size, while the largest can hold 128GB.

File System

The majority of USB flash drives available are formatted with the FAT 32 file system. This is because the file system is understood easily by the vast majority of computers in existence, which means your flash drive is usable on literally anything with a USB drive. If you wish to change this, there are utilities available designed for formatting USB flash drives with other file systems.

vs. External Hard Drives

The main advantage of a USB flash drive over an external hard drive is portability. USB flash drives are small in design and are made to fit into your pocket or on your key chain. External hard drives can be fairly small in size but often need to be plugged into both a power outlet and a USB port on your computer to function. Even the largest USB flash drives are also less expensive than the smallest external hard drives that are available for consumer purchase today.