How to Choose a USB Flash Drive

Flash drives are great. They really are. How will you choose yours?

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Flash drives to choose from

1. 

   Read/Write Speed: The faster, the better. If a drive doesn't give the speed, check customer reviews and see if there are any complaints about the drive being slow.

2. 

   Security: Some drives offer encryption, which prevents others from snooping through your files if your drive gets lost. Hardware-based encryption is more secure than software-based encryption--and also more expensive.

3. 

   Size: Flash Drive bits and bytes are populating the planet faster than people are. What's large today will be small a week from now--and a lot less expensive. So choose the size you need, and no bigger.

Tips & Warnings

• Search the internet for as many flash drives as you can to get the best one.
• For a selection of the best flash drives, check the resources below.

Resources

• Kingston DataTraveler 16 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive DT100/16GB
• Kingston DataTraveler 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive DT100/8GB
• Kingston DataTraveler 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive DTI/8GB
• SanDisk Cruzer Micro 16 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive
• SanDisk Cruzer Micro 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive

[bethjess39564]

on 12/6/2008 A flash drive was requested as a Christmas gift and I had no idea what type to get. Now I do. Thanks!

[americanguru]

on 11/10/2008 Nice, easy read.

[jkg0679]

on 11/8/2008 I need a new one and these tips will help. I did a terrible job picking out the last one I bought! lol