How to Download to a Flash Drive

A typical flash drive is fast and small.

With capacities growing exponentially and prices dropping, flash drives provide a method of storing computer files and transferring them among machines. Flash drives can literally hold gigabytes of data in a device about the size of your thumb, and can easily be read by different operating systems. One danger of using these portable media is that their size makes them easy to misplace. A quick solution is to attach your drive to either a lanyard or to your car keys.

Instructions

1. Open the protective cap, if needed, to expose the USB connector on your flash drive. Some flash drives reveal the connector when you slide the switch.

2. Insert the connector into a free USB port on your computer. The operating system automatically recognizes the new addition as an external drive.

3. Open Windows Explorer on your computer. The flash drive appears under the devices and drives listed for your computer.

4. Click "Computer" to view the status of your drives, including the flash drive you've added, to ensure that enough space remains on the flash drive for your files.

5. Navigate to the files you want to download. Select one or more by either clicking on a name, using the "Shift" key and clicking to choose sequential files, or pressing the "Control" key and clicking to highlight non-consecutive files.

6. Drag your selections to the flash drive to copy the selected files over to the flash drive. Open the flash drive to confirm the downloaded items are present, and double-click on a file to confirm that it transferred correctly.

7. Remove the flash drive and cover the USB connector, if needed.

Tips & Warnings

• If the attached flash drive is not appearing as a new letter in your file browser, open the "Control Panel" window from the "Start" button. Double click the "Add Hardware" icon to open the "Add Hardware Wizard." Go through the pages and follow the instructions to define the device to your computer. When you're finished, open your file browser again and locate the new drive. If it is still not showing, you may have a defective drive, a broken connector or a non-working USB port. These procedures specifically refer to using a flash drive on Windows XP. However, the procedure works in general for any kind of operating system.