What is a flash drive, how to use the flash drive?

What is a flash drive?

Portable storage (USB flash disk), also known as a flash drive. is the use of USB interface and Flash (Flash Memory) technology combination of convenient to carry the appearance of exquisite fashion mobile storage. Flash disk is a flash memory for the media, so with a number of times to write, fast and magnetic, shockproof, moistureproof advantages. Flash drives typically include flash memory (Flash Memory), control chips, and enclosures. Flash disk using the popular USB interface, volume only thumb size, weight of about 20 grams, no drive, no external power, Plug and Play, to achieve the exchange of documents between different computers, storage capacity ranging from 16MB~2GB to meet different needs. Flash disk products are through the integration of flash chips, USB I/O control chip products,

Most of its product features are similar, but the shell design, bundled software and additional functionality are different. Flash disk has a variety of additional functions, such as: Data encryption, system startup function, built-in e-mail transceiver software and chat tools and so on.

The flash drive usually uses a plastic or metal casing, which contains a small printed circuit board that can be small enough to fit into a pocket, like a keychain ornament, or on a neck string. Only the USB connection head is highlighted outside the protective shell and is usually covered with a small lid. Most flash drives use standard TYPE-A USB connectors, which allow them to be plugged directly into the USB port on the PC.

How do I use the flash drive?

To access the data on the flash drive, you must connect the flash drive to the computer, either directly to the computer's built-in USB controller or to a USB hub. The flash drive is only activated when the USB port is plugged in, and the required power is supplied by a USB connection. However, some flash drives (especially those using USB 2.0 standard high speed flash drives) may require more power, so if you are connected to a USB hub that is built into a keyboard or screen, these flash drives will not work unless you plug them directly into the controller (the USB port provided by the computer itself). or a USB hub with an external power supply. Some u disk is a drive and a U disk composition, so the end to distinguish between the clear (Dos/win32 environment).

Although the flash drive is small, it has a relatively large storage capacity. The early flash drive was small in size, storing only 16-32m files, even if it was 10-20 times the size of a general-purpose removable storage media floppy disk. With the development of science and technology, U disk capacity also according to Moore's law soared. By 2012, 4G capacity U disk has been basically in the edge of elimination, the mainstream U disk capacity development for 8-16g, equivalent to 2-4 DVD CD capacity. The maximum capacity has reached 256G, the equivalent of more than 60 DVD ROM capacity.

The flash drive uses a category of USB storage devices, which means that most modern operating systems can read and write to the flash drive without having to install additional drivers. The flash drive is displayed as a chunk of logical unit inside the operating system, hiding the intricate details required for internal flash memory. The operating system can use any file system or block addressing method. You can also make a boot disk to boot the computer.

As with other flash devices, the flash drive also has a limit on the total number of reads and writes. The middle-level flash drive can be read and written hundreds of thousands of times under normal usage, but when the flash drive becomes old, the write action is more time-consuming. When we use a flash drive to run an application or operating system, we have to consider this. Some program developers specifically target this feature and capacity limitations, writing a special version of the operating system (such as Linux) or applications (such as Mozilla Firefox) for the flash drive. They usually optimize the use of space and store the scratch disk in the main memory of the computer, not the flash drive.