If you are nearing the end of your tether swapping in and out 15+ floppy disks to transfer driver updates or even normal sized database files, then this remarkable piece of flash drive technology might be for you.

Whilst floppies have done well during a certain stage of PC / Mac development, and yes they’re cheap, they no longer hold the amount of data that we need to conveniently use from day to day.

USB Flash Drives are devices that simply slot into a spare USB port on your computer (a requirement, but if your older machine doesn’t have it you can source a low cost USB PCI expansion card). The flash drive then installs within a few seconds, or with Windows 98SE you will be supplied with a driver disk so that the drive may be recognised.

Once recognised, the flash drive is readily available as a new drive letter on your computer.

Transferring data is a breeze with these devices, essentially you should think of it just as another hard drive on your system. Drag and drop files to the drive, cut and paste, or open files from and save files directly to it – it’s that simple.

Once you have used a USB flash drive for a period of time you will become like most owners of these devices and wonder how you ever managed without it. Floppies just don’t hold enough, CD-RWs are too cumbersome and bulky, and ZIP drives are tedious similar to CD-RWs and not available to most computers.

Features you will find in most flash drives include some method of carrying it on a key ring or neck strap, security software for password protection of your data, and drivers for Windows 98SE. Check also that your drive is compatible across PC and Mac platforms.

Password protection via security software is another reason why flash drives are such a treasured technology. This software is written by the controller IC manufacturers so that you can password protect your data wherever you carry it – important for some users.

An important note however is that most software utilities do not work for Mac – the controller manufacturers have tended to ignore this segment of the market for some reason.

Being a portable storage solution, USB flash pens should always have their key ring attachment on the main body of the drive – there would be nothing worst than reaching down to where your valuable files used to be and finding an empty cap!

Robustness? These drives can take a lot of punishment, which is why most will carry a minimum of 3 years warranty and in some cases lifetime warranty. They are based on flash memory – exactly the same as that used in Compact Flash and other flash memory cards, and are able to withstand high vibration environments and shock.