Specially manufactured flash drives are available that have a tough rubber or metal casing designed to be waterproof and virtually "unbreakable". These flash drives retain their memory after being submerged in water, and even through a machine wash. Leaving such a flash drive out to dry completely before allowing current to run through it has been known to result in a working drive with no future problems. Channel Five's Gadget Show cooked one of these flash drives with propane, froze it with dry ice, submerged it in various acidic liquids, ran over it with a jeep and fired it against a wall with a mortar. A company specializing in recovering lost data from computer drives managed to recover all the data on the drive.[64] All data on the other removable storage devices tested, using optical or magnetic technologies, were destroyed.
Floppy disk drives are rarely fitted to modern computers and are obsolete for normal purposes, although internal and external drives can be fitted if required. Floppy disks may be the method of choice for transferring data to and from very old computers without USB or booting from floppy disks, and so they are sometimes used to change the firmware on, for example, BIOS chips. Devices with removable storage like older Yamaha music keyboards are also dependent on floppy disks, which require computers to process them. Newer devices are built with USB flash drive support.
Our tester highly recommended this flash drive for iOS mobile users: “The iXpand is a great resource for backing up media files and for expanding storage, as well as transferring files to a PC.” He added, “The Drive App is easy to navigate and copy files with, as well as operate the camera and play music and video files.” On the other hand, our reviewer reported, “The 30 MB/s write speed on PC is far from horrible but definitely slow for the asking price, and we calculated only about a 12 MB/s when connected to an iOS device.” He ultimately concluded, “A slightly cheaper price would make it the surefire winner in the Lightning connector category.”
A USB flash drive, also commonly known as a thumb drive or a memory stick, is a type of portable data storage device that fits directly into a USB port. It can back up, store, and transfer important data and make that data available to other devices with USB ports. USB drives tend to favor speed and convenience over absolute storage space; discover the wide selection available on eBay.
In addition to providing reliable storage for information, many of these products come with security software that protects your personal data if you lose your device. The software secures files with 128-bit AES encryption and requires a password to unlock the stored information. It also features a drag-and-drop user interface that simplifies transferring and securing your data.
Many types of USB drive, sometimes referred to as a thumb drive, also have handy features like a key chain ring or a small LED flashlight. Some can even transmit your data wirelessly for the ultimate in digital convenience. And as with any fun accessory, there are plenty of novelty versions of flash drives designed to show your personality, display your sense of humor, or broadcast your team loyalty.