
SUPPORT
Below is a list of some of our most frequently asked questions.
- What are the benefits of a USB flash drive instead of burning files to a CD or transferring them to another computer?
Necessity is the mother of invention, and USB flash drives are so popular today because they are faster, easier to use, and more convenient than almost any other method. Burning CDs takes time, and is a permanent process.
If you’re taking a project from your office to your home, and you’re going to be finished with it at the end of the week, burning a CD just for that can be wasteful. What’s more, if you make changes to the project, you have to burn a whole new CD in order to take it back to work. Transferring files directly from computer to computer can be sometimes be oddly complicated, and in most cases, you need them to be right next to each other.
With a USB flash drive, it’s as simple as dragging and dropping your files and folders to wherever you need them.
- Why a USB drive?
USB flash drives offer potential advantages over other portable storage devices.
Data stored on flash drives are impervious to scratches and dust, and flash drives are mechanically very robust making them suitable for transporting data from place to place and keeping it readily at hand. They have a compact shape, operate faster, hold much more data, have a more durable design, and operate more reliably due to their lack of moving parts.
Nothing actually moves in a flash drive: the term drive persists because computers read and write flash-drive data using the same system commands as for a mechanical disk drive, with the storage appearing to the computer operating system and user interface as just another drive.
USB Flash Drives also work in a wide range of temperatures: -40°F to 158°F, with safe storing temperatures ranging from -58°F to 176°F.
- Will my Flash Drive work with any computer?
Our Flash Drives are full compatible with Windows XP/2000/2003/vista and OS X.
Most personal computers support USB . Flash drives implement the USB mass storage device class so that most modern operating systems can read and write to them without installing device drivers. Please be sure to remove the drive from your computer according to your computer’s instructions.
- How long can I use Flash Drive?
Flash memory has a write endurance limit. This limit is the number of times the flash memory cell can be written until it can not be restored to its initial condition. The industry refers to this as the erase cycles. The endurance is rated between 10,000 and 1,000,000 erase cycles for different types flash memories.
- How does data is stored on Flash Drive?
To store data, a value of 0 is created by applying low voltage to the floating gate and exciting the electrons. The electrons are pushed through the thin oxide layer and are trapped on the control gate side, where they block the connectivity between the control gate and the floating gate. To return the cell to a normal condition of 1, an electric field is applied to the cell and the electrons are restored to the floating gate.
- How does Flash Drive work?
Flash memory is a transistor technology. A single flash memory cell is made up of two transistors. One transistor is a floating gate and separated from the other transistor (a control gate) by a thin oxide layer. In the normal condition (no stored data,) electrons flow freely from the floating gate to the control gate. In computers, data is stored in binary terms — as ones (1) and zeros (0) — and the free-flowing electronic condition has a value of 1.
- How can use Flash Drives?
1) Transfer business files easily from your work laptop to your home computer and back again, while protecting your files from being erased, altered or viewed by anyone but you.
2) Carry school work securely from the computer lab to your dorm PC to your professor's laptop without concern regarding compatibility.
3) Trade and share business presentations from laptop to laptop at a trade show without worrying about dial-up connections or if you'll have enough room on your hard drive.
4) Share digital photos, music, and videos with family members and friends quickly and easily.
5) Store personal information that you don't want on your computer's hard drive. Use several to help organize files, assignments, images or more specific to your tasks or hobbies.
6) Carry it with you on a lanyard around your neck, on your key chain, in your backpack or purse so it is readily available when you need it.
- Where can you use Flash Drives?
Flash drives can be used anytime and anywhere, including home, school, and on the road to share, transport, and store all kinds of digital content. Since Flash drives offer large capacity storage (up to 32GB) and fast read and write speeds, they are a practical and convenient tool for fun or business. You can fill a typical drive with hundreds of photos, documents, and mp3 files in just seconds.
- How durable are USB flash drives?
Some flash drives can retain their memory after being submerged in water, even through a machine wash. Leaving the 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 a flash drive 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. All the other removal storage devices, using optical or magnetic discs or semiconductor (Secure Digital) were completely destroyed.
- Are flash drives widely compatible?
Flash drives implement the USB mass storage device class, meaning that most modern operating systems can read and write to flash drives without any additional device drivers. The flash drives present a simple block-structured logical unit to the host operating system, hiding the individual complex implementation details of the various underlying flash memory devices. The operating system can use whatever type of file system or block addressing scheme it wants. Some computers have the ability to boot up from flash drives.
- Does a USB flash drive use much power?
The power consumption of a typical flash drive is very low, much lower than that of the common alternative, the portable hard disk, due to there being no moving parts inside a flash drive. Portable hard disks, on the other hand, require several motors or actuators to rotate the disk platter, and move the read / write head. Consequently, the USB flash drive need not be as big, or heavy, allowing greater portability.
- What is a USB Flash Drive?
A flash drive consists of a small printed circuit board typically in a plastic or metal casing and more recently in rubber casings to increase their robustness. This makes the drive sturdy enough to be carried about in a pocket, for example as a key fob, or on a lanyard. Only the USB connector protrudes, and it is typically protected either by a removable cap or by retracting into the body of the drive.
Most flash drives use a standard type-A USB connection allowing them to be connected directly to a port on a personal computer.
Flash drives/usb sticks are solid state memory devices that are versatile , compact , portable and easy to use.
A flash drive works like a portable disk hard drive and drag and drop your files to the removable disk. No additional cable or adapters are required.
- How is USB flash drive data accessed?
To access the data stored in a flash drive, the drive must be connected to a USB port, either a host controller built into a computer, a USB hub, or some other device designed to access the data, such as an mp3 player with a USB-in port.
Flash drives are active only when plugged into a USB connection and draw all necessary power from the supply provided by that connection.
However, some flash drives, especially high-speed drives, may require more power than the limited amount provided by a bus-powered USB hub, such as those built into some computer keyboards or monitors.
These drives will not work unless plugged directly into a host controller (i.e., the ports found on the computer itself) or a self-powered hub.
- What types of USB flash drives are available?
USB flash drives have been integrated into other tools commonly carried on one's person such as a watches, pens, and even the Swiss Army Knife; others have been fitted with novelty cases such as toy cars or LEGO bricks. The small size, robust nature and relatively low price of USB flash drives makes them an increasingly popular peripheral for case modding.
- Are USB flash drives a good method of data transport?
Flash drives are nearly impervious to the scratches and dust that were problematic for previous forms of portable storage, such as compact discs and floppy disks, and their durable solid-state design means they often survive casual abuse. This makes them ideal for transporting personal data or work files from one location to another, such as from home to school or office or for carrying around personal data that the user typically wants to access in a variety of places. The near-ubiquity of USB support on modern computers means that such a drive will work in most places.
- How much can a USB flash drive store?
Flash drives are also a relatively dense form of storage, where even the cheapest will store dozens of floppy disks worth of data. Many can hold more data than a CD. Top of the line flash drives can store more data than a DVD, although flash drives with 16GB storage are now common.
The following is a reference on the capacities available and how they could be used. 1 GB (20000 pages of text, 640 photos and 64 MP3 music files) 2 GB (over 40000 pages of text, 1200 photos and 128 MP3 music files) USB Flash Drives are available in 32MB, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB.

