The next time you go to buy a computer, chances are you will notice there is no floppy drive in the tower like there was once upon a time.
This is because the industry has moved to rely increasingly on USB ports for all peripherals such as flash thumb drives.
It's easier, faster and some say more reliable.
Okay, there are two schools of thought on that and honestly, it largely depends on what works the best for you.
The one thing you need to remember though is that if you have an older computer, you likely still have a floppy drive.
If your computer crashes, well, welcome to the mainstream 21st century USB ports and flash drives.
Flash drives are touted to have the ability to operate at a much faster speed, hold more data and are way easier to use largely because they don't have the disadvantage of moving parts.
Oh, and let's not forget they are a darn sight smaller than the older floppy disks that used to litter up just about every corner of your desk.
Although you may be slightly confused about the reference to the term flash and perhaps think it has moving parts, flash drives have "no" moving parts.
The persistent use of the term "drive" also continues to be used because your computer reads and writes flash drives data using the same system commands used for a disk drive.
This means flash thumb drives appear (to your computer) to be just another drive; beautifully complex and yet simple at the same time.
So, what exactly are flash thumb drives? Flash thumb drives are small printed circuit boards snugged up inside a container (rubber, metal, plastic etc.
) and made to be carried inside shirt pockets or purses.
The connector, which is the USB end, is usually protected by a removable cap or it retracts into the contained of the drive.
Typically, flash drives use a standard type A USB connection, meaning you can plug these memory drives into a port on your computer.
As common as thumb drives are today, they actually haven't been around all that long.
In fact, the first usb flash thumb drives hit the market in 2000.
Notably, these flash thumb drives had a whopping storage capacity of 8 MB, which was "five" times the storage capabilities of the good old floppy disks that could only handle 1.
44 MB.
Things have come a long way in a mere nine years, with technology making even greater leaps and bounds even as you are reading this article.
Who knows what will be next?
This is because the industry has moved to rely increasingly on USB ports for all peripherals such as flash thumb drives.
It's easier, faster and some say more reliable.
Okay, there are two schools of thought on that and honestly, it largely depends on what works the best for you.
The one thing you need to remember though is that if you have an older computer, you likely still have a floppy drive.
If your computer crashes, well, welcome to the mainstream 21st century USB ports and flash drives.
Flash drives are touted to have the ability to operate at a much faster speed, hold more data and are way easier to use largely because they don't have the disadvantage of moving parts.
Oh, and let's not forget they are a darn sight smaller than the older floppy disks that used to litter up just about every corner of your desk.
Although you may be slightly confused about the reference to the term flash and perhaps think it has moving parts, flash drives have "no" moving parts.
The persistent use of the term "drive" also continues to be used because your computer reads and writes flash drives data using the same system commands used for a disk drive.
This means flash thumb drives appear (to your computer) to be just another drive; beautifully complex and yet simple at the same time.
So, what exactly are flash thumb drives? Flash thumb drives are small printed circuit boards snugged up inside a container (rubber, metal, plastic etc.
) and made to be carried inside shirt pockets or purses.
The connector, which is the USB end, is usually protected by a removable cap or it retracts into the contained of the drive.
Typically, flash drives use a standard type A USB connection, meaning you can plug these memory drives into a port on your computer.
As common as thumb drives are today, they actually haven't been around all that long.
In fact, the first usb flash thumb drives hit the market in 2000.
Notably, these flash thumb drives had a whopping storage capacity of 8 MB, which was "five" times the storage capabilities of the good old floppy disks that could only handle 1.
44 MB.
Things have come a long way in a mere nine years, with technology making even greater leaps and bounds even as you are reading this article.
Who knows what will be next?