Flash Drives are Taking Over - Using a flash drive
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When you insert a flash drive into the computer, Windows should automatically open the auto play menu. You can select any of the options to copy files, play files, or view a folder, which contains all the files.
To use a flash drive, all you have to do is insert the flash drive into an available USB 2.0 port and let the drive do the rest of the work. The flash drive controller built into the flash drive will begin communicating with the computer. It will tell the computer it's a removable disc drive, and how much capacity it has. Once this communication has happened on a Windows XP-based computer, the Auto play menu appears. You can select many different options right here, or you can simply open the folder to view all files on the drive.
The same problem with hard drives applies to flash drive. The drives are 512,000,000 bytes, and not 512MB. It's technically not false advertising; it's measured as 512 million bytes of data, not actual megabytes, which are 1024 bytes.
One of the major advantages flash drives have over CDs is that once the data is written onto the disc, you can erase each individual file if need be. On rewriteable media, you have to erase the entire disc in order to add new data (you can add more data if you select multisession disk). Erasing discs can be more hectic than anything else -- you have to copy off any data you want to maintain on the disc, erase the other files, and copy them back.
Flash drives operate just like a normal hard drive. You can go through the data on the disc and delete individual files one at a time; you can also add one file at a time. Your only limitation is capacity. The same problem as you have with hard drives applies; if you buy a 512MB drive, you will not receive 512MB of useable storage space. It's the old 1024 bytes is equal to 1MB dilemma; 512MB drive will show up as 488MB of usable storage because the drive is actually 512,000,000 bytes. The same thing occurs with larger capacity drives.
Transferring data to a flash drive couldn't be easier. Using the send to option, you can select the removable disc; no software is needed other than your existing operating system.
Transferring data onto a flash drive is very simple. Since it's just like saving your data onto a hard drive, you don't have to use any special programs in order to put data on the drive. If you were working in a program and you wanted to save your progress, you simply click save as, and in the menu you have to change the drive letter from its current location to your removable drive. And now you're done. Your data should automatically be added to the flash drive. Now you can take it anywhere and work on your existing file. If you were backing up files on your computer, you could use the Send To option when you right click a file; this will make a copy on the drive. All you have to do is select the removable drive and the data will be sent.
Next: Testing out flash drives >>
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