Setting Up Your USB Storage Device as a Portable Application Library (Page 1 of 4 )
USB Storage Devices (also known as Flash drives or USB keys) are unquestionably the most popular external storage method today. They are lightweight, easily configurable, fast and very affordable. Despite this fact most people aren't aware of their true capabilities.
These people haven't experienced the satisfaction that's frequently achievable from having a customized portable application library. When you realize its true usefulness, you become addicted to your flash drive and end up carrying it everywhere.
This article's main purpose is to enlighten users that have their flash drives either half-empty or aren't using them at all, and the drives are lying somewhere on a shelf getting dusty. I'll cover many of the numerous ways to customize a flash drive, picking out the best portable applications, choosing favorites, developing and making your flash drive unique compared to other forms of pre-built "portable application storage."
Currently 512MB-1GB USB sticks are quite common while the vast majority of people tend to get 2GB, 4GB or even more. Since a flash drive's main purpose is to carry data we can't forget about free space. It's an important factor and I would advise leaving 50 percent of a drive free, while the other 50 percent is occupied by portable applications. This combination should work the best for everybody.
I have a "Kingston DataTraveler" 1GB drive that you can see below. My portable application library is around 334MB whilst the remaining 619MB is quite free (952MB is the total capacity).

Before moving on, I advise you to read "Flash Drives are Taking Over" article by Mike Mackenzie. If you read that article you'll understand why you should use a flash drive, how to use one and see its performance.
Throughout this article I'll consider you, the reader, to already be familiar with flash drives. So get ready by hooking up your flash drive! The whole process of setting up your portable application library shouldn't take more than 15 minutes up to one hour, depending on the number of applications, of course.
Next: PSTART: the Heart of Portable Apps >>
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