How to choose the right flash drive for your computer?

Every person who interacts with a computer in one way or another knows what a flash drive is. And the younger generation no longer knows how to live without it. After all, the majority no longer remembers about laser storage devices, and only vague legends go about floppy disks. Those who have gone through all the stages of development of portable media can compare and admit that it is much more convenient to work with flash drives. Flash memory is not as simple as it looks on the outside. When deciding how to choose the right USB flash drive for your computer, the last thing you need to pay attention to is its appearance, and more to the technical parameters.

What is a flash drive?

The flash drive is designed to save and transfer information; it is connected to USB ports. The flash drive does not require batteries for its operation, it is enough to connect it to any free USB port on the computer and you can immediately start working.

Memory size

Just a few years ago, 256 MB flash drives were new and quite expensive. Nowadays, drives of this size are no longer produced as obsolete, and flash drives with volumes of 16 or even 32 GB are sold for the same money.

The choice of a flash drive should primarily depend on how much information is predicted to be written to it. Of course, the larger the memory of the device, the more expensive it is. Therefore, it is hardly worth wasting money on buying a capacious flash drive, most of the memory of which will never be in demand. The following are examples of what different amounts of memory may be suitable for:

• A 2 GB flash drive is enough to store text files or a small amount of graphics.
• A 16 GB flash drive is usually enough to work with music tracks, photos and some movies. It is also enough to install Windows.
• Media with volumes of 16-64 GB are required for storing and transferring movies, game distributions, and especially large documents.

USB standard

A couple of years ago, USB 2.0 flash drives were the most popular. They serve now, but are gradually receding into the past. They were replaced by the new USB 3.0 standard. Its main advantage is a higher transmission and reception speed, which is 2-3 times or more higher than the speed of the previous generation flash drives. True, they have become even more expensive.

If a flash drive is required for a TV or radio, then there is not much difference between the old and new standards. But if you need a flash drive to work on a computer, then it’s better to stop at buying the third version, although with certain reservations. In order for a USB 3.0 flash drive to be able to demonstrate all its capabilities, the computer port must also have the same standard. Otherwise, it will impose its own restrictions on the performance of the flash drive and make it indistinguishable from the media of the previous standard.

To understand which USB ports are installed in computers, you do not need to delve into the documentation, just look at the color of the port:

• USB 2.0 port – white;
• USB 3.0 port – blue.

Read/write speed

This indicator, when deciding how to choose a flash drive for a computer, becomes the most important if movies are recorded on it and movies are viewed from it. You can simply connect it to a media player and watch a movie through it. If the bit rate is not fast enough, then the movie recorded in high resolution will slow down. No less important is the speed indicator when transferring massive files. Just as important is speed when writing data. Many are annoyed by the low write speed. This parameter can vary between 1-175 Mb / s. Of course, the higher it is, the faster the recording occurs.

Reliability of information storage

When compared even with a hard drive, a flash drive turns out to be more reliable, because it has no mechanical moving parts. Even dropping it on the floor, you can not be afraid for the safety of the data on it. But flash memory has its own limitation – the number of write and erase cycles that it can withstand. On average, a flash drive can withstand up to 100,000 such cycles. If you write to it every day several times, then even then the device will work for 10-15 years, that is, in fact, it is eternal for the owner.

Special mention should be made of flash drives in waterproof rubber cases. They are convenient in that they can be thrown into puddles, almost stir tea with them, however, over time, the body of the flash drive loses its tightness. Fans of diving with such devices should take into account the depth allowed for them.

Video on how to choose a flash drive for a computer

Manufacturers

A flash drive can be bought at any computer or online store. For consumers, flash drives from the following manufacturers are considered to be of high quality:

• Sony;
• Kingston;
• Transcend;
• Mirex;
• PQI;
• Apacer;
• A-data;
• Kingmax and a number of others.

Frame

The strength of the drive housing should be especially noted when choosing. Energetic people should buy a drive in a rubber or metal case, better protected from moisture and shock. For neat people who take care of any object, a plastic case is enough.

Design

In our time, flash drives began to be made in various sizes and shapes: from ordinary elongated ones to miniature and glamorous ones – especially for girls. They are given the appearance of key rings, jewelry, imitate the appearance of a sharpener, a bullet, a gold ingot, toys, etc. Each buyer from the presented range can choose the most liked design without much difficulty.

Design features

The flash drive connector is its most vulnerable place. To protect it, many manufacturers make it retractable, but the more traditional solution is to provide it with a cap.

A flash drive is always a compact device that is incomparable to either floppy disks or laser discs, so it makes no sense to talk about finding a particularly small copy that would fit in a clutch, any one will do. In addition, it is worth noting that too small models are the most fragile, so the choice of such leads to a loss of reliability or functionality. It is unlikely that beauty is so important here.