USB flash drive
A flash drive (also thumb drive [US], memory stick [UK], and pen drive/pendrive elsewhere)
Common uses of USB flash drives are for storage, supplementary
Until about 2005, most desktop and laptop computers were supplied with floppy disk drives in addition to USB ports, but floppy disk drives became obsolete after widespread adoption of USB ports and the larger USB drive capacity compared to the "1.44 megabyte" (1440 kilobyte) 3.5-inch floppy disk.
USB flash drives use the USB mass storage device class standard, supported natively by modern operating systems such as Windows, Linux, macOS and other Unix-like systems, as well as many BIOS boot ROMs. USB drives with USB 2.0 support can store more data and transfer faster than much larger optical disc drives like CD-RW or DVD-RW drives and can be read by many other systems such as the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, DVD players, automobile entertainment systems, and in a number of handheld devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, though the electronically similar SD card is better suited for those devices, due to their standardized form factor, which allows the card to be housed inside a device without protruding.
A flash drive consists of a small
History
The basis for USB flash drives is
Multiple individuals have staked a claim to having invented the USB flash drive. On April 5, 1999,
Given these competing inventor claims, patent disputes involving the USB flash drive have arisen over the years. Both Trek 2000 International and Netac Technology have accused others of infringing their patents on the USB flash drive.[17][18][19] However, despite these lawsuits, the question of who was the first to invent the USB flash drive has not been definitively settled and multiple claims persist.
Technology improvements
Flash drives are often measured by the rate at which they transfer data. Transfer rates may be given in megabytes per second (MB/s), megabits per second (Mbit/s), or in optical drive multipliers such as "180X" (180 times 150
By 2002, USB flash drives had
By 2010, the maximum available storage capacity for the devices had reached upwards of 128 GB.[24] USB 3.0 was slow to appear in laptops. Through 2010, the majority of laptop models still contained only USB 2.0.[23]
In January 2013, tech company Kingston, released a flash drive with 1 TB of storage.
1 | USB Standard-A, "male" plug |
---|---|
2 | USB mass storage controller device |
3 | Test point |
4 | Flash memory chip |
5 | Crystal oscillator |
6 | LED (Optional)
|
7 | Write-protect switch (Optional) |
8 | Space for second flash memory chip |
On a USB flash drive, one end of the device is fitted with a single
Technology
On a USB flash drive, one end of the device is fitted with a single
Inside the casing is a small printed circuit board, which has some power circuitry and a small number of surface-mounted integrated circuits (ICs).[citation needed] Typically, one of these ICs provides an interface between the USB connector and the onboard memory, while the other is the flash memory. Drives typically use the USB mass storage device class to communicate with the host.[30]
Flash memory
Flash memory combines a number of older technologies, with lower cost, lower power consumption and small size made possible by advances in semiconductor device fabrication technology. The memory storage is based on earlier EPROM and EEPROM technologies. These had limited capacity, were slow for both reading and writing, required complex high-voltage drive circuitry, and could be re-written only after erasing the entire contents of the chip.
Hardware designers later developed EEPROMs with the erasure region broken up into smaller "fields" that could be erased individually without affecting the others. Altering the contents of a particular memory location involved copying the entire field into an off-chip buffer memory, erasing the field, modifying the data as required in the buffer, and re-writing it into the same field. This required considerable computer support, and PC-based EEPROM flash memory systems often carried their own dedicated microprocessor system. Flash drives are more or less a miniaturized version of this.
The development of high-speed serial data interfaces such as USB made semiconductor memory systems with serially accessed storage viable, and the simultaneous development of small, high-speed, low-power microprocessor systems allowed this to be incorporated into extremely compact systems. Serial access requires far fewer electrical connections for the memory chips than parallel access, simplifying the manufacture of multi-gigabyte drives.
Computers access modern[update] flash memory systems very much like hard disk drives, where the controller system has full control over where information is actually stored. The actual EEPROM writing and erasure processes are, however, still very similar to the earlier systems described above.
Many low-cost
Essential components
There are typically five parts to a flash drive:
- USB plug – provides a physical interface to the host computer. Some USB flash drives use USB plug that does not protect the contacts, with the possibility of plugging it into the USB port in the wrong orientation, if the connector type is not symmetrical.
- USB mass storage controller – a small RAM.
- NAND flash memory chip(s) – stores data (NAND flash is typically also used in digital cameras).
- Crystal oscillator – produces the device's main clock signal and controls the device's data output through a phase-locked loop.
- Cover – typically made of plastic or metal, protecting the electronics against mechanical stress and even possible short circuits.
Additional components
The typical device may also include:
- Jumpers and test pins – for testing during the flash drive's manufacturing or loading code into its microcontroller.
- LEDs – indicate data transfers or data reads and writes.
- Write-protect switches – Enable or disable writing of data into memory.
- Unpopulated space – provides space to include a second memory chip. Having this second space allows the manufacturer to use a single printed circuit board for more than one storage size device.
- USB connector cover or cap – reduces the risk of damage, prevents the entry of dirt or other contaminants, and improves overall device appearance. Some flash drives use retractable USB connectors instead. Others have a swivel arrangement so that the connector can be protected without removing anything.
- Transport aid – the cap or the body often contains a hole suitable for connection to a key chain or lanyard. Connecting the cap, rather than the body, can allow the drive itself to be lost.
- Some drives offer expandable storage via an internal memory card slot, much like a memory card reader.[31][32]
Size and style of packaging
Most USB flash drives weigh less than 30 g (1 oz).[33] While some manufacturers are competing for the smallest size,[34] with the biggest memory, offering drives only a few millimeters larger than the USB plug itself,[35] some manufacturers differentiate their products by using elaborate housings, which are often bulky and make the drive difficult to connect to the USB port. Because the USB port connectors on a computer housing are often closely spaced, plugging a flash drive into a USB port may block an adjacent port. Such devices may carry the USB logo only if sold with a separate extension cable. Such cables are USB-compatible but do not conform to the USB standard.[36][37]
USB flash drives have been integrated into other commonly carried items, such as watches, pens, laser pointers, and even the
File system
Most flash drives ship preformatted with the
Defragmenting
Flash drives can be defragmented. There is a widespread opinion that defragmenting brings little advantage (as there is no mechanical head that moves from fragment to fragment), and that defragmenting shortens the life of the drive by making many unnecessary writes.[39] However, some sources claim[40] that defragmenting a flash drive can improve performance (mostly due to improved caching of the clustered data), and the additional wear on flash drives may not be significant.
Even distribution
Some file systems are designed to distribute usage over an entire memory device without concentrating usage on any part (e.g., for a directory) to prolong the life of simple flash memory devices. Some USB flash drives have this 'wear leveling' feature built into the software controller to prolong device life, while others do not, so it is not necessarily helpful to install one of these file systems.[41]
Hard disk drive
Sectors are 512 bytes long, for compatibility with hard disk drives, and the first sector can contain a
Longevity
The memory in flash drives was commonly engineered with
Estimation of flash memory endurance is a challenging subject that depends on the
Regardless of the endurance of the memory itself, the USB connector hardware is specified to withstand only around 1,500 insert-removal cycles.[45]
Counterfeit products
Counterfeit USB flash drives are sometimes sold with claims of having higher capacities than they actually possess. These are typically low-capacity USB drives with modified flash memory controller firmware that emulates larger capacity drives (for example, a 2 GB drive being marketed as a 64 GB drive). When plugged into a computer, they report being the larger capacity they were sold as, but when data is written to them, either the write fails, the drive freezes up, or it overwrites existing data. Software tools exist to check and detect fake USB drives,[46][47] and in some cases it is possible to repair these devices to remove the false capacity information and use its real storage limit.[48]
File transfer speeds
Transfer speeds are technically determined by the slowest of three factors: the USB version used, the speed in which the USB controller device can read and write data onto the flash memory, and the speed of the hardware bus, especially in the case of add-on USB ports.
USB flash drives usually specify their read and write speeds in megabytes per second (MB/s); read speed is usually faster. These speeds are for optimal conditions; real-world speeds are usually slower. In particular, circumstances that often lead to speeds much lower than advertised are transfer (particularly writing) of many small files rather than a few very large ones, and mixed reading and writing to the same device.
In a typical well-conducted review of a number of high-performance USB 3.0 drives, a drive that could read large files at 68 MB/s and write at 46 MB/s, could only manage 14 MB/s and 0.3 MB/s with many small files. When combining streaming reads and writes the speed of another drive, the drive could read at 92 MB/s and write at 70 MB/s, was 8 MB/s. These differences differ radically from one drive to another; some could write small files 10% faster than for large ones. The examples given are chosen to illustrate extremes.[49]
Uses
Personal data transport
The most common use of flash drives is to transport and store personal files, such as documents, pictures and videos. Individuals also store medical information on flash drives for emergencies and disaster preparation. [citation needed]
Secure storage of data, application and software files
With wide deployment of flash drives in various environments (secured or otherwise), data and information security remain critical issues.
Computer forensics and law enforcement
A recent development for the use of a USB Flash Drive as an application carrier is to carry the
Updating motherboard firmware
In addition, HP has introduced a USB floppy drive key, an ordinary USB flash drive with the capacity to emulate floppy drives, allowing it to be used for updating system firmware where direct use of USB flash drives is not supported. The desired mode of operation, regular USB mass storage device or floppy drive emulation, is selected via a sliding a switch on the device's housing.[54][55]
Booting operating systems
Most current PC firmware permits
Original flash memory designs had very limited estimated lifetimes. The failure mechanism for flash memory cells is analogous to a
- Loading a minimal, hardened kernel for embedded applications (e.g., network router, firewall).
- Bootstrapping an operating system install or disk cloning operation, often across a network.
- Maintenance tasks, such as virus scanning or low-level data repair, without the primary host operating system loaded.
As of 2011[update], newer flash memory designs have much higher estimated lifetimes. Several manufacturers are now offering warranties of 5 years or more. Such warranties should make the device more attractive for more applications. By reducing the probability of the device's premature failure, flash memory devices can now be considered for use where a magnetic disk would normally have been required. Flash drives have also experienced an exponential growth in their storage capacity over time (following the
Operating system installation media
Installers of some operating systems can be stored to a flash drive instead of a CD or DVD, including various
However, for installation of Windows 7 and later versions, using USB flash drive with hard disk drive emulation as detected in PC's firmware is recommended in order to boot from it. Transcend is the only manufacturer of USB flash drives containing such a feature.
Furthermore, for installation of Windows XP, using a USB flash drive with a storage limit of at most 2 GB is recommended in order to boot from it.
Windows ReadyBoost
In Windows Vista and later versions, ReadyBoost feature allows flash drives (from 4 GB in case of Windows Vista) to augment operating system memory.[58]
Application carriers
Flash drives are used to carry
The U3 company works with drive makers (parent company SanDisk as well as others) to deliver custom versions of applications designed for Microsoft Windows from a special flash drive; U3-compatible devices are designed to autoload a menu when plugged into a computer running Windows. Applications must be modified for the U3 platform not to leave any data on the host machine. U3 also provides a software framework for independent software vendors interested in their platform.
Ceedo is an alternative product that does not require Windows applications to be modified in order for them to be carried and run on the drive.
Similarly, other
In October 2010, Apple Inc. released their newest iteration of the MacBook Air, which had the system's restore files contained on a USB hard drive rather than the traditional install CDs, because the Air did not include an optical drive.[59]
A wide range of portable applications, which are all free of charge, and able to run off a computer running Windows without storing anything on the host computer's drives or registry, can be found in the list of portable software.
Backup
Some value-added resellers are now using a flash drive as part of small-business turnkey solutions (e.g., point-of-sale systems). The drive is used as a backup medium: at the close of business each night, the drive is inserted, and a database backup is saved to the drive. Alternatively, the drive can be left inserted through the business day, and data regularly updated. In either case, the drive is removed at night and taken offsite.
- This is simple for the end-user, and more likely to be done.
- The drive is small and convenient, and more likely to be carried off-site for safety.
- The drives are less fragile mechanically and magnetically than tapes.
- The capacity is often large enough for several backup images of critical data.
- Flash drives are cheaper than many other backup systems.
Flash drives also have disadvantages. They are easy to lose and facilitate unauthorized backups. A lesser setback for flash drives is that they have only one tenth the capacity of hard drives manufactured around their time of distribution.
Password Reset Disk
Password Reset Disk is a feature of the Windows operating system. If a user sets up a Password Reset Disk, it can be used to reset the password on the computer it was set up on.
Audio players
Many companies make small solid-state
Many of the smallest players are powered by a permanently fitted rechargeable battery, charged from the USB interface. Fancier devices that function as a digital audio player have a USB host port (type A female typically).
Media storage and marketing
Artists have sold or given away USB flash drives, with the first instance believed to be in 2004 when the German punk band
Brand and product promotion
The availability of inexpensive flash drives has enabled them to be used for
Usually, such drives will be custom-stamped with a company's logo, as a form of advertising. The drive may be blank, or preloaded with graphics, documentation, web links, Flash animation or other multimedia, and free or demonstration software. Some preloaded drives are read-only, while others are configured with both read-only and user-writable segments. Such dual-partition drives are more expensive.[64]
Flash drives can be set up to automatically launch stored presentations, websites, articles, and any other software immediately on insertion of the drive using the Microsoft Windows AutoRun feature.[65] Autorunning software this way does not work on all computers, and it is normally disabled by security-conscious users.
Arcades
In the
In the arcade games
In the arcade game Dance Dance Revolution X, an exclusive USB flash drive was made by Konami for the purpose of the link feature from its Sony PlayStation 2 counterpart. However, any USB flash drive can be used in this arcade game.[citation needed]
Conveniences
Flash drives use little power, have no fragile moving parts, and for most capacities are small and light. Data stored on flash drives is impervious to mechanical shock, magnetic fields, scratches and dust. These properties make them suitable for transporting data from place to place and keeping the data readily at hand.
Flash drives also store data densely compared to many removable media. In mid-2009, 256 GB drives became available, with the ability to hold many times more data than a DVD (54 DVDs) or even a Blu-ray (10 BDs).[66]
Flash drives implement the
Specially manufactured flash drives are available that have a tough rubber or metal casing designed to be waterproof and virtually "unbreakable". These flash drives retain their memory after being submerged in water, and even through a machine wash. Leaving such a 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.
Comparison with other portable storage
Tape
The applications of current
Floppy disk
Floppy disk drives are rarely fitted to modern computers and are obsolete for normal purposes, although internal and external drives can be fitted if required. Floppy disks may be the method of choice for transferring data to and from very old computers without USB or booting from floppy disks, and so they are sometimes used to change the firmware on, for example, BIOS chips. Devices with removable storage like older Yamaha music keyboards are also dependent on floppy disks, which require computers to process them. Newer devices are built with USB flash drive support.
Floppy disk hardware emulators exist which effectively utilize the internal connections and physical attributes of a floppy disk drive to utilize a device where a USB flash drive emulates the storage space of a floppy disk in a solid state form, and can be divided into a number of individual virtual floppy disk images using individual data channels.
Optical media
The various writable and re-writable forms of
Universal Disk Format (UDF) version 1.50 and above has facilities to support rewritable discs like sparing tables and virtual allocation tables, spreading usage over the entire surface of a disc and maximising life, but many older operating systems do not support this format. Packet-writing utilities such as DirectCD and InCD are available but produce discs that are not universally readable (although based on the UDF standard). The Mount Rainier standard addresses this shortcoming in CD-RW media by running the older file systems on top of it and performing defect management for those standards, but it requires support from both the CD/DVD burner and the operating system. Many drives made today do not support Mount Rainier, and many older operating systems such as Windows XP and below, and Linux kernels older than 2.6.2, do not support it (later versions do). Essentially CDs/DVDs are a good way to record a great deal of information cheaply and have the advantage of being readable by most standalone players, but they are poor at making ongoing small changes to a large collection of information. Flash drives' ability to do this is their major advantage over optical media.
Flash memory cards
Some manufacturers, aiming at a "best of both worlds" solution, have produced card readers that approach the size and form of USB flash drives (e.g.,
An additional advantage of memory cards is that many consumer devices (e.g.,
External hard disk
Particularly with the advent of USB,
Unlike solid-state memory, hard drives are susceptible to damage by shock (e.g., a short fall) and vibration, have limitations on use at high altitude, and although shielded by their casings, are vulnerable when exposed to strong magnetic fields. In terms of overall mass, hard drives are usually larger and heavier than flash drives; however, hard disks sometimes weigh less per unit of storage. Like flash drives, hard disks also suffer from file
Obsolete devices
Encryption and security
As highly portable media, USB flash drives are easily lost or stolen. All USB flash drives can have their contents encrypted using third-party disk encryption software, which can often be run directly from the USB drive without installation (for example, FreeOTFE), although some, such as BitLocker, require the user to have administrative rights on every computer it is run on.
Archiving software can achieve a similar result by creating encrypted ZIP or RAR files.[70][71]
Some manufacturers have produced USB flash drives which use hardware-based encryption as part of the design,[72] removing the need for third-party encryption software. In limited circumstances these drives have been shown to have security problems, and are typically more expensive than software-based systems, which are available for free.
A minority of flash drives support
Some manufacturers deploy physical authentication tokens in the form of a flash drive. These are used to control access to a sensitive system by containing encryption keys or, more commonly, communicating with security software on the target machine. The system is designed so the target machine will not operate except when the flash drive device is plugged into it. Some of these "PC lock" devices also function as normal flash drives when plugged into other machines.
Controversies
Criticisms
Failures
Like all flash memory devices, flash drives can sustain only a limited number of write and erase cycles before the drive fails.
When used in the same manner as external rotating drives (hard drives, optical drives, or floppy drives), i.e. in ignorance of their technology, USB drives' failure is more likely to be sudden: while rotating drives can fail instantaneously, they more frequently give some indication (noises, slowness) that they are about to fail, often with enough advance warning that data can be removed before total failure. USB drives give little or no advance warning of failure. Furthermore, when internal wear-leveling is applied to prolong life of the flash drive, once failure of even part of the memory occurs it can be difficult or impossible to use the remainder of the drive, which differs from magnetic media, where bad sectors can be marked permanently not to be used.[77]
Most USB flash drives do not include a write protection mechanism. This feature, which gradually became less common, consists of a switch on the housing of the drive itself, that prevents the host computer from writing or modifying data on the drive. For example, write protection makes a device suitable for repairing virus-contaminated host computers without the risk of infecting a USB flash drive itself. In contrast to SD cards, write protection on USB flash drives (when available) is connected to the drive circuitry, and is handled by the drive itself instead of the host (on SD cards handling of the write-protection notch is optional).
A drawback to the small physical size of flash drives is that they are easily misplaced or otherwise lost. This is a particular problem if they contain sensitive data (see data security). As a consequence, some manufacturers have added encryption hardware to their drives, although software encryption systems which can be used in conjunction with any mass storage medium will achieve the same result. Most drives can be attached to keychains or lanyards. The USB plug is usually retractable or fitted with a removable protective cap.
Security threats
USB killer
In appearance similar to a USB flash drive, a USB killer is a circuit that charges up capacitors to a high voltage using the power supply pins of a USB port then discharges high voltage pulses onto the data pins. This completely standalone device can instantly and permanently damage or destroy any host hardware that it is connected to.[78]
"Flash Drives for Freedom"
The New York-based Human Rights Foundation collaborated with Forum 280 and USB Memory Direct to launch the "Flash Drives for Freedom" program.[79][80] The program was created in 2016 to smuggle flash drives with American and South Korean movies and television shows, as well as a copy of the Korean Wikipedia, into North Korea to spread pro-Western sentiment.[81][82]
"Handmade" USB drives
"Handmade" USB drives, containing movies and other related content, have also been reported.[83]
Current and future developments
Semiconductor corporations have worked to reduce the cost of the components in a flash drive by integrating various flash drive functions in a single chip, thereby reducing the part-count and overall package-cost.
Flash drive capacities on the market increase continually. High speed has become a standard for modern flash drives. Capacities exceeding 256 GB were available on the market as early as 2009.[66]
SanDisk introduced a digital rights management technology called FlashCP that they had purchased in 2005 to control the storage and usage of copyrighted materials on flash drives, primarily for use by students.
See also
Explanatory notes
- ^ Jumpdrive is a Lexar trademark.[2] Less common names are disk key, disk on key (after the original M-Systems DiskOnKey drive from 2000),[3] flash stick, gig stick, memory stick, pen drive, USB drive, USB key, USB memory, and USB stick. For an incomplete list of alternative names, see the list of redirects to this article.
- ^ 1 GB = 1 billion bytes
- ^ 1 TB = 1 thousand gigabytes
- ^ USB flash drives allow reading, writing, and erasing of data, with some allowing 1 million write/erase cycles in each cell of memory: if there were 100 uses per day, 1 million cycles could span 10,000 days or over 27 years. Some devices level the usage by auto-shifting activity to underused sections of memory.
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