There was a time when floppy disks, CDs and zip disks were considered to be the ultimate among storage media products. CDs and floppies are compact, small and thin making them easy to store data and carry around. These are, however, limited by their inadequate security system and storage space. They are also easily damaged or corrupted.

There is a time, at present, when a small component has captured the market of the floppy disks, CDs and zip disks due to its tiny size, robustness and enhanced security features. These small plastic data storage devices or flash drives can fit in the palm of your hand but can store up to 8 GB of data. These can be attached to your key ring and carried in your pocket. Damage to your data or the drive is avoided due to the plastic casing. Data is easily accessible as these devices connect to any computer via a USB port. It has robust security features as most of these offer password and file encryption options. Since data is stored in a non-volatile chip memory, it is not destroyed due to shock (advantage over hard drives), magnetic field (advantage over floppy drives) or scratches (advantage over CDROM drives).

No driver needs to be installed in your computer as the latter recognizes the drive as an external drive where you can copy data from the USB flash drive window. However, for Windows 95 / 98 /ME driver installation is a must.
There are various kinds of flash drives currently available in the market.

Types of USB Flash Drives

Standard USB Flash Drive - Needs a USB port to transfer data; high speed of transfer; high storage capacity.

Security USB Flash Drive - Security features to prevent loss of data; some have built-in password prompts; some have data encryption (64, 128 / 256 bit) and some feature fingerprint authentication along with data encryption codes.

MP3 USB Flash DrivePortable music flash drives; store data and plays music; offers displays, capacity, functions (radio, tuner, microphone).

Innovative USB Flash Drive - Look wise similar to typical USB flash drives; with higher memory capacity and memory card slots; with wireless connectivity; high speed data transfer rate via a firewire connector.

Multifunctional USB Flash Drive - Look different than the normal USB drives; look more like wristwatches and pens with a connector and encryption codes & high memory capacity.