USB Pen Drive- simple file transfer and storage solution
When using PC’s you may need to transfer some data between machines. Pen drives are an easy solution to this dilemma, with the increasing complexity of applications and file sizes, our old friend the floppy disk just doesn’t seem to have the capacity to keep up.
At 1.44MB, you’re usually going to need to compress your files, and even then you’ll need to make sure that the compressed file is less than 1.44MB. It’s just not that convenient to take that huge new ‘Project’ file to work/school.
USB Pen Drive is a small keyring-sized device that can be used to easily transfer files between USB-compatible systems. Available in a range of capacities (and in some cases, with an MP3 player built-in) this handy little device can save all those data-transfer hassles.
How do I use it?
Simple. Plug it into the USB port* of your PC or Mac and watch the system automatically detect the new device. In your system drives a new drive has been created, The operating system can now access your USB Pen Drive just like any ordinary Hard Disk Drive.
Copy across all the files you want to the ‘new’ drive, wait for the Read/Write LED on the USB Pen Drive to stop flashing then disconnect it. That’s it. Your files are now safely stored on your USB Pen Drive. If you want to copy those files to another PC/Mac, just plug it in the new machine, wait for it to be detected and copy them off again.
* If you don’t want to reach round to the back of your PC every time to plug it in, you can use the handy Docking Bay to give you USB Pen Drive access right from your desktop.
What’s USB?
For a good few years now, most Motherboards have been built with an onboard facility called USB.
USB – Universal Serial Bus, is a ‘standard’ developed by the computer industry to allow a vast number of different devices to be easily attached to one machine with the minimum requirement for extra drivers and software and still operate at an efficient speed.
Put simply, this means: We can plug a USB device in without switching the PC off, it will be automatically detected by the Operating System and will be ready for use in a few seconds. The USB Pen Drive is one of those devices.
This is file transfer/storage in its safest and most convenient form.
The USB Pen Drive is shock-proof, dust-proof and weighing a mere 21 grams, it needs no batteries, has no moving parts and is available in a range of capacities from 32MB to 1GB.
It’s supported by Windows ME/2000/XP, Mac OS (ver. 8.6 or above) and Linux kernel (version 2.4.0 or above) without drivers, Windows 98/Windows 95 OSR2 (with supplied USB Driver).
Written by The Original PC Doctor on 2/5/2008.