Tag: Storage Device

Usb Drives Gaining Popularity in India

Anmol Taneja asked:

A USB drive is a memory data storage device that is integrated with the universal serial bus connector. USB drive is called as a drive as it appears similar and accessed similarly to the mechanical disk drive to both the user and the computer operating system. USB drives in India have become a new craze in the market.

USB drive has a small printed circuit board in either rubber, metal or plastic casings. The drive’s connector either protrudes out or gets retracted into the drive’s casing. That’s why the USB drive can be easily carried away by keeping it in the pocket like a key ring. The drive also has jumpers and test pins, connector cap and transport aid also. The USB drive is preformatted with FAT file system that’s why the drive can be easily accessed on any host device that offers USB support. The standard FAT maintenance utilities are used for retrieving the corrupted files.

USB drives in India can be easily bought from leading online shopping stores like Gadgets.in. USB flash drives are compact in size but still hold much more data as compared with the floppy disk. This rewritable and removable drive is very small and easy to carry. A USB drive not only stores music and multimedia files but also text and graphics. The data in the USB drive can be accessed by connecting the USB connector with either a USB hub or a host controller in the computer. USB ports are available on every type of laptop and personnel computers. If the USB drive is overweight and bad-fitted, then the drive gets disconnected with the computer. So use a short USB to USB extension cable so as to minimize the tension in the port and the connection.

With the help of USB drive you can carry your resume anywhere and also can open and update it on any computer. The USB drive also help in carrying favorite music files and family photo album to any acquaintance’s place so as to enjoy together. USB drives are popular among administrators as they load them with the information that is used for system maintenance and recovery. The USB drives helps in transferring antivirus and recovery software to any infected computer so as to recover a portion of data in any emergency. Now there is no need of carrying installers for updating and reinstalling a system. Some also carry Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor application for searching and extracting evidence on computers. There can be special uses like one can store medical alert information on Medic Tag USB drives that prove really beneficial during emergencies and natural disasters. It is useful for system and network administrators in storing information regarding system maintenance, problem solutions and recovery. There are many types or variants available and today, USB drives in India come integrated with other tools like pen, watch, mobile, knife and Swiss army knife.

The Similarities Between USB Flash Drives and MP3 Players

Derek Rogers asked:

Today’s MP3 players, like Apple’s iPod, are basically fancy USB drives with built in control mechanisms and a hefty price tag. Unlike USB flash drives, most MP3 players lack the ability to share data files, DVD movies and photos easily.

USB flash drives are not only capable of easily sharing music, but can transfer any file that can be stored on a home PC quicker than using CD-ROMs.

MP3 players require a separate program for your computer to be able to upload music or download existing tunes stored on the device. Sometimes these programs are memory intensive or poorly written, making the task more of a headache than it’s worth. Even Apple’s iPod lacks the ability to download songs from the device to a computer, due to copyright infringement worries.

This is all well and good, until you want to place a song from a CD you bought and ripped to your computer at home to the computer at the office using the iPod as a transfer medium. In addition, you are required to download or install the MP3 player’s proprietary program to each computer.

USB flash drives are different; they act as any other storage device used for your computer. Once you plug the device into an available USB slot, the files stored on it become a new drive in your computer’s directory, the files can then be saved, deleted, moved, or renamed just as with any other system folder. This makes sharing music between computers a breeze.

You simply load the drive up with your favourite music and carry it to another computer. Once the drive is plugged in, the music can be played directly from the USB drive or the songs may be copied to a folder on the computer’s hard drive for later use. No mess, no fuss.

One of the advantages of having an MP3 player is the ability to connect it to your car’s stereo system to listen to your music on the road. More and more car stereo manufactures are building USB slots into their products now, though. With a USB slot built into your stereo, you simply plug a USB drive in and all the music stored on the drive will be available to your stereo without added equipment. What’s more, many brands of receivers will read MP3 tags and display the title information for the songs and albums, depending on your model.

USB friendly MP3 players can also be plugged into these slots, but the play control remains with the MP3 player instead of the in-dash radio. Multitasking is not a skill you want to develop while driving!

USB flash drives are also considerably cheaper than their fancier counterparts. Leave a USB drive in your car in a bad part of town and it will probably still be there on your return. Leave an iPod, and it’s a pretty safe bet that it will be missing soon after you leave. Capable of storing the same amount of songs as twenty or more CDs, depending on drive size and data compression, the cost of a stolen flash drive pales in comparison to the cost of replacing a case filled with compact disks.

The only decisive advantage MP3 players have over flash drives is the ability to directly plug in a pair of headphones. In this day and age, though, how often are we without a computer or car stereo close at hand?