Imagine for a moment hauling around a large zippered case of CDs filled with music to share with friends. Sounds a bit silly today, but it wasn’t so long ago that CDs were considered the latest and greatest in technology. Fast forward a few years and you’ll rarely see anyone hauling around a stack of CDs. Instead, people are turning to USB flash drives and with very good reason – well 10 very good reasons actually.
Small Size
Nicknamed the thumb-drive because of its small size, a USB flash drive fits effortlessly in your pocket, on a keychain or even around your neck.
Fashionable
USB flash drives make a fashion statement these days. Available in an endless array of colors and styles, you can show off your own tastes by the type of USB drive you have.
Versatile
Flash drives don’t care about the data you put on them. You can mix and match word files, audio, video, photos… you name it. It’s great for backing up critical files or sharing with others.
Trendy
Flash drives still have the Wow! factor when you show up with one filled with party music and plug it in to a friend’s drive, ready to get the party started.
Compatible
A USB flash drive is compatible with any computer or peripheral that has a USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 port. No special drivers are needed.
Cheap
The lower capacity drives will cost you about as much as a blank DVD these days. 8 gigs will set you back about $35 US. As with anything else, larger drives are coming to market all the time, so increased capacity is getting cheaper all the time.
Fast
The transfer speeds are pretty peppy and much faster than CDs, DVDs or other optical media.
Tough
Because they are solid state and don’t have any moving parts, USB flash drives are virtually indestructible and work in all sorts of conditions that would have any other storage medium wither and seize.
Easy
Adding data to a USB flash drive is easy. Just drag and drop the data onto the drive and it copies right over. No need to burn data like a CD requires.
Readily Available
USB flash drives can be purchased virtually anywhere and if you need additional storage, either buy a second USB drive or one with larger capacity.