Thumb drive
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| − | A '''thumb drive''', or ''USB flash drive''', is a small device which can be inserted into a [[USB]] port in a computer or other electronic device in order to provide storage or transfer of data. It resembles a disk drive to the computer, but has no moving parts. They are widely used due to their compact size (smaller than a floppy disk or CD) and high storage capacity (as much as 256 gigabytes now, with terabyte-sized thumb drives in the works for the future). The memory is nonvolatile, so it will hold its data indefinitely just like a disk, and is freely readable and writable like a floppy or hard disk. | + | A '''thumb drive''', or '''USB flash drive''', is a small device which can be inserted into a [[USB]] port in a computer or other electronic device in order to provide storage or transfer of data. It resembles a disk drive to the computer, but has no moving parts. They are widely used due to their compact size (smaller than a floppy disk or CD) and high storage capacity (as much as 256 gigabytes now, with terabyte-sized thumb drives in the works for the future). The memory is nonvolatile, so it will hold its data indefinitely just like a disk, and is freely readable and writable like a floppy or hard disk. |
Many varieties of thumb drives exist with different data capacities. | Many varieties of thumb drives exist with different data capacities. | ||
Revision as of 17:38, 30 December 2012
A thumb drive, or USB flash drive, is a small device which can be inserted into a USB port in a computer or other electronic device in order to provide storage or transfer of data. It resembles a disk drive to the computer, but has no moving parts. They are widely used due to their compact size (smaller than a floppy disk or CD) and high storage capacity (as much as 256 gigabytes now, with terabyte-sized thumb drives in the works for the future). The memory is nonvolatile, so it will hold its data indefinitely just like a disk, and is freely readable and writable like a floppy or hard disk.
Many varieties of thumb drives exist with different data capacities.
References
- Wikipedia article
- Writing a thumbdrive from scratch: Video lecture describing "hacking" the low level of a thumb drive and its firmware and interfaces, for such purposes as hiding your data from forensic scans
