tech.tarts

A thumb drive – no, it is not a device you hook on your steering wheel or a game for X-Box. A thumb drive, often called a USB stick, Flash drive, or removable drive, is that tiny (1 to 2 inch) stick about the size of a thumb that is actually a mini-hard drive (a hard drive is the thing on your computer, device or a separate box that stores your actual files and applications) and can hold anywhere from 4 Gigabytes to 256 Gigabytes of digital information (photos, documents, music, etc). (Gigabytes, GB or Gigs, equal 1 million bytes of digital information storage. You can easily get away with 8 or 12 and be just fine).

The term USB means Universal Serial Bus which is a standards-based technology for the metal part of a hard drive that sticks out of the end of a device and slips into the socket on your pc. You connect keyboards and mice, iPod and Blackberry, and yes, your thumb drive, to your PC using a USB connector.

The thumb drive has many uses and benefits:

• Easily move a file from one computer to another without having to email it, ftp it, or park it on a shared drive on a network. Simply put the file you want to share onto the thumb drive, then plug the drive into the receiving computer, et viola. File shared.
• Carry data with you. It is so small and light you can drop in your pocket or purse and bring it anywhere.
• Because it is “Universal” it will work with ANY device: PC, Mac, TV’s, etc. anything with a USB port can accept a thumb drive.

How do I use it? Most modern computers have several USB slots and the ability to read any type of USB drive you insert into it. Some PCs may ask you install something to access the drive, but this is usually a quick “ok” and it does it all for you. To insert the thumb drive into your PC, slip the metal end into the slot. There is a right side up, so if it doesn’t slide in easily, flip it over and try again.

Usually, if you see this symbol on one side of your USB stick, it is the side that faces up.

Once it is inserted your computer will take a second recognize it as a new drive on the system. In some cases, your PC may automatically launch a window to see the contents. If yours doesn’t, click on Start, Computer, to open the list of drives on your PC. It may have different names based on the manufacturer or the port you slid it into (for example: “Removable Drive (E:)”). Once you’re in the window to see content, you can open up any file or directory you want to copy onto the thumb drive and simply drag them over.

click to enlarge

When you’ve transferred all your files to the thumb drive, go up to the menu bar   and choose Safely Remove or Eject. Once done, pull it out. Now you and your files are mobile!

I use thumb drives at work all the time, and almost always have one in my purse…you can’t believe how often this tart gets asked for a thumb drive!

Where do I get one? Everywhere! Manufacturers include Kingston, SanDisk, among others. But they can be obtained at any Best Buy, Target or Amazon… Easy to find, easy to use.

Happy sharing. tt.t