USB flash drive
USB flash drives consist of flash memory with a USB interface. This allows the flash memory, which retains data even without power, to be plugged into a computer and treated like a "USB mass storage device". They are also referred to as:
- "disk on key"
- "keychain drive"
- "pen drive"
- various brand names, such as "jump drive"
- iPod shuffle.
Benefits
USB flash drives can be a handy and very portable way to carry around your most critical data, without relying on a network connection. They are typically small and lightweight, which can make up for their relatively low capacity. They can also be plugged into the USB ports of computers that sport them, which means they are generally very compatible.
With all removable media, we recommend you have a backup of your important files on another disk -- preferably a fixed hard disk drive in a computer. Use a removable drive to transfer files, not as your primary storage for documents.
Compatibility
While Macintosh computers can generally use these drives quite easily, you do need to meet certain minimum requirements to have USB mass storage support.
It has been our experience that many USB flash drives come preformatted for use with Microsoft Windows computers. Therefore, you should understand the limitations of saving Macintosh files on a Windows-formatted disk, or reformat the flash drive before using it. This should be familiar to anyone who has used an "Iomega Zip drive" or external "FireWire hard disk drive", as the issues are very similar.
Troubleshooting
According to reports we have found on the Internet, some flash drives may not perform properly when reformatted for the Mac OS Extended, or HFS+, file system used by Macintosh systems. This may be most prevalent for drives that support the USB 2.0 standard and are greater than 128 MB in capacity. If this is the case for you, we strongly advise you to contact the manufacturer.
Some tips that may help you use a USB flash drive:
- Always keep at least one copy of files you store on your USB flash drive on another disk, preferably a fixed hard disk in your computer. Media that you carry with you are subjected to much greater stress than a desktop computer's hard disk, and are thus more likely to fail.
- Connect the USB flash drive to a powered USB 1.1/2.0 port, such as one directly on your computer on on an AC-powered USB hub.
- Do not connect the drive to unpowered USB ports, such as those on most Apple keyboards.
- Keep the USB flash drive formatted as FAT16/FAT32 instead of native Macintosh HFS+. (However you should understand the limitations of storing some Macintosh files on FAT-formatted disks, and that if you have problems, Macintosh disk recovery utilities cannot, as a rule, fix problems on FAT volumes. Although ITS is able to help with "disk recovery", we are generally unable to recover certain kinds of Macintosh data lost on failing FAT volumes for this reason.)
