Call it a thumb drive, or a flash drive, or a jump drive, the USB drive is now big enough to be identified by even the most casual of computer users. Flash drives are cheap enough to manufacture and convenient enough to carry that they have become the go-to item for promotions and trade shows. Colleges give them out in their orientation packets, exhibitors at conventions hand them out by the bucket, and musicians leave them in conspicuous places as viral marketing. But what many people don't realize is usually that not all Jump drives and devices can be created equal, above and beyond the mere difference of capacity.

USB 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0

To use a personal example, a few weeks ago a friend gave me a flash drive containing some rather large files. I opened up the front panel of my computer, plugged the drive into the port, and tried to copy the files over to my desktop, only to find that the transfer was going to take a surprising estimate of two hours. Frowning, I unplugged the drive and stuck it in one of the USB ports in the back of the computer system to try again, and my new transfer time was more around two minutes.

How does that work? It's pretty common, actually: improvements in hardware over the years have made for varying tiers of USB devices. USB 1.0 and 1.1, released in the late 90s, transfer data at a fairly slow rate compared to the the current standard of USB 2.0, which is about forty times faster than its predecessors (1.5 and 12 megabits per second for 1.0 and 1.1 respectively compared to 480 megabits per second under 2.0). Though most existing computers don't have the hardware to support the incoming USB 3.0 standard (which marks roughly a tenfold improvement in speed over 2.0), as early as January 2010 manufacturers began showing their 3.0 devices. The key thing to keep in mind regarding USB devices is that while you can generally achieve backward compatibility when it comes to plugging a higher tier device into a lower tier port, you're still limited by the speed of the port - hence my vast gap in transfer times.

Pre-loaded software

Quite a few models of drives come with preloaded software with the intent of allowing portable applications, the most notable of which would be the U3 software which comes with a great deal of SanDisk models. This design allows the user to run programs directly from the Flash drive without installing them onto the computer directly. While newer users can find this helpful, some more experienced users prefer to remove the software either in order to open up more of the drive's capacity and to remove the potential security risk posed.

Scam drives

If the dread of having to remove pre-loaded software or the allure of a lower price point drives you to seek out generic brand flash drives or purchasing secondhand drives online, you can want to reconsider your choice. Though most generic brand drives are legitimate if a bit shoddily made, there are some drives which pack a hidden surprise. The drive claims a certain capacity, and when you plug the drive into the computer applications on the drive tricks the computer system into displaying that capacity. However, when you begin to fill up the drive the ruse is revealed: the drive is actually a much lower capacity and you've been scammed. This mostly happens on eBay with generic brands, however there are a large number counterfeit brand-name drives that

All told

So, to sum up: make sure that your ports and your drives match up in terms of protocol, make sure to purchase your drives from a reputable source, and decide for yourself regardless of whether you want onboard software or a blank drive. Finally, no matter what you do, try not to consider why they don't simply put the chip part in the middle of the plug for a symmetrical design so that you don't always try to plug it in the wrong way the 1st time. That way lies madness.