A USB Flash Drive consists of a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB interface. USB Flash Drives are typically removable and rewritable. When you plug a USB Flash Drive into your computer USB port, the computer recognizes it as a mass storage device and assigns it a drive letter. Then, you may use it like a floppy drive or hard disk drive to store documents, music, private data and almost any other kind of files.

Using a flash drive to store files is just as easy as using an old floppy disk and even simpler than burning a CD or DVD. Just plug your Flash Drive into a USB port on your computer and drag the files you want to take with you into the folder that appears in "My Computer" or on your desktop. Your files are quickly copied over to your Flash Drive. To transfer the items on your USB flash drive onto another computer, simply plug your Flash Drive into the new computer, open the folder that appears on your screen, and drag the desired files onto a folder on the destination computer.

Flash Drives are based on the USB standard and operate with all PCs (Macs too!) and devices with a USB port and running Windows ME or later (USB drivers are also available for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE and Windows NT) or Mac OS 8.6 or later. Virtually every personal computer manufactured in the past 10 years is equipped with USB ports, and nowadays it is common to find systems with as many as eight separate USB ports.

USB ports are much more common than DVD burners so while your Flash Drive will work with almost any computer, blank media (CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, etc.) would require the hardware necessary to write data to them. Also, the process of copying files from your computer to a Flash Drive is much faster and simpler than burning a CD or DVD. What's more, Flash Drives act like portable hard drives to which you can add and delete files as many times as you like-as opposed to CD-R's and DVD-R's where you can only add data once and you cannot remove data once it is burned onto the disc. Also, unlike blank media which are sporadically faulty and deteriorate consistently over time, Flash Drives are manufactured and printed under rigorous quality control standards.

Roughly the size of a pack of gum, Flash Drives are far smaller than external hard drives, offering users unrivalled portability. Additionally, Flash Drives utilize flash memory-technology that includes no moving parts whatsoever unlike traditional hard drives-so risk of damage from rough handling and accidental drops is greatly reduced. Flash Drives are also more convenient because they do not require any of the configuration and setup associated with typical external hard drives.

Flash Drives are for everyone! Power users will appreciate the advanced options and portability that Flash Drives provide, while tech novices will love how easily and intuitively Flash Drives allow you to transport and share files. If you can turn on a computer and open a document, you can operate a Flash Drive!

As evidenced by our large and diverse clientele, Flash Drives are truly for everyone. Small businesses, large corporations, educational institutions, hospitals, government agencies, charitable establishments-all of these organizations have benefited from the capabilities made possible by our flash drives.

Yes, you can use USB Flash Drive with Mac or Linux computer if there is USB port. The Mac OS should be version 9 or later, and Linux kernel should be version 2.4.0 or later.

Usually it is formatted as FAT32. You may format it to other file system formats if your computer OS supports, such as FAT, exFAT, NTFS, EXT2, EXT3, etc. . FAT32 is commonly supported by most computer systems, including Windows, Mac and Linux. However, FAT32 cannot store file with size greater than 4GB. If you need to store file size greater than 4GB, you may consider using NTFS, but the USB Flash Drive will be used on Windows computer system only, it may not be used in other computer systems.

If your USB Flash Drive is formatted as FAT32, you need not to install any driver for Windows 7 and other newer operating systems.

The USB interface standard was created with the hot-swappable feature. You may insert or remove a USB Flash Drive while the computer is on. However, it does not mean you can remove a USB Flash Drive while data is being read or written to/from it. You should first release the USB Flash Drive by clicking the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in Windows tray.

Please follow these steps to store files on a Windows system:
- Power on a computer with Windows operating system, log on it and wait until it has started up successfully.
- Plug the USB Flash Drive into the USB port of the computer, wait until the system has detected
the Flash Drive and installed driver for it automatically.
- Use Windows Explorer to locate the Flash Drive icon and double-click on it to open the contents of the drive, check that the Flash Drive can function normally.
- Copy or drag the files/folders you wish to store on this Flash Drive.
- Verify that the files/folders are stored properly.
- Ensure that you do not disconnect the drive directly from the computer after you have finished storing the files, as it may destroy the files.
- Click on the icon of “Safely Remove Hardware” in the Windows tray, and then click on the item name of your Flash Drive. Wait until it prompts that your drive can now be safely removed from the computer.
- Unplug the Flash Drive from the USB port.

No, you should not remove a USB Flash Drive just after storing/updating files on it. Removal at such times may cause the loss of data and damage to the device. You should first release the USB Flash Drive by clicking the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in Windows tray.

When a USB Flash Drive is first plugged into the USB port of a computer, the USB Flash Drive LED turns on and off. This means that the computer is recognizing the USB Flash Drive. During a file transfer, the USB Flash Drive LED will flash. Do not unplug the USB Flash Drive during a file transfer. Doing so may cause corruption of the data being transferred, or cause corruption of the FAT table of the USB Flash Drive. If the FAT table is corrupted, the USB Flash Drive can go back to its original working condition by formatting it; however, all the data will be lost.

A computer finishes data transfer from the CPU to the built-in buffer memory. In this case, the computer thinks that the data transfer has finished; however, it takes more time to transfer data from the buffer to the USB Flash Drive. This causes the LED to continue flashing. Please do not unplug the USB Flash Drive while the LED is flashing. This may damage your data or the USB Flash Drive FAT table.

When the computer prompts that the device is currently in use, you should not pull out the USB Flash Drive at this moment. This may damage your data or the USB Flash Drive FAT table. You may close any programs or windows that might be using the device and then try again. If the computer still prompts the message, you may need to shut down the computer before pulling out the USB Flash Drive.

By default, a USB Flash Drive operates in the way as a removable storage. The deleted files will not be stored in Recycle Bin first. So that you may not recover the files once they have been deleted.

Since USB Flash Drive is a mass storage device, it can be infected by a computer virus. Once a USB Drive has been infected by a computer virus, you may try to clean it by using anti-virus program.

There are many reasons that may cause these scenarios, including
- the USB Flash Drive is being encrypted and password protected,
- the file system format is not recognized by the computer system,
- the USB Flash Drive has some software corruption or hardware failure.
If the USB Flash Drive is being encrypted, you must use proper program and password to unlock it. If the file system format is not recognized, you might need to install suitable driver or merely use it in those computers that can recognize such file system format. If you are sure that it is software corruption, usually the USB Flash Drive can be reused by formatting it again, but all the data stored in it will lose. If the USB Flash Drive is hardware failure, you may need to replace a new one.

Please follow these steps to format/erase a USB Flash Drive:
- Insert the USB Flash Drive into a USB port on your computer. Click on the “Start” button and then click on the “My Computer” option.
- Right-click on the flash drive in the “Devices with Removable Storage” section and then click on the “Format” option. A formatting dialog box will appear.
- Select a format type in the “File System” box, for example: FAT32. Rename your flash drive in
the “Volume Label” box. Leave all of the other settings on their default values.
- Click on the “Start” button. Click on the “OK” button when it asks if you are sure to erase all of your data.
- Close the formatting dialog box after the formatting process completes.

USB 1.1 is earliest version, which supports devices at a lower speed, for example: Keyboard and mouse. Depend on the devices, USB 1.1 can operate at two modes: Low Speed and Full Speed. The data transfer speeds of USB 1.1 at Low Speed mode and Full Speed mode are 1.5 Mbps and 12 Mbps respectively.

USB 2.0 is newer version, which supports devices at a faster speed if the device is designed for USB 2.0, for example: USB Flash Drive and USB Hard Disk. USB 2.0 can operate at a Hi-Speed mode, the data transfer rate is increased to 480 Mbps.

USB 3.0 is newer version after USB 2.0, which can operate at a Super Speed mode with the data transfer rate up to 5 Gbps. Nowadays, most computer systems and USB Flash drives support USB 3.0.

USB 3.1 is currently the newest version, which can operate at a Super Speed mode with the data transfer rate up to 10 Gbps.

Please refer to the URL “Universal Serial Bus (USB)” for more information.