What is a USB Flash Drive and What Is It Good For, Anyway?

USB flash drives are one of those things in life that are foreign at first, but once you use them successfully, you never think about them again. They are that simple. These devices even seem magical when you use one for the first time, especially if you have been using computers for decades.

What is a USB Flash Drive?
In simple terms, they are storage devices for computer files. If you used to use floppy disks or CD-Rs to temporarily move and store files, flash drives are their replacements. The key advantages flash drives have over these other storage media is that (like most advances in tech) they are smaller, faster and hold much more data.

How Do I Use One?
When they are formatted correctly, they are easy to use. Just plug in the drive directly into an open USB port somewhere on your new Mac, or on an external USB hub. I have extra USB ports on my Apple and Dell displays as well as a hub under my desk. However, I recommend you plug in non-powered USB devices like flash drives directly to your Mac so they don't have to share power with other devices.

Next, look on your Desktop or the side bar of a Finder window to see the drive's icon. I like to change my drive icon to look like the drive itself so it's easy to recognize.

At this point, you can treat the drive in the Finder like any other drive, copying files to it and deleting them as desired. Remember that on Macs, when you drag a file from one drive to another, it doesn't move the file, it copies it.

OUCH! Here's the rub that annoys PC switchers: When you want to remove the drive, you should "Eject" the drive by right-clicking on it and selecting Eject or any of the other handful of ways to eject a drive. Then pull it out. When you don't eject it, your Mac will scold you. I've never had a problem not ejecting it, but the scolding is annoying.

Update: Another annoying Mac thing is that you need to remember to empty the trash while the drive is plugged in to actually delete the files from the drive. I know, you already put them in the trash, but the Trash needs to be emptied to complete the process. Oh and by the the way, it will empty your normal trash at the same time whether you like it or not. (thanks, Dan)

What About Formatting?
Most USB drives should ship in the FAT32 file system. Both Macs and PCs can read this format fine. I suggest you keep your flash drive formatted in FAT 32 for the most utility. You can use Disk Utility to change it as desired. See 1 External Hard Drive for Your Mac and PC for more details on drive formats.

Why Should I Have One?
Simply put, flash drives are the floppy disk of the 2000's. They are the easiest way to move files from one computer to another, including both Macs and PCs. Of course there are a multitude of ways to network computers to share files, including via email, but I find flash drives to be the easiest because there are so few steps to using one right away. They are also easy to handle being so small and light. The one downside I can think of is that they are so small and light they can be lost easily. In fact, I've forgotten about mine and sent mine through the washing machine several times, but it still works fine.

For a breakdown of what is the best type of drive to use to transfer various file sizes, see Moving Files Between a Mac and a PC the Easy Way.

How Much Do They Cost?
Right now in late 2008, you can get sizes up to 16GB for under $50. You can get lower capacity 1 GB drives for under $5. They are so cheap these days that companies actually give these away as swag. If I was in the market, I'd just go to Buy.com and get what's on sale. Make sure to check the shipping cost as it might be more than the item.

Flash Drive Tips:
Flash drives often come with caps, but you don't need one. I've never heard of a drive damaged from not having a cap on. They don't leak. Mostly the caps just make them look better.

Only buy capacity for what you might need. Photos, Office files and MP3s are usually a few MBs each. A full length movie ripped for iPhone is about 1-2 GB. Figure out if need a lot of GBs before buying. Odds are you don't

You can use these to create easy off site backups for important files. You may want to backup your iPhoto library periodically and leave the drive at someone else's house. Check your iPhoto library size first. It might be in the 16-32GB range.

You can create a bootable USB drive with a copy of Leopard on it to get you out of jams when your Mac crashes. You can find instructions here. Keep in mind you won't be able to use it on a PC anymore.

Keep it simple. If you want to partition your flash drive or use it for multiple scenarios, you may just want to buy a few of them.

Mark yours or put your name and number on yours. Almost everyone has one these days and they are easy to mistake for one another.

Got Tips of Your Own?
Share them with us in the Comments section below!

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More info on flash drives from Wikipedia

HOWTO: Install and Boot OS X On a Flash Drive

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