What are the advantages and disadvantages of a USB Flash drive?

Answer 1

Items can be moved on and off of them, unlike a CD, when you burn an item, it burns it and no items can be put back onto it. Plus, they are small and portable, unlike a CD. They also come in 16 gigabyte forms, with DVDs only going up to 4.7 gigabytes, and CDs going up to only 750 megabytes.

Answer 2

USB Flash drives are readily affordable and cost less per megabyte than the previously ubiquitous floppy disk. They are also more reliable than floppy disks, and can be easily carried in a pocket or around one's neck. They offer a large storage capacity without the inconvenience of transporting an external hard drive. All modern operating systems (Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7, Linux 2.4+, and Mac OS X) support USB Flash drives, and virtually all modern computers are equipped with a USB port.

Due to their small size, they can easily be misplaced or lost. Without the aid of additional software, data on the drive can be easily read by anyone who finds it. While much longer lasting than floppy disks, they are vulnerable to wearing out from the process of writing / erasure of the disk. Occasionally the file system can become corrupted in such a way that it becomes difficult or impossible to reformat the drive.

Answer 3

ADVANTAGES.

• They are more compact and portable than floppy disks or CDs/DVDs.
• They hold more data than a floppy disk and nowadays often more than a CD.
• They are more reliable than a floppy disk because they have no moving parts.

• They are being developed with fashionable looking outer castings and are almost becoming a 'fashion accessory' much in a way of a mobile phone.

DISADVANTAGES.

• At the moment, the cost per megabyte of storage is more expensive than floppy disks, CDs or DVDs.
• They can easily be lost.
• The metal part which is inserted into the USB port can snap off if they are handled roughly.

Answer 4

This text has already been used in an OCR piece of coursework and so if you use this in any GCSE coursework you will need to credit the author (me, kittsville) or face disqualification:

NOTE: This was used in a larger essay on computer hardware so there may be some references to a section on hard drives which isn't included.

USB flash drive

A modern equivalent to the floppy disk, a flash drive (also called USB stick, USBy pen*, pen drive, USB or memory stick) can store thousands times more data and is much more durable (no moving parts). Modern flash drives can store as much data as some old hard drives (back when hard drives had 20GB capacities). A USB flash drive is a mix of old and new. Older data storage technology, combined with modern microprocessor advancements has lead to a cheap, low power data storage medium. Because of its low cost and convenience (just plug in) it has become a very lucrative market. For transferring data between computers that don't have a LAN network (like with many multiple computer owners) a USB is a cheap and effective solution. In school networks where pupils can't send documents to each other (because of administrative rules) a USB is once again the solution. This very essay was done entirely on a USB because it makes it easier to work at home and school. Just as Amazon gained popularity for its convenience so did the flash drive.

The only problem with a USB is its lifespan; flash drives have write cycles which means once the end of a write cycle is reached the USB will stop allowing writing. This means that the USB's owner will not lose all their data but merely not be able to write any more data to it.

The length of time before this happens varies based on how often a memory stick is used. One used to store an operating system to run a computer off would be constantly written and read making its lifespan considerably less than that of someone who occasionally used their memory stick to transfer a few word documents.

*Pronounced 'Uzbe pen

Answer 5

A disadvantage of a flash drive is that it can not be locked. If you lose it, anyone can see what is on it. An advantage would be the ability to carry portable data. You can always have your documents and whatnot with you.

Answer 6

The key advantage of a flash disk is that it is small and does not take up much storage space. A key disadvantage is that they are so small that they are easy to lose.

Answer 7

advantages are they are really light

disadvantages it thet runs out quikly

Answer 8

Advantage : lightweight and small enough (1/8" thick) to fit into shirt pocket

Disadvantage: only holds 1.44 MB