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USB Flash Drives
Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drives are currently the most common form of portable data storage device. Questions about USB drives belong here.
1,651 Questions
Is RAM volatile or non volatile memory?
In prossesor it is volatile but in hard drive it is non-volatile.
Most flash drives are USB. Most modern USB devices are plug-and-play, which means that you simply insert them into an available USB slot, and wait for the computer and windows to recognize it. On the first insert, there may be a driver installation sequence, and you should wait until told that the device is ready to use. On the second insert, it generally only takes a few seconds, and there are a pair of ascending beeps to indicate that it is ready.
Usually, a flash drive appears as a mounted folder on your computer's file system. Depending on your settings, you may automatically be taken to a folder view. If not, go to Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) and navigate My Computer to find it.
Don't forget to properly eject the device, to force all pending writes to be completed before removing the device. You can do this by clicking on the USB icon in the Status Tray, near the clock, looking like two green arrows or, in Windows 7, an upwards pointing triangle that takes you to several icons, one of which allows you to "eject removable media". If you get a message saying that you can not eject right now, make sure all explorer windows are closed and that all applications and data files on the drive are closed, and try again.
What is meant by low level formatting?
Low-level formatting is the process of outlining the positions of the tracks and sectors on the hard disk, and writing the control structures that define where the tracks and sectors are. This is often called a "true" formatting operation, because it really creates the physical format that defines where the data is stored on the disk. The first time that a low-level format ("LLF") is performed on a hard disk, the disk's platters start out empty. That's the last time the platters will be empty for the life of the drive. If an LLF is done on a disk with data on it already, the data is permanently erased (save heroic data recovery measures which are sometimes possible).
If you've explored other areas of this material describing hard disks, you have learned that modern hard disks are much more precisely designed and built, and much more complicated than older disks. Older disks had the same number of sectors per track, and did not use dedicated controllers. It was necessary for the external controller to do the low-level format, and quite easy to describe the geometry of the drive to the controller so it could do the LLF. Newer disks use many complex internal structures, including zoned bit recording to put more sectors on the outer tracks than the inner ones, and embedded servo data to control the head actuator. They also transparently map out bad sectors. Due to this complexity, all modern hard disks are low-level formatted at the factory for the life of the drive. There's no way for the PC to do an LLF on a modern IDE/ATA or SCSI hard disk, and there's no reason to try to do so.
Older drives needed to be re-low-level-formatted occasionally because of the thermal expansion problems associated with using stepper motor actuators. Over time, the tracks on the platters would move relative to where the heads expected them to be, and errors would result. These could be corrected by doing a low-level format, rewriting the tracks in the new positions that the stepper motor moved the heads to. This is totally unnecessary with modern voice-coil-actuated hard disks.
More input from FAQ Farmers:
- The only time you could low level format a new voice coil hard drive if it you would have bad sector that are not being taken care by the hard disk logic. Most of the time you will have a utility to do this task that comes from the manufacturer of the drive and it will not work with any other brand. Maxtor and late quantum has a utility called Max blast plus and power max and others. They are used to diagnostic but also to fix at the low level.
- Those utilities can many times restore an unstable drive by reformatting at the low level and blocking out bad sector. Of course if the RLL (magnetic data) is low because the read write hardware is defective it will do no good. If the surface was damaged it could give the drive a new life.
- There is also an application called Spinrite (by Steve Gibson) It's not a low level format in itself but it reads and rewrites the data (at the low level) while analyzing the disk. Spinrite is over 17 years old and has been updated to the new technology ever since version 1 (current version is 6). I's a very respected software by all the hard disk service technician around the world. Steeve Gibson is one (if not the best) of the best hard disk low level white hat hacker in the world.
- No software of any sort can truly low-level format today's modern drives. The ability to low-level format hard drives was lost back in the early 1990's when disc surfaces began incorporating factory written "embedded servo data". If you have a very old drive that can truly be low-level reformatted, SpinRite v5.0 will do that for you ( But this is only possible on very old non-servo based MFM and RLL drives with capacities up to a few hundred megabytes. You can still read and write from that "so called" low level but not in the same way it was original;y possible then with old drives.
How many 700mb movies can you store on a 4gb flash drive?
700MB is the size of a CD. A DVD will hold 4.7GB. A full length movie will usually be between 3 and 4GB. Movies can be compressed to a smaller size but at the cost of viewing quality.
The answer to this question lies within your OS (Operating System). If you have Windows XP, plug your flash drive directly into any available USB port on your PC (Personal Computer), then double-click "My Computer". There should be an extra drive letter listed to represent your flash drive. I believe the same goes for Windows ME & Macintosh. I do know however that Windows '98 requires driver software to make a flash drive recognize. It is recommended to first install the software, reboot, then plug in the flash drive upon bootup. Should this order not be followed, problems may occur when attempting to recognize, store or retrieve data.
Install the USB Flash Drive:
Plug the USB flash drive into a free USB port on your laptop (it is an approximately 1/2" slot, either on the side or back of the laptop).
Windows XP operating system should recognize it. It may ask you what you want to do with it. Select "Open folder to view files using Windows Explorer" and click OK.
Operating system should assign it a drive letter (see the title of the Windows Explorer window that opens).
Use the USB Flash Drive:
In Windows Explorer, click Folders button on the menu bar to show the installed drives on the left pane of the screen.
To copy a file from c:\ (hard drive) to flash drive:
Find the file you wish to copy on the c:\ drive.
Right-click it and select Copy.
Right-click the location on the new drive where you wish to paste the file, and select Paste.
(File should now appear in desired location.)
Uninstall the USB Flash Drive:
Close Windows Explorer and any applications (MS Word) that may be using the flash drive.
In the lower right corner of the screen is the System Tray. In it is an icon that when moused over reads "Safely Remove Hardware". Click this icon once to display list of devices installed.
Click the device you wish to remove (probably e:\ drive, will probably be described as a mass storage device).
Notification will appear in the lower right corner saying that it is safe to remove the drive.
(If you open Windows Explorer at this point, it should no longer show this drive in the drive list.)
How do you copy flash drive?
Insert the flash for recognition by the computer. Usually a window will open by itself showing contents of flash. If space permits, open another file and copy what you will by "Drag and drop" or right click "send to" and highlight the flash. Most blink to show files being copied. If it is full, can transfer by "Drag and drop" to the computer of highlight what you want to delete and hit "delete". Sometimes must also erase from recycle file to get rid of items.
More Information:
Your best bet is going to be following the instructions that come with your flash drive. If you haven't bought one yet and are just curious do a google.com search for "flash drive" and look through the results for a computer or tech site where you can read about them.
How To Use a USB Flash Drive
First, if you don't already have one, buy a USB flash Drive.
Second, put the flash drive into the USB slot. Choose what picture, music, e.t.c that you want to transfer to another computer. Then you notice that the USB icon appeared on your desktop, you drag your picture, music, e.t.c to that icon. Now you have uploaded your picture, music, e.t.c to your Flash Drive.
Third, on your keyboard in the top right corner you notice the eject button. Click it and then take out your Flash Drive.
Fourth, put the Flash Drive into the other computer, and you notice -once again-the USB icon on your desktop. Now double click the icon and CONGRATS! You now have your picture, music, e.t.c. And you can download it to your hard drive by dragging it to a Folder of your choice. NOTE: DO NOT take out your Flash Drive without pressing the eject button.
How do you download Windows 7 to your USB flash drive?
Hi,
At First u need to check whether u're USB drive has the capacity on minimum 1 GB, because the operating itself will carry upto 680MB-700MB of space.So check it out that then restart u're system
Goto the BIOS in advanced tab enable the USB option.
Make the boot from other (in that select the boot from USB )
Then press F10 or whatever the required save button for your BIOS and press enter then it will automatically start loading u're operating system files.
Computer temporary and permanent storage devices?
Temporary storage is ram, or memory, reason it is temporary is that when you switch the computer off, all information that was stored in memory is now gone.
Permanent storage would be the original type of ROM. It was written to once and could never be changed. That was mainly used for BIOS instructions. While hard drives are non-volatile, meaning they don't need power to retain their memory, they are not permanent.
Nonvolatile storage is hard drives (both internal and external), CD's, DVDs, floppies, USB devices (including flash memory), because data that is stored on these devices remain there until physically changed, or deleted. The data is not lost when the power is turned off.
How much data can be stored in 1GB flash drive?
1,073,741,824 bytes. One gigabyte is equal to 1,024 megabytes.
A 'flash drive', aka 'thumb drive', 'USB drive', 'pen drive', 'stick drive', and other names, is really nothing more than a stick of DRAM with a controller chip and a tiny battery wrapped in a portable case. Because it is RAM-based, storage is measured in binary units (kibibytes) instead of the standard metric (kilobytes) units that hard drives use.
How do you save a PowerPoint to a flashdrive?
1) plug in your flash drive
2) click the Microsoft button on the top ( its a circle with four squares inside it )
3) click save as
4) make sure the bar at the top is switched to your flash drive
5) name your Power Point
6) click save or okay, whatever it says at the bottom
Your Welcome
Download a hi-speed usb host controller?
The "Hi-Speed USB Host Controller" is the part of the computer that enables the use of USB 2.0. USB 2.0 offers a huge speed advantage over USB 1.0/1.1, upgrading transfer speed from 12 mbps to 480 mbps.
Is it safe to download security software to a USB flash drive?
It is typically safe to download security software to a USB flash drive. USB flash drives at notoriously known for having viruses installed on them, so installing download security software would only help improve the security of ones data. And the security software such as USB
How do you remove write protection from your Kingston usb flash drive dt 100?
- Click start
- Click Run
- Type "CMD"
- Hit Enter - A black screen should now appear
- Type "diskpart"
- Wait until you get "DISKPART>" then type in "select volume (blank)" fill in the blank with the letter of the drive you are trying to remove write protection from
- Now type "attributes volume clear readonly"
How long will pictures last on a external hard drive?
depends on the type of drive, but as long as the drive is kept away from magnets and at the proper temperature and humidity it should last a decade or two.
How do you download a movie to a flash drive?
Well you could find a website which hosts the data.
BUT be Careful. depending on where you are this is VERY ILLEGAL and breaking copyrights.
Or if you own the file, you can copy it over by dragging it across.
I do not endorse breaking the law.
A 3 in 1 card reader is one device that can read 3 different card formats. These devices usually read cards like SD, microSD and others usually used in devices like cameras, phones and other similar devices. You would use the card reader to read and write data to these cards. For example, you could use a card reader to retrieve pictures from your digital camera's card to transfer them to your computer.
What is RAM Memory on a computer and what is it used for?
RAM is the Random Access Memory. The most primary role of RAM is to copy the operating system in to itself and then load the Operating System so that you can work. Also when you install any software, it requires some minimum amount of memory, else it will deny to install.
- For DOS, 16 MB of RAM is sufficient
- For Windows 98, Minimum RAM requirement is 32 MB
- For Windows XP, Minimum RAM requirement is 64 MB
- For Windows Vista, Minimum RAM requirement is 512 MB
Is a USB stick an output device?
A USB drive is a device that stores data and could be considered either an output or input device, though not in the sense of a monitor or speakers being an output device or a keyboard and mouse an input device. The data it contains cannot be directly accessable by the human senses in those same terms.
volatile memory is memory that will wipe all the data saved to it after the computer shuts down e.g: RAM.
How to open usb root directory?
To open the root directory of a USB drive on a Mac you need to plug the USB drive into a USB socket and double click on its icon. The window that appears is the root directory. As you add other directories (known as folders on a Mac) they branch out from the root.
What happens when a USB flash drive gets wet?
if the inside of it becomes wet then the USB or flash drive will not work anymore.
Don't throw it away until you have dried it out. I have one that survived a trip through the wash.
One good option if to go to a store such as radio shack. The sell Those memory cards/chips which go in your camera. Some of these cards have an additional slot in the middle where you can fit your sim card. This makes transferring data easy and it is also a good way to put music on your phone and use said music for ringtones. Alternately just use phone to computer USB cord. You can usually charge your phone this was as well as transferring data.
A flash drive has to be inserted in the USB port on the computer. Latest operating systems detect the flash drive and install the necessary drivers on their own. Once the device is detected, it can be used for storing the data. The device needs to be ejected from the computer. The system prompts you when it is safe to remove the flash drive. It can be physically ejected then.
A flash drive consists of a PCB, a printed circuit board. It is covered in a plastic or rubber casing, making it sturdy. A USB connector that protrudes is covered with a removable cap. Most flash drives use type-A USB connection making it compatible with standard type-A receptacles. Hence they can be directly connected to a port on a computer.
Flash drives implement the USB mass storage device class, thus do not require any additional device drivers. When a flash drive is plugged in to a computer, what is presented to it is a block-structured logical unit. This leads to an abstraction from the complex implementation details of the flash memory devices.
