Tape drives leverage magnetic technology to store data on a thin and narrow ream of plastic tape. Hard drives, which continue to rule the roost as primary storage devices for computers and laptops, use magnetic technology exactly like tape drives but store data on platters made of metal or glass and offer random access, in contrast to sequential access of the latter. Floppy diskettes that were very popular once are almost extinct now, with most computers shipping from factories without them. For all practical purposes, optical disks – compact disks (CDs) and their bigger cousins digital video disks (DVDs) – have outshone every removable data storage technology to become the undisputed leaders.

However, a new type of storage device has hit the market in recent years – USB drives. These offer such phenomenal advantages to users in terms of reliability, capacity and price that it seems that soon they are going to unseat the optical disks to become the removable and even non-removable storage devices of choice for many decades to come.

USB drives, as the name states, connect to a computer or laptop through the Universal Serial Bus port to offer or receive data. The USB interface offers very fast data transfer speeds compared to others. In fact, these drives can transfer data up to 50 times faster than an ordinary hard disk. USB storage media is quite small in size, no larger than your little finger. This makes them quite portable. Indeed, many of them can be dangled by the end of a key chain! They are also quite light, weighing just a few grams.

Why are USB drives so small and light? The answer lies in the technology they use to store data. These come in the shape of a tough plastic shell with a USB port jutting out at one end. Inside, there is nothing but one small chip that contains flash memory. Unlike hard drives, USB devices do not have any moving parts or delicately balanced components. All data is stored on the flash memory chip by flipping hundreds of thousands of transistors on or off through an electric current. Unlike the random access memory found inside a computer CPU, the USB drives can retain their data even when the power gets switched off, since the transistors retain their on or off position. Apart from the flash-memory chip, USB drives have nothing else inside. There are no motors or data-recording platters, as is the case with hard disks.

USB drives offer huge storage capacities compared to their size. The commonly available ones in the market can hold data anywhere from 1 GB to 12 GB. This is more than sufficient for the data-storage needs of most individuals and businesses since there is hardly any file size that exceeds this size. Moreover, due to constant research and maturing of technology, the capacities of flash-memory drives are becoming larger and larger. Many companies have recently launched drives which have a capacity of an amazing 60 GB and more!

A prominent laptop manufacturer recently launched a model that has only a flash-memory drive inside in place of the hard disks. This has many advantages. Not only are flash-memory drives lighter which helps in reducing the overall weight of the laptop, they have no moving parts inside, which reduces electricity consumption drastically. Indeed, already the hard drive manufacturers are in a panic regarding the future of the devices they manufacture. They have hit back by launching hybrid drives, which are nothing but old-style hard drives that have flash-memory built into them to act as secondary memory.

USB drives are not perfect, though. They can lose data due to a variety of ways. The biggest problem is that they are too small and can be easily misplaced. Also, they may get crushed under some heavy piece of equipment. USB drives may suffer hardware damage by accidentally falling into water or fire. Data can get lost due to software errors too, such as accidental deletion of files by the user or even reformatting of the drive.

For most cases of data loss due to software causes, there are many Do It Yourself (DIY) recovery software available in the market that you can use to extract your missing files. For cases of hardware damage, there is little you can do at home. You have to take the device to a professional recovery company which will carry out the necessary repairs and salvage the data.