Cheap Jump Drives And How To Use

Jump drives are also known as a USB, Memory stick or a Flash drive - they are removable and rewritable. They are used for the same purpose that a floppy disk or a CD is used. With easy usage, more than adequate memory, small size and low cost, these are the ideal gadget if you want to store documents, pictures, music, video and data. You can take the data with you, and easily transfer it to another computer using a USB port. Unlike other removable drives, USB drives do not require rebooting after they are inserted, neither do they require batteries or an external power supply. They are supported on all public machines, and can hold any type of data, including excel, jpeg, video, and text files. Jump drives are also commonly referred to as key drives, thumb drives, flash drives, USB drives and pen drives. The common USB jump drive sizes are 1GB, 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB, storage capacities can be expected to go as high as 256GB, in 2010. It is the device's portability and accessibility that make it extremely popular.

How to use a Jump Drive

1.Simply plug the Jump drive into an available USB port in your laptop or computer. The USB ports are located either on the back of the computer (on older computers) or located at the bottom of the front panel, or on the side near the front panel (on newer computers).

2.After this step, you can usually see an automatic pop up (Eg: Removable Disk F) on your screen, allowing you immediate access to the jump drive. If you do not for any reason get this pop up - go to "My Computer" and you can see the drive under "Removable Device" (These instructions are meant for a Windows PC, the procedure is somewhat similar on a Mac).

3.After this step, the drive can be used just like a regular desktop folder, as it enables you to save files to your drive, drag files to your drive, delete files from your drive and use it as any other drive on your computer.

4.After you finish working on your drive, you need to remove it from your system safely. Go to "My Computer" and look under "Removable Device", right click and select "Eject" , "Safely Remove Drive" or "Safely Remove Mass Storage Device". After you view a sign saying "The USB Mass Storage Device can now by safely removed from the system" in the task bar, the drive can be taken out of the USB port. If removed directly, there is a chance you may lose data or end up corrupting the data on the drive. Never pull the drive out of the USB port.

5.It is a good idea to back up all the data in your jump drive. If there is a chance that the drive does not open or the data gets corrupted, you will have other sources to obtain your information.

Purchasing Jump Drives

No matter how tempted you are, don't buy the first Jump drive you come across. With the competition for these Jump drives in the market, most of them are cheap and easy to purchase. But you need both quality along with a decent price, here are some ideas to keep in mind when you purchase Jump drives.

1.Decide on the Jump drive's size. Based upon your needs and wants, check how much of data you need to transfer and view.

2.There are many manufacturers who sell cheap Jump drives. To be on the safer side, check how good they are on the Internet, by researching. However, you will find them all mostly to be the same quality and having the same additional features. Researching also helps you compare the price of the various models. Here are some of the famous manufacturers of Jump drives - Transcend, Verbatim, LG, Kingston, Sandisk and Sony.

3.You need not order the Jump drive online, you will find many drives in an electronic or computer store. They offer the same rate and features.

4.Learn about all the additional features of your drive before you purchase it.

5.Check how compatible the drive is with your system. You can see a light blinking, when you are reading or writing a file, and then it will automatically turn off. This implies that the drive is compatible with your computer.