USB Flash Memory: Premium Storage

data: USB flash drives, CDs and other physical media, external hard drives, online storage in the cloud...
So what are USB flash drive advantages compared to all the alternatives? Are USB flash drives the best storage solution commonly available today?

The most honest answer is: sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on your particular needs. But USB flash drives are best is one respect: it’s always the most flexible choice. So let’s look into this and compare the advantages of each storage option and one at a time...

USB flash drive advantages over CDs

CDs are a wonderful archiving solution: you can burn your data to a CD-R or CD-RW, and then store the CD in a safe (preferably fire-proof) place. It’s also an easy-to-mail solution. But for everyday use, USB flash drive advantages outnumber the benefits of CDs.

USB drives offer orders of magnitude more storage than CDs. A single USB drive can hold the equivalent of a dozen CDs and still fit in your pocket! Plus, USB drives can house programs in addition to data: it’s possible to run an entire operating system off a USB drive. While you can do this with a LiveCD, you can’t save your personal customizations, configurations or data to a CD the way you can a USB. Advantage: USB flash best.

USB flash drive advantages over external hard drives

Here, the opposite is true: external hard drives offers much higher storage capacities than a USB drive. If you have a lot of data to store - maybe a music or video collection - that you might want to hook up to different local computers, an external hard drive could work well.

But for true portability, is USB flash best here too? Yes. External hard drives are portable only compared to internal hard drives, but they can’t compete with a USB drive. Plus, flash drives use solid-state memory, meaning there are no moving parts. Hard drives with those moving parts are much more susceptible to damage and lost data when being moved around.

USB flash drive advantages over online storage

Tons of services allow you to store files online. This is a great solution for easy, near-universal access. However, its flexibility again makes USB flash best. First, USB drives can run your preferred programs and operating systems in addition to storing data. Second, you don’t need an internet connection to work off a USB drive. Third, if the internet connection is painfully slow, a USB drive will zip along at its own speed. This is a major advantage to flash: speed. Finally, if you’re working from a location whose firewall prohibits access to the sites with your files you’d be surprised how often legit sites get inadvertently blocked, you can still get to your files with a USB drive.

Your priorities decide if these USB flash drive advantages make USB flash best for your needs.

In short, we can’t really answer the question in all situations because it depends. So you tell us: is USB flash best for you? Can you think of advantages we’ve missed? We can say without hesitation that a USB flash drive has the advantage in adaptability: it can simply do more, more quickly and more easily than any other single alternative.

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Making a Choice Between Large Versus Small Capacity USB Flash Drives

We’ve all been there—you have a few or more gigs of digital data and you need to figure out where to store it. The question is, do you invest in a larger capacity USB flash drive or multiple smaller drives? Size does matter to an extent in these circumstances except that there’s not a universal answer. Before you take the purchase plunge, here are a few key factors that could affect your decision.
- A large capacity custom flash drive will give you more space for your money. Generally, more storage translates into a significant price decrease that can be seen with the addition of every gig. For example, a 1GB drive may cost you $6 while an 8GB drive can be bought for just two dollars more.
- Consider your storage plans. If you will need to hold some extremely large files (1GB or 2GB apiece) a smaller flash drive may not have the room or speed performance of a larger drive. What’s more is that you may not want to divide one project into multiple parts for smaller USB flash drives because it could just create unnecessary prep work for you.
- Think about separating work and play. One advantage to having several smaller flash drives as opposed to a more than 8GB USB drive is that you can designate roles to each device to better organize your files. After all, who would want to mix family vacation photos alongside your corporate PowerPoint presentation?
- Check its specs. A few larger capacity flash drives use 3-bit MLC NAND chips. While these allow more storage per cell, some have been known to be less than reliable compared to sturdier SLC counterparts. A higher risk of data loss is the last thing you need with a large document, video or library of pictures.
- Back it up. Premium USB has always taken steps to strongly reiterate the importance of backing up all of your data. Multiple small capacity USB flash drives may give some extra reassurance—not putting all of your eggs in one basket so to speak. However, should you choose an 8GB, 16GB, 32GB flash drive or higher, consider also investing in another form of backup, be it extra custom USB drives or CDs and DVDs. There are countless storage combinations; the end result is up to your needs.
Which flash drive storage method do you prefer? One larger USB flash drive or a bunch of smaller ones?