GRF 4GB Cool Transformers USB Flash Memory Drive Stick

Specifications:

• Reading Speed: 26.96M/S 
• Writing Speed: 3.97M/S
• Storage Capacity: 4GB
• Compatible with: PC, notebook with USB interface
• Storage Temperature: -50°C ~ +80°C
• Size: 74 x 33 x 13mm / 2.9 x 1.3 x 0.5in(L x W x H)

Features:

• The USB flash memory stick will work on any PC with USB ports
• Just plug into your USB port and your computer will immediately detect and configure the disk without restarting your computer
• The USB flash memory stick works well with virtually any device
• Read, write, copy, store, delete files just the same way as you use for a floppy diskette or hard drive
• This USB flash memory stick can slip into your pocket, conveniently around your hand for ultimate portable storage
• Small style and fashionable
• The USB flash memory stick is used to data storage and protection, as easy as click and drag
• The USB flash memory disk can hold just about any file you can think of - reports, pictures, spreadsheets or other important documents
• You can move, save, copy, delete and run files from the USB drive in the same way you would from your PCs hard-disk
• In a few seconds you can watch your move straight out of the box on your PC/laptop
• No Internet connection is needed so whether you're at home, at work or on the move you're moments away from hours of entertainment
• You can also back up your move simply by dragging the file onto your computer with this USB flash memory drives
• It is the ultimate mobile storage solution for transferring files between computers
• Lightweight and compact, the 4GB flash memory drive is ideal for mobile users
• Unique and special Transformers design draws much attention from buyers and users

Details:

• Just plug into your USB port and your computer will immediately detect and configure the disk without restarting your computer

• This USB flash memory drive can slip into your pocket, conveniently around your hand for ultimate portable storage

• The data traveler can hold just about any file you can think of - reports, pictures, spreadsheets or other important documents

• The USB flash memory drive is used to data storage and protection, as easy as click and drag

What is a USB Flash Drive?

• A USB flash drive consists of a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g (1 oz). Storage capacities in 2010 can be as large as 256 GB[2] with steady improvements in size and price per capacity expected. Some allow 1 million write or erase cycles[citation needed] and have a 10-year data retention cycle
• USB flash drives are often used for the same purposes as floppy disks were. They are smaller, faster, have thousands of times more capacity, and are more durable and reliable because of their lack of moving parts. Until approximately 2005, most desktop and laptop computers were supplied with floppy disk drives, but most recent equipment has abandoned floppy disk drives in favor of USB ports
• USB Flash drives use the USB mass storage standard, supported natively by modern operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and other Unix-like systems. USB drives with USB 2.0 support can store more data and transfer faster than a much larger optical disc drive and can be read by many other systems such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, DVD players and in some upcoming mobile smartphones
• Nothing moves mechanically in a flash drive; the term drive persists because computers read and write flash-drive data using the same system commands as for a mechanical disk drive, with the storage appearing to the computer operating system and user interface as just another drive. Flash drives are very robust mechanically
• A flash drive consists of a small printed circuit board carrying the circuit elements and a USB connector, insulated electrically and protected inside a plastic, metal, or rubberized case which can be carried in a pocket or on a key chain, for example. The USB connector may be protected by a removable cap or by retracting into the body of the drive, although it is not likely to be damaged if unprotected. Most flash drives use a standard type-A USB connection allowing plugging into a port on a personal computer, but drives for other interfaces also exist
• Most USB flash drives draw their power from the USB connection, and do not require a battery. They should not be confused with some look-alike music player devices that combine the functionality of a digital audio player with flash-drive-type storage and require a battery for the player function

Design and Implementation:

• One end of the device is fitted with a single male type-A USB connector. Inside the plastic casing is a small printed circuit board. Mounted on this board is some power circuitry and a small number of surface-mounted integrated circuits (ICs). Typically, one of these ICs provides an interface to the USB port, another drives the onboard memory, and the other is the flash memory
• Drives typically use the USB mass storage device class to communicate with the host

Essential Components:

There are typically four parts to a flash drive:

• Male type-A USB connector - provides a physical interface to the host computer
• USB mass storage controller - implements the USB host controller. The controller contains a small microcontroller with a small amount of on-chip ROM and RAM
• NAND flash memory chip - stores data. NAND flash is typically also used in digital cameras
• Crystal oscillator - produces the device's main 12 MHz clock signal and controls the device's data output through a phase-locked loop

Additional Components:

The typical device may also include:

• Jumpers and test pins - for testing during the flash drive's manufacturing or loading code into the microprocessor
• LEDs - indicate data transfers or data reads and writes
• Write-protect switches - Enable or disable writing of data into memory
• Unpopulated space - provides space to include a second memory chip. Having this second space allows the manufacturer to use a single printed circuit board for more than one storage size device
• USB connector cover or cap - reduces the risk of damage, prevents the ingress of fluff or other contaminants, and improves overall device appearance. Some flash drives use retractable USB connectors instead. Others have a swivel arrangement so that the connector can be protected without removing anything
• Transport aid - the cap or the body often contains a hole suitable for connection to a key chain or lanyard. Connecting the cap, rather than the body, can allow the drive itself to be lost
• Some drives offer expandable storage via an internal memory card slot, much like a memory card reader

Size and style of packaging:

• Some manufacturers differentiate their products by using elaborate housings, which are often bulky and make the drive difficult to connect to the USB port. Because the USB port connectors on a computer housing are often closely spaced, plugging a flash drive into a USB port may block an adjacent port. Such devices may only carry the USB logo if sold with a separate extension cable

• USB flash drives have been integrated into other commonly carried items such as watches, pens, and even the Swiss Army Knife; others have been fitted with novelty cases such as toy cars or LEGO bricks. The small size, robustness and cheapness of USB flash drives make them an increasingly popular peripheral for case modding
• Heavy or bulky flash drive packaging can make for unreliable operation when plugged directly into a USB port; this can be relieved by a USB extension cable. Such cables are USB-compatible but do not conform to the USB standard

How much can you store?

Uses:

Personal data transport:

• The most common use of flash drives is to transport and store personal files such as documents, pictures and videos. Individuals also store medical alert information on MedicTag flash drives for use in emergencies and for disaster preparation 

Secure storage of data, application and software files:

• With wide deployment(s) of flash drives being used in various environments (secured or otherwise), the issue of data and information security remains of the utmost importance. The use of biometrics and encryption is becoming the norm with the need for increased security for data; OTFE systems are particularly useful in this regard, as they can transparently encrypt large amounts of data. In some cases a Secure USB Drive may use a hardware-based encryption mechanism that uses a hardware module instead of software for strongly encrypting data. IEEE 1667 is an attempt to create a generic authentication platform for USB drives and enjoys the support of Microsoft with support in Windows 7

System administration:

• Flash drives are particularly popular among system and network administrators, who load them with configuration information and software used for system maintenance, troubleshooting, and recovery. They are also used as a means to transfer recovery and antivirus software to infected PCs, allowing a portion of the host machine's data to be archived. As the drives have increased in storage space, they have also replaced the need to carry a number of CD ROMs and installers which were needed when reinstalling or updating a system

Computer forensics and law enforcement:

• A recent development for the use of a USB Flash Drive as an application carrier is to carry the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) application developed by Microsoft. COFEE is a set of applications designed to search for and extract digital evidence on computers confiscated from suspects.[25] Forensic software should not alter the information stored on the computer being examined in any way; other forensic suites run from CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, but cannot store data on the media they are run from (although they can write to other attached devices such as external drives or memory sticks)

Backup:

• Some value-added resellers are now using a flash drive as part of small-business turnkey solutions (e.g. point-of-sale systems). The drive is used as a backup medium: at the close of business each night, the drive is inserted, and a database backup is saved to the drive. Alternatively, the drive can be left inserted through the business day, and data regularly updated. In either case, the drive is removed at night and taken offsite

• This is simple for the end-user, and more likely to be done
• The drive is small and convenient, and more likely to be carried off-site for safety
• The drives are less fragile mechanically and magnetically than tapes
• The capacity is often large enough for several backup images of critical data
• And flash drives are cheaper than many other backup systems
• It is also easy to lose these small devices, and easy for people without a right to data to take illicit backups

Advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

• Data stored on flash drives is impervious to scratches and dust, and flash drives are mechanically very robust making them suitable for transporting data from place to place and keeping it readily at hand. Most personal computers support USB as of 2010[update]
• Flash drives also store data densely compared to many removable media. In mid-2009, 256 GB drives became available, with the ability to hold many times more data than a DVD or even a Blu-ray disc

• Compared to hard drives, flash drives use little power, have no fragile moving parts, and for most capacities are small and light
• Flash drives implement the USB mass storage device class so that most modern operating systems can read and write to them without installing device drivers. The flash drives present a simple block-structured logical unit to the host operating system, hiding the individual complex implementation details of the various underlying flash memory devices. The operating system can use any file system or block addressing scheme. Some computers can boot up from flash drives

• Specially manufactured flash drives are available that have a tough rubber or metal casing designed to be waterproof and virtually "unbreakable". These flash drives retain their memory even after being submerged in water, even through a machine wash. Leaving such a flash drive out to dry completely before allowing current to run through it has been known to result in a working drive with no future problems. Channel Five's Gadget Show cooked one of these flash drives with propane, froze it with dry ice, submerged it in various acidic liquids, ran over it with a jeep and fired it against a wall with a mortar. A company specializing in recovering lost data from computer drives managed to recover all the data on the drive. All data on the other removable storage devices tested, using optical or magnetic technologies, were destroyed

Disadvantages:

• Like all flash memory devices, flash drives can sustain only a limited number of write and erase cycles before failure. This should be a consideration when using a flash drive to run application software or an operating system. To address this, as well as space limitations, some developers have produced special versions of operating systems (such as Linux in Live USB)[36] or commonplace applications (such as Mozilla Firefox) designed to run from flash drives. These are typically optimized for size and configured to place temporary or intermediate files in the computer's main RAM rather than store them temporarily on the flash drive
• Most USB flash drives do not include a write-protect mechanism, although some have a switch on the housing of the drive itself to keep the host computer from writing or modifying data on the drive. Write-protection makes a device suitable for repairing virus-contaminated host computers without risk of infecting the USB flash drive itself
• A drawback to the small size is that they are easily misplaced, left behind, or otherwise lost. This is a particular problem if the data they contain are sensitive (see data security). As a consequence, some manufacturers have added encryption hardware to their drives-although software encryption systems achieve the same thing, and are universally available for all USB flash drives. Others just have the possibility of being attached to keychains, necklaces and lanyards. To protect the USB plug from possible damage or contamination by the contents of a pocket or handbag, and to cover the sharp edge, it is usually fitted with a removable protective cap, or is retractable
• Compared to other portable storage devices such as external hard drives, USB flash drives still have a high price per unit of storage and were, until recently, only available in comparatively small capacities. This balance is changing, but the rate of change is slowing. Hard drives have a higher minimum price, so in the smaller capacities (16 GB and less), USB flash drives are much less expensive than the smallest available hard drives

Comparison with other portable storage:



Tape:

• The applications of current data tape cartridges hardly overlap those of flash drives: cost per gigabyte is very low, the drives and media are expensive, have very high capacity and very fast transfer speeds, and store data sequentially. While disk-based backup is the primary medium of choice for most companies, tape backup is still popular for taking data off-site for worst-case scenarios

Floppy disk:

• Floppy disk drives are rarely fitted to modern computers and are obsolete for normal purposes, although internal and external drives can be fitted if required. Floppy disks may be the method of choice for transferring data to and from very old computers without USB or booting from floppy disks, and so they are sometimes used to change the firmware on, for example, BIOS chips. Devices with removable storage like older Yamaha music keyboards are also dependent on floppy disks, which require computers to process them. Newer devices are built with USB flash drive support

Optical media:

• The various writable and rewritable forms of CD and DVD are portable storage media supported by the vast majority of computers as of 2008. CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R can be written to only once, RW varieties up to about 1,000 erase/write cycles, while modern NAND-based flash drives often last for 500,000 or more erase/write cycles.[39] DVD-RAM discs are the most suitable optical discs for data storage involving much rewriting
• Optical storage devices are among the cheapest methods of mass data storage after the hard drive. They are slower than their flash-based counterparts. Standard 12 cm optical discs are larger than flash drives and more subject to damage. Smaller optical media do exist, such as business card CD-Rs which have the same dimensions as a credit card, and the slightly less convenient but higher capacity 8 cm recordable CD/DVDs. The small discs are more expensive than the standard size, and do not work in all drives

• Universal Disk Format (UDF) version 1.50 and above has facilities to support rewritable discs like sparing tables and virtual allocation tables, spreading usage over the entire surface of a disc and maximising life, but many older operating systems do not support this format. Packet-writing utilities such as DirectCD and InCD are available but produce discs that are not universally readable (although based on the UDF standard). The Mount Rainier standard addresses this shortcoming in CD-RW media by running the older file systems on top of it and performing defect management for those standards, but it requires support from both the CD/DVD burner and the operating system. Many drives made today do not support Mount Rainier, and many older operating systems such as Windows XP and below, and Linux kernels older than 2.6.2, do not support it (later versions do). Essentially CDs/DVDs are a good way to record a great deal of information cheaply and have the advantage of being readable by most standalone players, but they are poor at making ongoing small changes to a large collection of information. Flash drives' ability to do this is their major advantage over optical media

Flash drives for non-USB interfaces:

• The majority of flash drives use USB, but some flash drives use other interfaces, such as IEEE1394 (FireWire),[48][49] one of their theoretical advantages when compared to USB drives being the minimal latency and CPU utilisation that the IEEE1394 protocol provides, but in practice because of the prevalence of the USB interfaces all IEEE1394-based flash drives that have appeared used old slow flash memory chips[50] and no manufacturer sells IEEE1394 flash drives with modern fast flash memory as of 2009, and the currently available models go up only to 4 GB,[51] 8 GB [49] or 16 GB, depending on the manufacturer. FireWire flash drives that needs to be connected to FireWire 400 port cannot be connected to a FireWire 800 port and vice-versa
• In late 2008, flash drives that utilize the eSATA interface became available. One advantage that an eSATA flash drive claims over a USB flash drive is increased data throughput, thereby resulting in faster data read and write speeds.[52] However, using eSATA for flash drives also has some disadvantages. The eSATA connector was designed primarily for use with external hard disk drives that often include their own separate power supply. Therefore, unlike USB, an eSATA connector does not provide any usable electrical power other than what is required for signaling and data transfer purposes. This means that an eSATA flash drive still requires an available USB port or some other external source of power to operate it. Additionally, as of September 2009, eSATA is still a fairly uncommon interface on most home computers, therefore very few systems can currently make use of the increased performance offered via the eSATA interface on such-equipped flash drives. Finally, with the exception of eSATA-equipped laptop computers, most home computers that include one or more eSATA connectors usually locate the ports on the back of the computer case, thus making accessibility difficult in certain situations and complicating insertion and removal of the flash drive

Package Included:

• 1 x USB Flash Memory Drive