As the power of the processor increased and the software programmes gradually got loaded with extra features, the storage needs of the computer users quickly outgrew the floppies. Graphics and multimedia files easily crossed the 100 MB mark and there was a need to have storage devices with higher capacities.
That is when the optical disks came on stage and revolutionised the way we store and transport data. Compact disks (CDs) have a capacity of 700 MB which, in contrast to the floppies, seemed almost inexhaustible in early days. Later, CDs were followed by a much more high-capacity version of optical disks, called the Digital Video Disks or DVDs. These can store a whopping 4.6 GB of data.
In the last couple of years, another technology called USB drives has become popular which, in turn, is threatening to make optical disks obsolete the same way the former had made floppies go out of use. A USB drive, also called pen drive, thumb drive or key-chain drive, uses a flash memory card to store data. As a result, it is quite small, no bigger than a man’s thumb and can easily be dangled from a key chain.
USB drives, as the name suggests, connect to the USB port of a computer. No separate drive is required, unlike in the case of an optical disk which can only be used with a special drive that has to be bought separately at an additional cost. The USB devices are also plug-and-play, that is, the moment you insert the drive into the USB port, the operating system recognises it, loads its driver from its database and assigns it a separate drive letter.
A USB drive has many advantages:
1. When you insert the USB drive into the computer, you do not have to reboot the machine for it to recognise the device. You can start using it immediately.
2. USB drives draw power from the computer itself. They do not need batteries to run or require an external power supply.
3. USB drives are not dependent on a particular platform. They are platform-independent and can be used with any operating system.
4. These drives are quite small and a number of these can fit easily in a man’s short pocket. They are also very light in weight.
5. Despite their small size and negligible weight, USB drives have phenomenal capacities. The commonly available drives come in sizes of 1 GB to 8 GB. There are drives manufactured by some companies which have a staggering 65 GB capacity.
6. A USB drive has no moving parts. It is made up of an integrated circuit and a flash memory card. There is hardly any wear and tear. Contrast this with a hard disk that has platters spinning at 7,200 RPM, with the read / write head hovering above. Because of the absence of any delicate or moving parts, a USB drive is immune to impact trauma to a large extent. It does not develop a malfunction if it is dropped to the ground.
7. The USB drives come encased within a tough plastic shell that protects them from dust and other kinds of damage such as scratches, unlike optical disks whose data-recording surface remains exposed to the elements.
8. USB drives do not need a separate drive to be installed in the computer. They are stand-alone, independent devices that draw power from the computer itself.
9. Because there are no moving parts inside, USB drives have minimal power requirements. This makes them ideal substitutes for hard disks inside laptops.
10. Hard drives store data on platters coated with magnetic paint. This makes them vulnerable to strong magnetic fields which can destroy their digital data. USB drives have no magnetic parts. Instead they store data in a memory card which is totally immune to magnetic fields.
11. USB drives are very reliable and can last for a number of years. Unlike read-only optical disks, data can be written and re-written on USB drives thousands of times without any problem.
12. USB drives, as the name suggests, use the Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface to communicate with the operating system. This powerful interface allows these drives to transfer data to the computer at speeds that are about 10 times higher than those offered by a hard disk.
As the capacity of USB drives increases with time and prices drop, they are definitely going to pose a threat to the hard disk industry for becoming the prime data-storage devices used inside computers and laptops.
