Re:Pen drives . anyone know how a pen drive actually physically stores data? is it magnetism?
964517
USB flash drives are NAND-type flash memory data storage devices integrated with a USB interface. They are typically small, lightweight, removable and rewritable. Memory capacity typically ranges from 128 megabytes up to 64 gigabytes [1], limited only by current flash memory densities, although cost per megabyte increases rapidly at higher capacities due to the expensive components. For example, as of October 2006, flash drives were available in retail stores at US$25 for 512MiB, US$35 for 1GiB, US$60 for 2GiB, US$100 for 4GiB, and US$160 for 8GiB. [citation needed]\n\n///
21376
Here are some thoughts:\n\n1. Hard drives have a MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) bascially this means that they will fail within a certain time or at least produce bad sectors making some of your data unrecoverable(ish). One way to try to protect data on your PC is to have a RAIDED system that means 2 or more identical drives and hardware or software replicates the software across each drive so if one drive goes down you still have your data. This does not help if the PC goes on fire or gets water damaged, you should always have a seperate backup procedure.\n\n2. DVD's are a good way of backing up your data and I would say are a more reliable way of backing up rather than Hard disks but they are limited to 4.7GB (single sided). What I do is burn a backup every week or whenever I do a big change of data but this is dependant on the old saying "What happens if your Hard Disk died in 5 minutes would you miss any data on it" if yes do a daily Backup. 99% of IT companies only backup there data every day so backing up every few hours is a bit extreme but again if it is critical do a backup. Buy quality DVD's!\n\n3. USB memory sticks are pretty tough bits of kit and you can give them quite a bit of grief before they fail, USB sticks use memory chips rather than magnetic media like hard disks and tend to be a little bit more robust. They can get corrupted just like any other device.\n\n4. Zip disks are a bit old hat and have the same problem as floppy disks avoid avoid avoid! Trust me I have used them and relied too much on them and lost data cos of it.\n\n5. Tape backups (DDS3/4/DAT72) have a good capacity and alot of IT companies use this type of backup but again they are suseptable to corruption similar to floppy disks if kept for any length of time as they are magnetic media, expensive to maintain.\n\n6. SD/MMC cards are similar technology to USB memory sticks as they store the data on a chip(s) but do not normally have the capacity to store alot of data (1GB?) and are very easily lost/broken as they are so small.\n\n7. Online backups are an option but most are insecure and do you want people to have access to your data/photos etc. hmmmm\n\nI suppose there is no 100% safe way of backing up your data (and keeping it safe) but I have found DVD's to be pretty good (using quality DVD's with dark ink), I use DVD-RW as my data changes alot and there is no point in me keeping the old stuff but buy high quality DVD's as cheap and nasty DVD's tend to develop problems later in life.\nI have seen alot of testing done on USB sticks and they have been found to be very tough to break.\n\nIf you are serious about the data you can buy a small fire proof safe as well.\n\nJust my opinon and experience!
555362
Yes, it depends entirely on what's wrong with it. Electronic storage isn't like hard drives. When you delete something from a hard drive, it doesn't really go anywhere, it's just marked as deleted, and will eventually be overwritten by something else. This is because a hard drive has moving parts, and it would create unnecessary wear and tear on them to go through and actually get rid of every file you delete. Electronic storage, on the other hand, works more like ram. When you delete something, or the device loses power, the data is gone, without a trace, period. If it's not that the data is gone, but imply can be retreived, because of say... a bent connector, you may be able to bend it back into place without loss of data, but other than that...
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The hard drive does have a magnetic trace of previous files until they have been written over a certain number of times.  This trace can be retrieved by certain software or hardware.  If you suspect that the computer you have has had illicit material on it, then I'd suggest you overwrite these files.  One freeware program that I've heard of does this.  It's called Eraser.  You can find it by going to the site below and searching for the "Software/Project"  and "Eraser".
858440
Sooner or later Hard Disk drives will be obsolete. Flash ram will not be the one to do it. It has a shelf life, and eventually goes bad. MRam is a new chip on the market that uses magnetic fields to store bits, and does. not go bad. Keep your eye out for that one Might be a good stock to get into!
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I personally think that disk drives in the future will:\n- Have huge storage sizes (terrabytes) due to the use of perpendicular writing methods.\n- Will get smaller.\n- Will include flash memory (will allow for instant access for OS boot ups.\n- Might be made of flash memory totally. No moving parts quicker access speeds.\n\nPlease note that these are my personal conclusions, they are not a professional opinion.\n\n~Enjoy
745826
naah u dnt sound silly as u hv said..every1 does nt hv all d knowledge in d world...wht u hv asked is possible...u can use the flash drive to store any data/ music and detach it ...goto another computer n open/play files/music.....even on ur computer u can do that if its attached to ur comp.....i hope that helps......
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Yeah...Never store data important data on floppy disks.\n\nTry this http://www.download.com/BadCopy-Pro/3000-2248_4-10463101.html?tag=lst-0-8
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Right click on my computer --> click on manage and then go to disk management.\n\nFrom there tell me what you see with regards to the external USB 2 attached hard drive, does it show up in there, if so what does it say regarding the hard drive , does it have a filing system or anything or what ?\n\nIt may just be a case of having to assign a drive letter to it.\n\nThanks
732466
See details on http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/flash-memory.htm
1069921
Yeah, just get the installing setup icon onto your pen drive, and keep it around your neck. Easy 1.2.3.
312008
You wont be able to read SMART attributes for a USB device because they don't exist. The SMART technology is built onto a small board on the bottom of Hard Disk Drives - sort of like a mini-motherboard. USB devices aren't really "drives" although they use a similar protocol in order for the OS to acknowledge the device.
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Flash memory is one type of the two main storage methods - hard drives and flash. Flash memory has no moving parts (whereas the hard drive has a spinning disc) so it is more stable and won't skip or break as easily if dropped.\n\nThis is the type of memory used in iPod Nano's and Shuffles - but the iPod uses a mini Hard Disk. The flash memory for iPod Nano's is provided by Samsung.\n\nFlash memory cannot be rewritten as often as hard drives.
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It always helps to give as much information about your pc/laptop here and its specifications.  \n\nThe drive sounds fine.  The implication is that it is a graphics or memory problem.
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The same way it is stored on any other magnetic media-- there is a read-write head, a tiny electromagnet that creates tiny magnetized spots on the special coating of the disk surface. It writes by magnetizing the little spots and reads by sensing the magnetism in the spots it wrote on. \n\nThe written areas are ones, the areas not written are zeros. That is binary data. The whole rest of the computer, the hardware and the software, is to sort, compare and combine those patterns of 1's and 0's. Everything on the computer, including the windows, the colors, the text and the pixels of photos, the data and the programs that do things with the data, are stored in binary form on disks, either in your machine or on a server somewhere.
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I am going to give some general things to check as I would need to know more specifics on your system to be exact.\n\nIf you are running an OS older than win 2000 then your flash drive will require drivers, these can be downladed from the manufacturers www site in most cases, once installed the rest of this will apply to those systems as well.\n\nMy first question is this, if your hard drive is full (I am assuming that is what you mean by Memory since that is where Pictures would be stored) then a flash drive of up to 1 gig would seem to me to be insufficient as a means of increasing your storage enough to make much difference, besides which these devices are not intended as a permanant means of storage. You should probably consider getting an external Hard Drive of up to 120 gig.\n\nNow, since the drive is showing as operational you may not be looking for it in the right place. Open My Computer(Double click on it on the desktop or click on it in the Start menu). Once Open in the right side of the screen area you will see all your drives listed, the default view has then seperated into types ie Files Stored on this Computer, Hard Disk Drives, Devices with removable Storage. Your USB Flash drive will be listed under devices with removable storage, if you do not see it immediately look very close it may not have a name that readily identifies it, if after a closer look you still do not see it there look in the Hard Drive section and insure it is not listed there (windows is sometimes not very bright about where it puts things). If you still cannot readily identify it then close My Computer, then disconnect the USB Flash drive, re-open My computer, if a drive that was previously listed is not there now then that is likely the USB flash, now re-connect the USB Flash drive. If you have now identified the drive you are ready to transfer files to it, to do this open the folder where your pictures are, then right click and highlight the files to be transferred, when you release the mouse button a menu will open, select cut, in My Computer right click on the flash drive and select Paste on the menu. Alternatively you can copy and paste the entire folder to the flash drive then delete the files on your hard drive.\n\nAssuming the above did not solve your problem at this point you would need to ensure that the hardware is not malfunctioning. To do this either on the desktop or in the start menu Right click My Computer and select Manage. In the window that opens look down the Left side for Device Manager, Left click on it. In the righ side panel you will see your systems hardware listed, ensure you have now Yellow or red Flags(?? or !!)these indicate a problem. If you see one then double click the device that is flagged and list the information about the problem for more assistance either here or feel free to contact me through my information. If there are no flags look carefully through your device list and ensure that the USB Flash drive is listed, if it is then we need to further explore where it is listed in your drive list if not then you have a hardware issue either with the drive or your USB controller, if you can verify your USB controller is operating by connecting a different USB device that works then you can safely say you have a defective USB Flash drive and should replace it. If you need further assistance please feel free to contact me using my member information (click my name and it will show you how) I would list it here but there seems to be a rule against it.
931462
you can do it with a batch file\n\n.&#92;subfolder&#92;subfolder&#92;file.extension\n\nwill open the file regardless of the Pen Drive name or label.