USB Flash Pen Drive FAQ
- 1.What is a USB flash drive?
- 2.What is the general design of a USB flash drive?
- 3.What are the differences between USB 1.1 and USB 2.0?
- 4.Is USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 forward and backward compatible?
- 5.How do I know if my PC supports USB?
- 6.Do I need a drive to use the flash pen drive?
- 7.How to use a flash pen drive properly in order to protect it from damage of electric shock?
- 8.What are the differences between brand names?
1. What is a USB flash drive?
USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. It was developed in 1995 to make adding peripherals to computers hassle free, as easy as hooking up a telephone to a wall-jack. Users don't even need to shut down and restart PCs to attach or remove the USB device. Just plug-and-play! Windows 2000 or XP OS systems provides full hot-swappable support to USB devices. Hot-swappable meaning, you can plug the USB in, or remove it with the computer already on. For earlier Windows version such as 95/98/Me/NT drivers are required.)
2.What is the general design of a USB flash drive?
A USB flash drive consists of non-volatile memory, clock generator, led indicator, a controller, and other additional components/ functions. Beyond this basic configuration, manufacturers may add other the functionalities to the drive, such as VoIP, MP3 player, fingerprint sensor, password protection, etc.
3.What are the differences between USB 1.1 and USB 2.0?
USB 2.0 (Hi-speed USB) increases the data transfer rate from 12 Mbps (Megabits per second) of USB 1.1 up to 480 Mbps.
| USB TYPE | DATA TRANSFER SPEED |
| USB 1.1 at low speed | 1.5 Mbps |
| USB 1.1 at high speed | 12 Mbps |
| USB 2.0 at full speed | 360 - 480 Mbps |
USB 2.0 is both forward and backward compatible with USB 1.1
4.Is USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 forward and backward compatible?
USB 2.0 is fully backward compatible with USB 1.1. You are able to use a USB2.0 device in a USB 1.1 compliant system, but at USB 1.1 data transfer rate.
5.How do I know if my PC supports USB?
For Windows 95/98/Me/NT users, you can download the free USB evaluation utility to examine your PC's USB capabilities. Windows 2000 and XP provides full hot-swap support to USB devices.
If your PC was made during or before 1996, it probably doesn't support USB. For those computers made during or after 1998 almost has USB capabilities.
6.Do I need a drive to use the flash pen drive?
No drivers are required for Windows 2000/ME/XP, Mac OS 8.6, Mac OS X, Linux 2.4.0 or higher. Windows 98/98/Me/NT requires appropriate device drivers.
7.How to use a flash pen drive properly in order to protect it from damage of electric shock?
Plug in your flash pen drive after your computer start completely, and remove it before you re-boot your computer. Once your flash pen drive was damaged by an electric current, all the data saved in flash pen drive may not be retrieved or may lost permanently. Users of Windows 2000/XP, should click on the ?afely remove? USB device icon at the lower right corner of the toolbar to avoid any potential data corruption.
8.What are the differences between brand names?
Basically, the ways of designing flash pen drive are similar among the different brands. However, each brand has its own design in size, color or material. Some manufacturers design their products with multi-functions such as boot-up, LED light indicator, password protection, fingerprint encryption, MP3 player/recorder, or VoIP.
