Benefits of Using USB Drives for Data Storage

USB flash drives are a large part of the storage device industry today, which also includes SD memory cards and standard hard drives. While each product is useful for storing data, each is designed to meet specific storage demands.

Here are some of the main benefits that come with USB drives over other data storage devices.

Durability

Unlike hard drives, USB drives don’t contain any moving parts. While hard drives are made of glass or aluminum platters that spin when data is being written or read, flash drives are solid-state drives that are less vulnerable to damage from drops or shocks.

Portability

USB drives are smaller than other data storage devices as well, which makes them easy to place in pockets or attach to key chains for more portability. It’s much more difficult to do this with hard drives, as flash drives are often no longer than a few inches at most, with widths measuring less than an inch.

Certain flash drive designs may be bigger, such as business card flash drives, but these designs are ideal for emphasizing customization over portability.

Increased Storage Capacity

Modern flash drives offer far more storage space than older models, with many of them capable of storing up to 128 GB. USB drives with a GB or less of memory are often the cheapest, and are often very inexpensive for businesses to buy in bulk for distribution. However, if you need to create a backup for a hard drive or run certain programs, more storage space is ideal.

Fast Transfer Speeds

Today’s USB 3.0 devices have a transfer rate of up to 4.8 GB per second, which is a speed that other storage devices can’t get close to matching. Even the fastest hard drives only have transfer speeds of up to 150 MB.

Compatibility

The USB platform and interface have become one of the best ways to connect a device to any type of PC. Whether you have a laptop, netbook, or desktop, you’ll likely find it has space for three or more USB drives to allow you to plug in these devices without issue. This is comparatively better than old-school SD memory cards, for which many computers don’t have ports.

Use USB Drives as Promotional Materials

USB drives’ inexpensiveness and availability for bulk purchase make them ideal for serving as marketing materials for brand awareness. Flash drive packaging with customized designs can accurately reflect brands and carry brand names, logos, slogans, or graphics. You can even preload them with programs, videos, text files, or other data that users could access to learn more about your brand.

As flash drives inevitably become increasingly popular over time, more and more people will be able to see the benefits that these devices provide over other types of storage devices. While not new, it’s unlikely we’ll see any physical device come along in the near future that’s as innovative and compatible as USB drives continue to be.