- UPDATE October 8, 2009: New version 1.0.1.4 released. The Microsoft Windows Operating Systems use the AUTORUN.INF file from removable drives in order to know which.
- Understand the autorun virus. Originally, when you inserted a USB drive into a port, the USB drive automatically opened. If your USB drive was infected, this process.
DOS-on-USB lets you install MS-DOS 7.1 on your USB memory key. After formatting your flash drive, you can install a full working version of MS-DOS to let you run. Cheap Personalized USB Flash Drives. Promotional, Free Shipping, Free art design! Lowest prices in America.
Tips for USB pen drives. Under Windows XP writing of lots of small files to a 'Removable' pen drive is extremely slow, while it's fast under Windows 2. Writing large files there is no appreciable difference. But with NTFS Windows XP enables a write cache, writing small files becomes lightning fast. And it indeed works! I have made a litte tool: USB- Write.
Cache. So, NTFS is not essential for having a write- cache. Use NTFS anyway for USB flash drives?
Advantages: Write- cache on all computers. NTFS stores small files together with the directory entry, this safes write accesses. NTFS supports file compression, this safes write accesses too (for compressible files only).
I could easily install a second drive cloned to the C drive but what fun would that be? If one can maneuver a USB stick to boot a Windows. A note on packaging There are many options for how to package up your USB dongle. I ordered an enclosure form Mouser that seems to hold the Teensy well. The USB Immunizer replaces any autorun file on the drive with a special one that can’t be deleted or modified by malware anymore.
FAT/FAT3. 2 becomes linear slower with the number of files in folder, NTFS does not. FAT/FAT3. 2 is limited to 6. NTFS supports files > 4. GB. But actually NTFS isn't suitable for flash medias because as journalling file system it has some overhead that wears out flash memory. But Windows XP optimizes and bundles write accesses to pen drives only when they are NTFS formatted, so I see NTFS as the right choice. Furthermore NTFS stores small files together with the file information so they are written into the same flash block which is the best that can happen. A drawback with NTFS and flash medias is that NTFS saves the access time when you read a file, so a simple read access causes flash wear out.
In fact it is not as dramatically because Windows writes the data not immediately onto the media. It does it when it has to update something else there, when one hour is over on when a media is unmounted.
Actually I've never seen XP writing a last access time to a USB drive. The last access time is also updated on 'directory listing' (whatever this means). Or download the following REG file and doubleclick it: Ntfs. Disable. Last. Access. Update. 1. reg. Since Vista this can be configured more detailed. Ntfs. Disable. Last.
Access. Update at Microsoft. To format a pen drive with NTFS there is no need to switch to 'optimize for speed'. Using the commandline tool CONVERT you can convert a FAT formatted drive to NTFS. Sample. convert u: /fs: ntfs. But XP's CONVERT creates a NTFS with a cluster size of 5. Bytes if the FAT clusters are not 4. K aligned. If the drive is FAT formatted under XP, then the clusers are 4.
K aligned and XP's CONVERT works fine. W2. K's CONVERT seems to creates 5. Bytes clusters in any case. Using the Windows format dialog you can choose: 4. Bytes is the defaut.
With a cluster size above 4. Bytes file compression and encryption become unavailable. Furthermore devices with a standalone functionality as MP3 players or image tanks may not work with NTFS.
The NTFS file system is written into the middle of the drive while the FAT is written to at the begin of the drive. So, if the drive is fake then the NTFS file system is written into non existent memory.
Newer fake drives are made more clever, the first write accesses go to existing memory, so formatting with NTFS does not fail. But as soon as more data then really build in is wriiten in sum, the problems begin. Most USB flash have no such cache, so their access times are very important for their real live speed. By means of HD Tune you can check the read access times. Here a screenshot of the bad example 'Corsair Flash Voyager' (2. GB) - have a look at the yellow dots above the diagram..
It's from 2. 00. 5, the current exemplars are better. Remember the difference between writing a file for the first time and to an existing file: Writing the first time, the file size has to be adjusted after each block. The most remarkable effects under XP are. FAT formatted removable USB drives. FAT formatted removable USB drives using a block size below 4. Bytes is cached, others are not (for NTFS drives the magic block size is about 5. KB, under Windows 7 3.
MB!). using flag FILE.
USB flash drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For the fictional propulsion system, see Jump drive. A USB flash drive, also known as a USB drive, USB stick, USB key, USB, and a variety of other names. USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than 3. They are smaller, faster, have thousands of times more capacity, and are more durable and reliable because they have no moving parts. Additionally, they are immune to electromagnetic interference (unlike floppy disks), and are unharmed by surface scratches (unlike CDs).
Until about 2. 00. USB ports, but floppy disk drives have become obsolete after widespread adoption of USB ports and the larger USB drive capacity compared to the 1. MB 3. 5- inch floppy disk. USB flash drives use the USB mass storage device class standard, supported natively by modern operating systems such as Windows, Linux, OS X and other Unix- like systems, as well as many BIOS boot ROMs. USB drives with USB 2. CD- RW or DVD- RW drives and can be read by many other systems such as the Xbox 3. Play. Station 3, DVD players, automobile entertainment systems, and in a number of handheld devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, though the electronically similar SD card is better suited for those devices.
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 connection with a port on a personal computer, but drives for other interfaces also exist. USB flash drives draw power from the computer via the USB connection. Some devices combine the functionality of a portable media player with USB flash storage; they require a battery only when used to play music on the go.
History. He is notable for incorporating the world's first single chip USB flash controller. Pua hails from Sekinchan, Selangor, Malaysia.
He is the founder and currently the CEO of Phison Electronics Corp, which is based in Taiwan. Phison currently boasts a market capital of $1. Trek won a Singaporean suit. Tan and his engineers subsequently began to explore ways to utilise the USB interface to create a device that could replace the floppy disk, and this led to the eventual development of the now- ubiquitous Thumb.
Drive. Response to the product was overwhelming even though the booth was only modestly decorated. The success of the Thumb. Drive propelled Trek onto the global arena. The company grew from a five- man outfit to a global enterprise with offices in more than ten countries including the United States, Netherlands, Japan, China and the Philippines, and counts multinational companies like Toshiba, Creative and Imation among its clients. Tan said the company made its . A few big companies dropped by wanting to collaborate and I was more than happy to share with them.
Little did I realize that many of them were hijackers. Trek Technology sold a model under the brand name . It was announced in late 2. The USB 3. 0 interface specifies transfer rates up to 5 Gbit/s (6. MB/s), compared to USB 2. Mbit/s (6. 0 MB/s).
USB 3. 0 expansion cards are available to upgrade older systems, many newer motherboards feature two or more USB 3. PCB headers or on the back IO plane. Fourth generation. The first USB flash drive appeared on the market in late 2.
MB. Typically, one of these ICs provides an interface between the USB connector and the onboard memory, while the other is the flash memory. Drives typically use the USB mass storage device class to communicate with the host. Technology. The memory storage was based on earlier EPROM and EEPROM technologies. These had limited capacity, were slow for both reading and writing, required complex high- voltage drive circuitry, and could be re- written only after erasing the entire contents of the chip.
Hardware designers later developed EEPROMs with the erasure region broken up into smaller . Altering the contents of a particular memory location involved copying the entire field into an off- chip buffer memory, erasing the field, modifying the data as required in the buffer, and re- writing it into the same field. This required considerable computer support, and PC- based EEPROM flash memory systems often carried their own dedicated microprocessor system. Flash drives are more or less a miniaturized version of this. The development of high- speed serial data interfaces such as USB made semiconductor memory systems with serially accessed storage viable, and the simultaneous development of small, high- speed, low- power microprocessor systems allowed this to be incorporated into extremely compact systems. Serial access requires far fewer electrical connections for the memory chips than does parallel access, which has simplified the manufacture of multi- gigabyte drives.
Computers access modern. The actual EEPROM writing and erasure processes are, however, still very similar to the earlier systems described above. Many low- cost MP3 players simply add extra software and a battery to a standard flash memory control microprocessor so it can also serve as a music playback decoder. Most of these players can also be used as a conventional flash drive, for storing files of any type. Essential components. 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 .
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 . 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. 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 carry the USB logo only if sold with a separate extension cable. Such cables are USB- compatible but do not conform to the USB standard.
USB flash drives with images of dragons, cats or aliens are very popular in Asia. The ubiquity of the FAT3. USB support. Also, standard FAT maintenance utilities (e. Scan. Disk) can be used to repair or retrieve corrupted data. However, because a flash drive appears as a USB- connected hard drive to the host system, the drive can be reformatted to any file system supported by the host operating system. Defragmenting. Flash drives can be defragmented. There is a widespread opinion that defragmenting brings little advantage (as there is no mechanical head that moves from fragment to fragment), and that defragmenting shortens the life of the drive by making many unnecessary writes.
Some USB flash drives have this 'wear leveling' feature built into the software controller to prolong device life, while others do not, so it is not necessarily helpful to install one of these file systems. Therefore, USB flash units can be partitioned just like hard disk drives. Longevity. There is virtually no limit to the number of reads from such flash memory, so a well- worn USB drive may be write- protected to help ensure the life of individual cells.
Estimation of flash memory endurance is a challenging subject that depends on the SLC/MLC/TLC memory type, size of the flash memory chips, and actual usage pattern. As a result, a USB flash drive can last from a few days to several hundred years. These are typically low capacity USB drives which are modified so that they emulate larger capacity drives (for example, a 2 GB drive being marketed as a 6. GB drive). When plugged into a computer, they report themselves as being the larger capacity they were sold as, but when data is written to them, either the write fails, the drive freezes up, or it overwrites existing data.
Software tools exist to check and detect fake USB drives. Third factor is the speed of the hardware bus, in the case of add- on USB ports. USB flash drives usually specify their read and write speeds in megabytes per second (MB/s); read speed is usually faster. These speeds are for optimal conditions; real- world speeds are usually slower. In particular, circumstances that often lead to speeds much lower than advertised are transfer (particularly writing) of many small files rather than a few very large ones, and mixed reading and writing to the same device.
In a typical well- conducted review of a number of high- performance USB 3. MB/s and write at 4. MB/s, could only manage 1. MB/s and 0. 3 MB/s with many small files. When combining streaming reads and writes the speed of another drive, that could read at 9. MB/s and write at 7. MB/s, was 8 MB/s.
These differences differ radically from one drive to another; some drives could write small files at over 1. The examples given are chosen to illustrate extremes... Individuals also store medical information on flash drives for emergencies and disaster preparation. Secure storage of data, application and software files. The use of biometrics and encryption is becoming the norm with the need for increased security for data; on- the- fly encryption 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 1. 66. 7 is an attempt to create a generic authentication platform for USB drives. It is supported in Windows 7 and Windows Vista (Service Pack 2 with a hotfix). COFEE is a set of applications designed to search for and extract digital evidence on computers confiscated from suspects.