The flash drive is said to have been invented by Trek Technologies and IBM in the year 2000. Flash drives were invented to replace the floppy disks. It was also called as the Thumb Drive as it is a very small sized portable device. The USB Flash drive does the function of a CD-ROM or a floppy disk. As their parts do not move they are more durable and reliable too. Today flash drives are available with large storage capacities of up to 256 GB. They weigh much less than 30 grams and the data can be retained in them for nearly 10 years or so.
A flash drive is merely a small printed circuit board with a USB Connector. It has electric insulation and has a protective case made of plastic, rubber or metal. Flash drives can be carried in a pocket or as a key chain. There is a removable cap protecting the USB connector and in order to use these drives one needs to plug it into the port on a personal computer. These drives do not require a battery.
The flash drive patented by IBM had a storage capacity of 8 MB, which is nearly 5 times the capacity of a floppy disk that was used earlier. In modern times, flash drives have USB 2.0 connectivity. Flash drives are very useful when it comes to transporting personal data and for storing data, application and software files.
