Flash Drive Basics - Presidents Council

Transcript

Flash Drive Basics What is a flash drive? A flash drive or thumb drive is a small portable storage device you can carry in your pocket or on a keychain. Flash drives come in sizes ranging from 1GB all the way up to 64GB. They are available in many shapes and colors. You also can get portable external hard drives. These are larger than flash drives and have more storage. Flash drives also have various types of tops. Some have removable caps. Others retract into the case. Still others have caps that slide out of the way for use. You use a flash drive by inserting it in one of the USB ports on the computer. This picture shows USB ports at the front of a computer. There are also several USB ports at the back. Flash drives can be connected directly to a computer or connected through a USB extender cord plugged into a USB port, or through a USB hub. Here is how a direct connection looks. This is one type of hub. It connects to a USB port on the computer and has slots for four devices to connect to it. Using a flash drive: Once you plug your drive into the computer you will see this box pop up. Click on any of the options and then click 'ok'. You will not see any pop up box in Ubuntu. To directly access files on your drive: Click on 'my documents'. You will see this box pop up. Find the name of your drive in the list and double click it. This window will open. It will show all the files and folders on that drive. Find the one you want and double click it. In Ubuntu you can either click the files icon in the start menu or quick launch menu. Or click the removable drive icon on the taskbar. If you click on the taskbar icon this menu will pop up. Click on open file manager. The file manager opens directly when you click on the files icon. With either option you will see this page: Find the name of your drive in the list and click on it. (In this example it's Pendrive.) You will now see a page with all the files on your drive. Ejecting a flash drive: When you are finished usung your flash drive you should not just pull it out of the USB port. That can be done in a pinch but it is not recommended because you could use data if the computer is still writing to the drive when you remove it. If you do need to pull your drive you should always look and see if there is a light blinking on it. If there is a light visible it means the computer is reading from or writing to the drive. You should not remove it. If there is no light it is likely safe to remove the drive. To properly eject a drive in Windows: Click on the removable drive icon on the taskbar. This box will pop up: Find the drive you want and double click on it. If it's not obvious (like in this picture), double click on any of the listed drives to see what it is. If you have the right drive, click 'ok'. You should get a pop up on the taskbar that says it's safe to remove the drive. If you don't (or if it says the drive can't be removed right then), close any open programs and try removing the drive again. If it still doesn't work, check for a blinking light and then pull it. Ejecting a drive in Ubuntu: Look for the first icon on the right side of the taskbar. (It looks kind of like a computer screen.) Click on it. This menu will pop up: To eject the drive all you need to do is click on the triangular icon near the drive's name. You can then remove your flash drive.