Transcript
How To Use A USB Flash Drive
Jason E. Samulaitis Divisional Instructional Technology Assistant Information Technology Department
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF HIGH-SPEED USB STORAGE!
The days of using a 3.5” 1.44MB Floppy Disk are numbered. This is especially true when you consider that USB Flash Drives can store thousands more MB’s of data, compared to a ‘lowly’ floppy disk with a capacity of only 1.44MB.
Today’s USB Flash Drives have capacities starting at 32MB up to a whopping 2GB of data storage capability!! This is all within a device the size of a ‘skinny’ pack of matches.
CONTENTS OF YOUR USB PACKAGE:
Typically, you are afforded a brief manual/handout within the packaging which talks about the product. You may also be provided with ‘color-keyed’ covers for your USB Flash Drive, which go over the connection point of the device.
These covers work nicely, should you have several of the same brand USB Flash Drives, and want to quickly establish a color-code for the drive’s contents…
Another nice ‘bonus’ - having a neck/carrying strap, which is typically included with SanDisk products.
HOW DO I USE THE FLASH DRIVE?? You operate this device via any of your PC’s available USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports. The device connects in only one direction, typically with the product label facing up:
Your computer may have several USB ports located on the front, side, and/or back. Once you have inserted the USB Flash Drive into an available USB port, the device will begin to communicate with your Windows Operating System, and automatically configure itself to work with your computer.
Once detected and configured by Windows, your USB Flash Drive will show up as a device, under your ‘My Computer’ on the system Desktop.
To locate your USB Flash Drive, click on your
icon:
When you click on this icon, the following is displayed showing it’s ready for use:
This ‘Removable Disk’ icon will display a drive-letter assigned by your system (eg. F: G: etc…).
RECORDING FILES TO THE USB FLASH DRIVE To open or access this device, simply double-click on the icon to open up a windowed display of the USB drive’s contents: You now have the ability to drag-and-drop files to this window, or whenever you use programs on your computer, change your SAVE AS to point to this drive, instead of your usual ‘MY DOCUMENTS’ or “C:\ DRIVE “… NOTE: Never disconnect this device when the activity light on it is flickering. This means it’s still busy recording files to the device.
You may risk loosing your data, in the event you remove the drive from the USB socket when it’s still writing to the device…
REMOVING THE USB FLASH DRIVE FROM YOUR SYSTEM: Once you have saved your files to this device, and the activity light remains with a steady glow, you can remove it from the USB socket by pulling the drive out of the socket… Depending on your system, you may hear an audible two-tone noise, telling you that the connection has been terminated between your USB drive and the PC…This noise also occurs when you insert the device into your system… USB Flash Drives work only with computers providing support for USB. Windows 98SE, 2000, ME, and XP are supported, along with Apple Macintosh.
HELP?? Is only a phone call or e-mail away…
Jason E. Samulaitis
[email protected]
488-1767
ext 333
Ivone Kordic
488-1767
ext 302
[email protected]