Transcript
Tips & Tricks
USB Functions
REDISCOVER
YOUR USB DRIVE THE HUMBLE PEN DRIVE IS MUCH MORE THAN A DEVICE TO CARRY DATA AROUND. HARNESS ITS MULTITASKING ABILITIES TO GET MORE OUT OF IT.
IN 2011
efore USB drives came into being, the floppy disk was the most popular medium of data storage and transfer. And while you may laugh at the 1.44 MB of storage that a floppy afforded, you could do well to remember that most people essentially use today’s giga USB drives only to transfer data. But is data transfer all that we can use these mega storehouses for? The fact is USB drives can be used to do a lot more than just storing and sharing data. Here’s what you can do with your pen drive—right from taking up the role of a lifesaving troubleshooting tool to a portable operating system.
Illustration: SANTOSH KUSHWAHA
February, 2011
Rather than manually copying files back and forth between USB and hard drive, wouldn’t you rather want that your USB smartly synced the data on its own? You need not learn any magic trick for that. Knowing a bit about the existing features of your OS will do just fine. For example, if you regularly carry documents to and from your work on a USB drive, the Windows briefcase feature of XP can help. It is a simple-to-use document synchronisation application which acts as a virtual container for your work documents.
INCREASE PC RAM
BY H A R P R E E T S I N G H
68 Gadgets & Gizmos
SYNC YOUR FILES
USE FOR PORTABLE APPS Most software now have a portable version as well. All you need to do is insert the stick, find the desired .exe, run and you’re good to go. For example, OpenOffice, a complete Office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package, and database, is available as a portable application. You can also choose other pre-packaged suite of applications and a useful menu system to install on your USB flash drive from the very best one-stop shop for portable apps: PortableApps.com.
If you’re running Windows Vista or 7, you can use a USB flash drive to speed up your system, making use of the ReadyBoost technology. This feature treats the free space on your USB drive like RAM. To activate the ReadyBoost technology on your FlashDrive, right click on the USB drive and select Properties. Click on ReadyBoost tab, and enable the feature by selecting the option and allocate the amount of space you want to use as memory.
INSTALL A PORTABLE OS
LOCK YOUR PC
Yes, you can actually take your entire operating system on your flash drive. This is simpler than it sounds—installing portable versions of Linux, Ubuntu and many other is pretty easy nowadays, and will help you carry a fully-functional desktop wherever you go. Bring your entire operating system, desktop, applications, files, email, personal settings, favorites, games and more with you. It’s like carrying your own personal operating system in your pocket.
How about locking/unlocking your computer with USB drive? If you think the idea is cool and are using Windows Vista or 7, you can do it right away. Else you will need a third party software like Predator to convert your USB key into an actual key, such that your PC won’t boot unless you insert it (the key). While the USB flash drive is connected to your computer, everything works as it normally would. Once you remove the USB flash drive, your computer gets locked.
TROUBLESHOOTING TOOL KIT
PASSWORD-PROTECT IT
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows can be installed on a pen drive. It is a powerful software—a bootable recovery program that can be used to repair, restore, or diagnose almost any computer problem, made accessible by booting into a sort of temporary "Windows Lite" desktop. It can manage disk deletion and partitioning, software and hardware diagnostics, and has a huge variety of lifesaving recovery functions.
If you use a USB flash drive to carry sensitive data like your passwords or bank accounts, then it is better to use password-protection as a precautionary measure to safeguard your data. You can use Rohos Mini Drive or TrueCrypt-like utilities. These security tools allow you to create and password-protect a secret partition on your drive. The USB Safeguard can be set to wipe your files if someone tries to access your USB without your password too many times.
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