The flashy small devices known as USB memory drives, USB thumb drives, or USB external hard drive units, can be a superb resource for your business. No one can deny that the information storage power of these devices has expanded incredibly over just a few years time. 256MB became 1, 2 and 5 gigs almost overnight, and now you can store the equivalent of a 1990s hard drive on a disc smaller than your thumb!

To take advantage of the best these devices can provide, business managers can follow a few easy steps, with the help of online suppliers who can offer you the things you need to profit from easy USB drive data storage and transport. Buyers might look for:

1. Simple, accessible USB drives that don't need a lot of special handling to cough up the files that are stored on them.

2. Lanyards and other accessories for making sure the USB flash drives don't just get lost.

3. More information about consumer pricing for USB storage drives, custom printing for branding, or bulk USB flash drives to share with the whole office.

Action Steps for Finding and Customizing USB Drives
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Skip the complicated drive handling file systems

Some USB drives have various handling disc setups that make them difficult to use, and incompatible with some operating systems. The easiest drives to use are straightforward. They plug in and are recognized by your PC or Mac instantly, allowing you to do quick file transfers with them.

I recommend: Get simple USB flash drive models at USB Memory Direct online. For more, go to USB Depot, where drives, cables and more are on hand for your business.

Find USB drive accessories

These little devices look great hanging around your neck - and it helps to keep them close by, to limit the loss of these easily mislaid items. Especially for drives containing sensitive or important information, you'll want to outfit them with keyfobs, lanyards or other connectors to keep them by your side.

I recommend: Get an affordable USB lanyard at Tiger Direct for handling your flash drive device. Or, go to the head of the class with a stylish Neiman Marcus leather USB key fob.

Get custom printing for USB drives

So you're buying these handy drives for controlling company data? How about getting them printed with your company logo or contact information? Then, wherever they are, your drives will be sending your message out to users and contributing to a branding environment.

I recommend: Rely Media delivers working custom printed USB external drives for getting your logo and message out into the computing world. Get more in various colors and styles from Flash Dealer.

Tips & Tactics for Getting the Most Out of a USB Flash Drive

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Make your USB hard drives count: inventory your USB drives when you hand them out and keep track of them to limit 'walk-off' of these products. Everybody is going to want one, so limit it to one per 'customer' to keep it fair.

When customized as a promotional gift, a USB flash drive conveys far more than your company name and logo. Thanks to their universal compatibility, portable USB drives allows you to preload your company’s marketing materials to send home with potential customers, while providing clients with a handy means of storing, backing up and transferring important files. And the myriad varieties of colors, shapes and materials assure that your USB flash drive will be truly unique. When sourcing bulk USB drives as a promotional gift, consider the following:

1. The flash drive should have enough memory to carry your promotional message plus ample free drive space for customer’s personal use.
2. Choose a simple retractable memory stick (also known as a thumb drive) or one of many creative casing designs such as pens, key chains and lanyards.
3. When incorporated into high-value devices such as watches and MP3 players, a USB flash drive makes a memorable gift for special clients.

Action Steps
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Customize USB drives

Simple USB stick drives (also called a thumb drive when the interface is retractable rather than capped) come in a variety of materials from sleek aluminum to plastics in a variety of fashionable colors and styles. The pen drive, in which a USB flash drive is fitted inside the barrel of a pen, is a popular variation. In addition to imprinting your company logo on USB drives, many other customization options are available.

I recommend: Visit Business.com for a directory of customizable flash drives, custom USB drive providers, and memory sticks. USB 007 will laser-etch individual names on a metal USB flash drive in a choice of fonts for a personalized corporate gift. For a truly one-of-a-kind giveaway, Custom USB will work with you to design and manufacture a uniquely shaped USB flash drive, maybe one that mimics your logo.

Preload company marketing materials on a USB flash drive

PDF brochures, images, audio files, PowerPoint presentations and software demos are examples of the types of marketing materials that can be preloaded into a USB flash drive and set to auto run when plugged into a computer. Or you can have your live Web page or an ad load automatically when the flash drive is inserted.

I recommend: Find advertising and marketing consultants at Business.com who can help you create stellar marketing materials to preload into a promotional USB flash drive. Check out CustomUSB.com’s Beginner’s Guide, a step-by-step guide to selecting a flash drive and customizing it with your logo and content. CustomUSB also offers a free package of portable Windows-based applications that can be pre-loaded onto USB drives, including Web browsers, email/instant messaging clients, office suites, anti-virus programs, backup and sudoku games, all preconfigured to work portably. Scroll to the bottom of USBshop’s homepage for information on how to pre-load auto-run ads and Web pages. USB007 offers advanced protection and security features for its promotional USB drives, including non-erasable content protection that prevents users from deleting your marketing materials, unique ID/password protection, secured user partition and more.

High-value devices and options for USB drives

For special customers, consider a premium flash drive option in which USB drives are designed into consumer devices such as watches, MP3 players or cameras.

I recommend: USB flash drive wristwatches are available at the USB Shop in several styles and colors. You can have your company logo imprinted on the face of the watch with a minimum purchase of 100 units. Promo.com sells a Swiss Army-style knife that contains seven tools, including a removable flash drive. The Sentinel model USB flash drive from CustomUSB can be “illumaprinted” so your logo illuminates in red, green, orange or white light when plugged in. Memory Suppliers offers a biometric USB flash drive with a flip top, which requires the user to register a fingerprint for security access. For a classy presentation, Pexagon offers a satin-finish gift box and lanyard for its Store-It line of USB drives.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Buy high memory capacity. As promotional USB drives become more common, offering one with a generous amount of memory (at least 512 MBs) considerably increases its value to your clients.
• •  Be creative. With so many flash drive shapes, colors and customization options available, let your imagination guide you toward a unique, useful, fun and valuable giveaway.
• •  Take advantage of disk space. Use part of the memory to deliver your corporate message.
• •  Buy USB drives in bulk. Purchasing in quantity pushes the per unit price way down.

Lots of professionals rely on handy USB storage drives to get information from one place to another. It's easy since these little devices fit into pockets, or hang around necks or off of belts, and a lot of data can fit onto one. But like most technology, USB flash drives are continually being developed.

Business types can get emerging news on what's happening in this business sector for informing new purchases or brainstorming how bulk USB flash drives can be a resource for a business that is frequently on the go. Business leaders might check out tech news sources to get the following on USB drives news and trends:

1. What is the "current market top size" on USB drives (top file loading amounts for models currently on the market).

2. What neat features have been built into these useful gadgets.

3. What's next for USB external drives, including ideas that are in development from competitive tech companies.

Action Steps
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Look for specific information on innovations for USB drives

Now that they're able to squeeze one or two gigs onto a tiny little drive, they're done, right? Not according to breaking news from sites related to the dissemination of new technology. Find out what's next for the flash drive and bookmark your favorites to keep in the loop.

I recommend: Digital Trends relates some of the latest on the quest to fit actual applications onto the drive to led users load up programs on plug-in. A story page at tech site GetUSB.info goes even further and envisions a portable PC all on one simple USB drive that fits right in a user's pocket.

Find USB thumb drives and technology news from large industry leaders

Other news sources for updates on these handy devices are on the sites of mega-companies that move both hardware and software sales around the world. Check out their detailed USB tech pages for more on USB connectivity and flash drives.

I recommend: Find a range of informative pieces on USB connectivity at Microsoft's USB site. For more, check out the pages at Intel, where the company spells out the technology (universal serial bus), then presents information on USB connectivity, devices, protocols and more.

Find USB hard drives information on gadget sites

What are gadget sites? With all of the proliferation of new technology, 'geeks' and other interested parties have built these sites to keep readers up on the newest, hippest and coolest devices rolling into the market, and that includes state of the art innovations in USB drives.

I recommend: Learn about music and other elements incorporated into USB memory drives at gadget evaluation site Coolest Gadgets. See more including eco flash drives at Craziest Gadgets.com.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When looking for a USB external hard drive that fits your business needs, always consider the other side of the coin. As more and more is rolled out, your models will quickly become obsolescent. The up side? Buying a slightly obsolescent model will bring your costs way down. If you only need a little bit of space, like 256MB, you can buy your USB drives for next to nothing.

USB drives are fast replacing CDs and DVDs as the computer storage and backup method of choice. USB flash drives, or thumb drives, are small, portable storage devices that are great for carrying important documents or utilities with you from location to location. External USB hard drives are an excellent way of backing up the existing data on your computer. While not as portable, they can store a larger amount of data than their smaller counterparts. Learn how USB drives work by understanding the terminology associated with them.

Action Steps
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Flash drive

A USB flash drive doesn't have moving parts like a typical hard drive, or external USB drive. It is called a drive because it interacts with the computer by using the same commands as a normal drive. A flash drive is comprised of a small, printed circuit board enclosed in a case, with a USB connector that is either retractable or protected by a removable cap. Data is stored in NAND-type flash memory.

I recommend: See the different types of USB flash drives at Everything USB.

Flash memory

Flash memory is a type of memory that requires no power to maintain the information on the chip. It is a sub-type of EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) that can be erased and reprogrammed in blocks, rather than all at once. Because of its extreme durability under pressure, heat and water, flash memory has become the memory of choice for MP3 players, USB drives and memory cards.

I recommend: Learn how flash memory technology works at HowStuffWorks.

NAND and NOR

NAND and NOR are both types of flash memory invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka circa 1980, when he worked for Toshiba. NOR flash memory is typically used to store and run small amounts of code. NAND flash memory is better suited for high-capacity data storage. For this reason, most USB flash drives use NAND technology.

I recommend: Linux Devices describes the differences between NAND and NOR memory.

USB, or universal serial bus

Both USB flash drives and external USB hard drives use universal serial bus technology to connect to your computer. USB 1.0 was released in 1995, and had a top connection speed of 12 Mbps (megabits per second). The current standard is USB 2.0, which operates at 480 mbps. Most USB drives now use USB 2.0 connections. USB 3.0 is currently under development, and will support speeds of 5Gbps (gigabits per second), with lower power specifications and improved efficiency.

I recommend: Read all about USB specifications on the Intel website.

USB hard drive

A USB hard drive is basically just an external hard drive. It is a standard EIDE or SATA based hard disk-exactly like the one found inside your computer-encased in a solid enclosure. The enclosure can then be connected to your computer using either USB or FireWire. Most companies manufacture external USB hard drives in sizes up to one terrabyte, or 1000 gigabytes.

I recommend: Tom's Hardware examines developments in storage technology over the last 10 years, specifically comparing USB thumb drives and standard hard drives.

Hard drive enclosure

Any SATA or EIDE hard drive can be turned into an external USB drive by using a hard drive enclosure. If you purchase a new tower, and still have data that you need to be able to access on an old laptop or desktop hard drive, you can simply purchase an enclosure and turn that drive into a portable USB storage device.

I recommend: The website wiseGEEK describes the many benefits of using a hard drive enclosure.