A generic is a convenient and easy to use storage device using a USB interface. It's a small, lightweight, removable and rewritable data storage device of up to 64 GB. The most popular current sizes being somewhere between 512 MB and 4 GB. USB flash drives are faster,hold hundreds of times more data and are more reliable than floppy drives. USB flash drives normally dont need a driver disk unless you are using windows 98. generic are also known as "USB Flash Drives", "memory sticks", "usb sticks, "chip sticks", "thumb drives", "flash drives", "USB keys", and others. There are two types of USB format. USB 1.1 and USB 2.0. USB 2.0 is actually 40 times faster than USB 1.0 - however, USB 1.1 is still more than fast enough for most users and file types. Advanced / Heavy users would benefit frm using a USB 2.0 device.
For everyday use, even a 64mb USB flash drive should be more than adequate for most users - holding around the same as 44 floppy disks! Size and build quality of your generic should be an important consideration. If the generic is small, it's much more convenient to keep in a wallet, on a bunch of keys etc etc. You can also install simple encryption software onto a USB flash drive (we supply FREE with evey drive!). This will keep your data absolutely secure and password protected. It's a good idea to store your passwords on a protected drive in this manner, rather than on your computer. In this way your passwords stay with you all the time and are secure. If you lose the generic, all your passwords will still be safe. If your computer becomes infected with a virus, no one gets to see your passwords!
Persoanlly I have found my USB flash drive to be very useful. As mentioned above ALL my passwords are kept on a single drive. It's also a useful way to keep back ups of other sensitive or important files. The bigger drives (1Gb and above) can hold huge numbers of photos and/or MP3s as well - so you can keep a tremendous amount of personal files and data with you - for use at any time on any computer! |
