| USB flash drive or any other flash memory drive is | | | | the drive manually, use the command: |
| basically an EEPROM that means "Electrically Erasable | | | | "mount -vfat (drive to mount) (directory to mount at)" |
| Programmable Read Only Memory". | | | | For eg. "mount -vfat /dev/sda1/mnt/usbdrive" |
| USB flash memory sticks are nothing but an assembly | | | | Manufacturers are also coming up with systems that |
| of EEPROM, a controller with a RISC microprocessor, | | | | have bios support for USB. This means that you can |
| RAM and ROM. All of this interacts with a computer | | | | boot from the small USB drive. There are different |
| using a USB controller and connector. | | | | versions of operating systems coming up that can be |
| Because USB sticks are EEPROM, these can hold | | | | installed on a ROM and are so small to fit a USB drive |
| data for as long as 10 years. As these memory | | | | as well. Most of these OS versions are Linux based, |
| modules are shock proof and don't have a volatile | | | | for example Damm Small Linux. |
| memory, they are good enough to sustain shock and | | | | USB drives are mainly used to carry personnel data. |
| humidity. To some extent, they often undergo casual | | | | But you need to be very careful with your personnel |
| abuse that include being ran through a washing | | | | data nowadays. You can have anything in your |
| machine, or even dropped into coffee. | | | | personnel data collection that you have forgotten, for |
| UBS thumb drives normally don't require drivers. But | | | | example your bank account details or anything. Try |
| with few old operating systems like Windows 98 and | | | | using some encryption engine to secure your data. |
| Windows 95, you need drivers that are provided by | | | | You can use encrypted file system over the USB |
| the manufacturer. Latest OS consider USB drives as | | | | drive. But by doing so, you will only be able to access |
| USB Mass storage devices and have built in support | | | | your drive at few computers and not every single |
| for these drive. This means that you don't need any | | | | computer. Alternatively, you can have a encryption |
| drivers, you just plug in the drive and start using it. | | | | application that can run without installation from your |
| Some Linux versions might recognize it but won't let | | | | USB. The best would be to use biometric USB drives. |
| you use it until you manually mount the drive. To mount | | | | |