Flash Memory Devices Grow Up

By Gerry Morris, J.D.



Ten years ago, if I wanted to physically transport files from my office computer to my home computer, or to any other computer off my network, my options were somewhat limited. Assuming I either could not connect remotely to my office network or that I wanted to transport a lot of data so that remote transfer was impractical, I had to use either magnetic media such as floppy disks or Zip drives, or optical media such as compact disks or, later on, DVDs. The limited capacity of floppy disks made them unsuitable for large amounts of data not to mention the slow transfer rates. Zip drives held more data but required a compatible drive on both computers involved in the data transfer. Zip drives were popular but not universal. Rewritable CDs and DVDs also had drive and software compatibility issues. Not all packet writing software used the same format. Files could be burned permanently to a disk so that it could be universally read, but it was impractical to burn a complete new disk to again transfer the data after it had been altered.

A few years ago flash memory devices appeared on the consumer market for use with computers. The two most common configurations were flash memory cards (like those used in digital cameras) and USB flash memory drives. Like everything else having to do with computers, the first flash memory available was expensive and of low capacity. Flash memory first appeared in capacities well under 1 GB. The early ones were 16MB or less. Just a very few years ago I remember seeing adds for the latest 256MB USB flash drives touting a capacity equal to 175 floppy drives. Even at these initial capacities, the drives were a major advancement in the portability of data.

A USB flash drive is sometimes referred to as a “pen drive” or “thumb drive.” It is about the size of a child’s thumb and plugs into the USB drive of a computer. It contains flash memory. Without going into detail about how flash memory works, it generally stores data in a solid state memory chip much as data is stored on a hard drive. The data stays put in the chip even when the power is off. (If you really want to know how it works, see www.howstuffworks.com/flashmemory.htm). In fact, when you plug one into a computer running Windows XP or above, it recognized the device as another physical drive attached to the computer. So, if your hard drive is C: and your DVD drive is D:, the computer may recognize the plug and play thumb drive as E:. Data can be copied to the drive using Windows Explorer just like to any other attached drive. Unplug the device and plug it into another computer and a drive appears there. You can then read the data on the second computer.

Memory cards work the same way except both computers must have a compatible card slot. Most newer computers are equipped with memory card slots because most digital cameras store pictures on memory cards. The pictures can be easily transferred to the computer by inserting the card in the computer’s memory card slot. The memory card is recognized as a drive and the pictures can be copied to the computer.

There are several configurations of memory cards, each requiring a card reader designed for that particular type of card. There are cards called CompactFlash (CF); Secure Digital (SD); Memory Sticks (MS); MultiMediaCard (MMC); SmartMedia (SM); and x-D Picture Card (xD). (Here’s what they look like. www.steves-digicams.com/flash_memory.html). Although they will all store data files just like the flash memory drives, they are not as universally compatible as a USB drive. For instance, my work desktop computer has six card slots and will accept all the above. It’s one of two of my ten computers that will accept all types of cards. All of my computers and all computers I’ve seen on the market in the past five years with Windows operating systems have USB ports. However, the second generation of USB ports, version 2.0 and above, are much faster than the original version, 1.0. Drives made for version 2.0 and above are backwards compatible with earlier USB ports. The transfer rate will be considerably slower, though.

The card had a capacity of 16GB. To put that into some perspective, for the past five years I have been scanning virtually every document I’ve received or generated in my practice and saving them to the hard drive on my server. I have used less than 10GB of my hard disk capacity. I could load all my documents onto that card or a comparable USB flash memory drive and plug it into any computer with a compatible card slot or a USB drive. Or, I could back up all my data onto flash memory and keep it on my key chain.

My conversation with my colleague prompted me to check out the capacities of USB flash drives currently on the market. At Amazon.com I found a 32GB Corsair Flash Voyager USB drive for $115.40. Smaller drives were proportionately cheaper. All the data on my server including the operating system would fit on this drive with half its capacity left over. It is much smaller
than my thumb.

The Corsair drives are constructed to be virtually indestructible. (See www.corsairmemory.com for details). The transfer speed is not as fast as a modern internal hard drives, but as fast as external USB hard drives. In fact, they are fast enough that programs can be run from them. Specially written programs can be transferred from computer to computer and run completely from the flash memory drive. (See www.everythingusb.com/software.html).

Of course, it would present a security problem if I lost the drive and it ended up in a curious person’s hands. A simple solution is “on the fly” encryption software that encrypts data as it is copied to the flash memory drive. The data is password protected. Various encryption packages work in different ways when the drive is plugged into a computer other than the one from which the data was originally copied. For instance, Dekart Private Disk advertises that it resides on the USB drive so that it can be launched on any computer. (www.dekart.com/products/encryption/private_disk/). Other programs require that the encryption software be installed on the new host computer.

The capacity of flash memory drives will undoubtedly continue to increase as will their transfer speeds. There usefulness for applications such as backup and even as boot devices will
likewise increase. For the simple task of bringing files with me on a trip they sure beat a box of floppies.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.