First of all what is a memory stick?

A memory stick is really a storage device. Technically a solid sate storage device. Unless you manage to zap it with electricity or outright physically damage it, it should not lose your data from a shock or drop like a hard disk would.

 
Why would you want one ?

My wife asked me this, suggesting no one would ever want one of these things. Well that same lady now carries 3 in her purse and she’s very popular at the school to transfer files. Her fellow volunteers wondered what that was and then went out and bought a few, so even the doubter can find a use.  

Uses for a USB memory stick:  
It’s a easy way to transfer large files back and forth amongst PC’s 
Since it’s portable you can easily haul it in a purse etc to take pictures to friends and family. Great for the kids to store school projects on. 


Pro’s:  

• Small, portable many have strap and you can hang them around your neck or they are small and fit easily in a pocket or purse. 
  

• Pretty solid and shocks/drops do not hurt them. 
  

• Plug them into XP or Vista and 99% of the time it detects them no problems. This is known as plug and play. 
  

Con’s: 

• Need to have USB 2.0 support to make large file transfers practical the USB 2.0 speed makes the transfers fast enough to deal with. The older USB1.1 also works just very slowly.  
  

• Larger drives are not cheap 
  

• If you lose it and have private data on it unless you have a new encrypted version your data is easily read.  
  

Some Usage Tips:  

I plug my drive into all the PC’s I usually use to transfer files amongst, this save me time waiting for windows to detect the drive new when I may be in a hurry. This will not help if your say at school and want to transfer a data file to a friend .  

I tend to move files form the Drive to the PC. I select the files and then hold down the SHIFT key and move the files to the PC, this moves the files to the PC and deletes them off the USB drive. This really prevents me from collecting files on the USB drive and having it full the next time I go to transfer files.  

I never put anything on my USB drive when I take it out of the house that might be private, fiscal etc. If you do, encrypt it use the AES 256 scheme or something like PGP. 


How to Buy One:  

Memory Sticks come in many sizes and for those that know nothing about buying these things it can be overwhelming. Here is my take on buying these devices. At this time the most popular flash drive sizes are 2GB, 4GB and 8GB There are larger drives and I fully expect these sizes to grow very rapidly throughout 2009 and into 2010 and beyond. 

Figure out what kind of user you are:  

• Category one: Light User, Want to bring pictures to grandma and share files occasionally. 
  

• Category two: Medium User , School user, transfers file between PC ‘s often. 
  

• Category Three: Power User, business use, example a teacher who has college student put assignments on stick for grading etc.  
  

The equation I use for buying is very very simple, Light Users 2 GB , Medium User 4GB, Power User 8GB+. I am more concerned about brands, I’ve had the cheap ones fail. 

If you are at all concerned with Security in any category:  

This is a new topic to the USB drive, I have recently seen AES 256 byte Encryption offered on these drives. This is a encryption scheme that allows the files to be protected so that if you lose your stick others can not get your data off them without having a Phd. In Encryption. If your into security and keep private data on your drive you may want to give one of these a try.  

Upgrading:  

I’d simply buy a bigger drive as your use increases, not rocket science.  

Conclusion:

To be perfectly honest USB Flash drive come in so many flavors I think you should stick with quality vendors:  

I prefer Sandisk, Transcend and Kingston USB flash drives. I have had very good luck and quality products from these vendors :  

In particular I like these drives right now, but my tastes may change. I buy far too many of these based on the increasing usage of my wife and kids.