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Choosing a USB memory key

Chances are you have or have seen one: those little sticks that plug into a computer’s USB port. Computers treat them as removable hard drives, and they have taken over from things like floppy disks, Zip disks and the like for several reasons:

  • they’re cheap
  • they don’t have any moving parts, so they’re more reliable (although I admit I had one that failed on me).
  • they can store lots of information
  • they’re easy to carry
  • they consume little power

These things have many uses. For instance, in a previous post, I recommended that people who use Windows computers also use a USB memory key as a quick, portable file backup.

If you don’t yet have a USB memory key, here are a few tips for buying one. (Name brand likely won’t matter as much as the following features):

  • Get the slimmest design you can. USB ports on computers are placed so close together that if you plug in a “fat” USB key, you will likely block other ports.
  • Choose a model that does NOT have a removable cap. People often lose these caps, and letting dust accumulate in the USB plug could hamper its performance.
  • Look for keys on which, for instance, the cap pivots around the body, or the USB “plug” can be retracted back into the body (like the nib of a ballpoint pen, but without the click).
  • Get the largest capacity you can find. You might surprise yourself with the amount of stuff you will put onto a memory key – there’s no sense going extra cheap.