Category: Flash Storage & Memory
-
Speed Is Easy. Reliability Is Hard: USB vs Ethernet
USB vs Ethernet: Speed Is Easy — Reliability Is the Real Conversation Every comparison between USB and Ethernet tends to start the same way. Someone pulls up a chart. Someone circles a number. Someone declares a winner. And most of the time, USB wins that opening round. Modern USB is fast — sometimes surprisingly fast.…
-
Five Reasons USB Sticks Will Be Around a Dozen More Years
Five Reasons USB Sticks Will Be Around a Dozen More Years — and Why Flash Drives Still Matter in a Cloud-First World Reason #1. Universal Compatibility Isn’t Going Anywhere If you’ve been around USB as long as we have at GetUSB.info—since 2004, back when flip phones ruled the earth and “cloud” meant weather—you start to…
-
USB Gbps Guide Clear Explanation of Today’s 5–80Gbps USB Speeds
USB 5Gbps — The “Hold My Beer, I’m Fast Enough” Speed Look, if USB had a middle child, this would be it. Five gigabits per second sounds impressive until you realize it’s basically the cousin who runs a 5K once a year and brags about it all Christmas. It works. It transfers your files. It…
-
The USB-C Mess: One Shape, a Dozen Functions, and Zero Clear Markings
USB-C is a big step forward for connectors, but it is still a confusing mess when it comes to what each port can actually do. I just spent the afternoon reading the USB-IF documentation about USB-C and I have questions. And rants. While I was at it, I revisited our breakdown of USB Power Delivery…
-
One Giant Gold Nugget, Millions of USB Sticks
How Many USB Flash Drive PCBs Could You Make From the Monumental Nugget of 1869? If you crack open a USB flash drive hoping to find treasure, you’ll be disappointed—but not entirely wrong. There is gold in there. Not much, not enough to make you rich, and certainly not worth firing up a smelter in…
-
Why There Is No Universal Bootable USB Flash Drive
Understanding why a truly universal bootable USB flash drive cannot exist, even though millions of people keep searching for one. People search for a universal bootable USB flash drive because the idea sounds so simple: one USB stick you plug into any computer, and everything just starts. Windows, Mac, Linux, old laptops, new desktops —…
-
What Is a Security Dongle?
A security dongle is a small USB key that protects licensed software by proving ownership through hardware, not just a password. A security dongle, sometimes called a license dongle or hardware key, is a small device—usually USB—that unlocks or enables specific software when connected to a computer. It’s a physical token of trust. Inside the…
-
The Butterfly Effect of USB: How One Design Choice Changed Tech History
A tiny design decision in 1996 didn’t just annoy us — it reshaped tech culture, product adoption, and billions of daily interactions. This post was drafted on a napkin somewhere between a refill and a revelation. Let me paint you a picture. It’s 1996. Somewhere in a conference room filled with beige computers and men…
-
USB Local Disk in 2025: The Reliable Way to Make a Flash Drive Appear as a Hard Drive
USB “Local Disk” in 2025: the XP-era hack had its moment—here’s the cleaner way (plus a product we found) If you landed here from our old tutorial about making a USB stick look like a hard drive, you’re reading a time capsule. That guide leaned on an XP-friendly INF/registry trick (tweaking the removable bit with…
-
The USB Ghost That Wouldn’t Die — and How to Exorcise It (Windows 10)
How To: Fix the issue of Windows sticking the same USB Flash Drive name to any USB connected Ever plug in a flash drive and watch an old name crawl back from the grave? You format it, rename it, swear at it… and Windows still insists the drive is called something from a previous flash…
-
A Detailed Sales Pitch on Custom USB Flash Drives
A Construction Worker USB Flash Drive That Builds Lasting Impressions At first glance, this isn’t just another thumb drive—it’s a miniature construction worker, complete with hard hat, safety vest, and a friendly smile. The figure looks like something you’d keep on your desk, and that’s exactly the point. It mixes a useful tool with a…
-
Review: USB Write Protect Switch Verse USB Write Protect Controller
Review with pictures and video When it comes to making a USB stick read only, or USB write protected, there are two options. The first is the original technology of using a physical switch to toggle on and off the flash drive writing. The more recent technology is a programmatical way to toggle the write…