Editing USB flash drive (section)

==Conveniences==
Flash drives use little power, have no fragile moving parts, and for most capacities are small and light. Data stored on flash drives is impervious to mechanical shock, magnetic fields, [[Abrasion (mechanical)|scratches]] and dust. These properties make them suitable for transporting data from place to place and keeping the data readily at hand.

Flash drives also store data densely compared to many removable media. In mid-2009, 256&nbsp;GB drives became available, with the ability to hold many times more data than a [[DVD]] (54 DVDs) or even a [[Blu-ray]] (10 BDs).<ref name="Kingston256GB">Baker, Jeff (July 20, 2009) {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120322203554/http://www.mobilewhack.com/kingston-unveils-256gb-thumb/ "Kingston unveils 256GB thumb"]}}, MobileWhack.com</ref>

Flash drives implement the [[USB mass storage device class]] so that most modern [[operating system]]s can read and write to them without installing [[device driver]]s. The flash drives present a simple block-structured logical unit to the host operating system, hiding the individual complex implementation details of the various underlying flash memory devices. The operating system can use any [[file system]] or block addressing scheme. Some computers can [[Booting device|boot up]] from flash drives.

Specially manufactured flash drives are available that have a tough rubber or metal casing designed to be waterproof and virtually "unbreakable". These flash drives retain their memory after being submerged in water, and even through a machine wash. Leaving such a flash drive out to dry completely before allowing current to run through it has been known to result in a working drive with no future problems. [[Five (channel)|Channel Five]]'s ''[[Gadget Show]]'' cooked one of these flash drives with propane, froze it with [[dry ice]], submerged it in various acidic liquids, ran over it with a [[Jeep]] and fired it against a wall with a mortar. A company specializing in recovering lost data from computer drives managed to recover all the data on the drive.<ref>{{YouTube|NyOFIH-6WGs|testing removable media}} on the Gadget Show.</ref> All data on the other removable storage devices tested, using optical or magnetic technologies, were destroyed.