USB flash drives are super helpful, quick, portable, and efficient tools to store your digital data or move it around from one device to another. The market is overflowing with a variety of flash drives, available in every possible shape, size, format, and design. So, if you are a new buyer, it can understandably be a little daunting to figure which one’s perfect for your project!
For this purpose, the first consideration that comes to your mind is the size of the drive. But the size shouldn’t be the only factor. Before making a purchase, you should also keep in mind other aspects like the drive’s build quality, compatibility, chip format, and its design and packaging. So, the first rule is – “a bigger drive doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a better drive!” So, here’s how to find the right drive size for you!
Sizes Commonly Available in the Market
Flash drives come in several sizes, from 1GB to more than 512GB. Which size is ideal for you largely depends on the nature and purpose of your work and the amount of money you are willing to spend. If you want to store just a few documents, or maybe a few pictures and some music, even a 1GB flash drive would suffice to give you an idea.
But if you want to store multiple files of bigger sizes (for example, a long list of movies, music videos, or video games), even a 512GB drive would run out of space in no time. So, before buying a flash drive, you need to calculate the total size of the data you intend to store in that drive. In addition, you need to understand the purpose before making the purchase, which helps you choose the correct size. In some cases, you can get preloaded USB drives that contain an operating system, software, videos, educational material, etc.
Besides music, films, images, videos, and document files, flash drives are also used to store backups of your laptop or mobile phone or to store software applications of different kinds. If you want to store anything like that, calculate the collective size of all those files and decide your flash size accordingly. And as a rule, it’s always better to buy a drive with some extra storage space because a 4GB flash drive won’t exactly have 4GB of space available for storage.
The True Size of Flash Drives
As you may have noticed, the actual space you get in a USB flash drive is always slightly lesser than what’s mentioned on the label. So, for example, if you’ve bought an 8GB flash drive, the actual storage capacity you get would be somewhere around 7.5GB. A certain amount of space is reserved for technical mechanisms like system files and memory allocation. So, in reality, that missing 0.5GB is there on the drive but not available for you to use.
Also, depending on which operating system you use, your flash drive would tend to work differently. For instance, as you switch from a Windows device to a Mac OS, the available space on the drive can marginally increase or decrease. But, again, that’s because different systems use different file formats and algorithms.
So, it’s always advisable to go for some extra storage. For example, if, according to your estimate, the data you want to store is somewhere around 0.8GB, it’s best to go for a 2GB drive instead of 1GB. This will also help you store some additional data in the future.
Relationship Between Drive Size and Data Transfer Speeds
Another very important aspect you need to keep in mind before making a final decision is the data transfer speed of the drive. Flash drives can be classified into different categories based on their USB port’s generation (USB 2.0, 3.0, etc.). If you choose a drive with 8GB or more capacity, it makes a lot of sense to go for 3.0 (or higher) generation. Otherwise, the process of transferring data would be painstakingly slow!
2.0 allows you to transfer 480MB per second, while 3.0 can transfer approximately 5GB per second, about 5 times faster than 2.0. And now the newer versions of 3.0 like 3.1 are even faster! They transfer at a speed of 10GB per second. So, it’s always advisable to go for 3.0 or higher, especially if you plan to buy a flash drive with more than 8GB capacity.
Flash Drives for Promotional Purposes
If you want to order flash drives for promotional campaigns pick a size that best suits your specific set of requirements. These could be – the nature of your ad campaign, attributes of your client base, the budget you have in hand, or any technical parameters specific to your needs.
But generally speaking, it’s always better to go for a minimum of 8GB flash drives for promotional purposes since – “the bigger the drive, the higher the perceived value”. This also means that bigger flash drives are more likely to be retained by your customers for a long duration of time.
Conclusion
We hope you have read the article in its entirety instead of jumping straight to the conclusion to save time! But here’s a summary of everything we just covered –
- Before buying a flash drive, calculate the collective size of all the files you want to store in that drive, and accordingly, pick a size.
- Also, do not make the final decision solely based on the size of the drive. Explore other aspects, including – generation of the USB port, manufacturing quality, chip format, durability, and the design of the drive.
- Always remember that the actual storage capacity would be slightly lesser than what you paid for. So, go for a size higher.
- If you are buying customized drives for promotional purposes, go for bigger-sized drives in attractive shapes and designs to make a positive, lasting impression.
