Section 9 -Disks and Storage

USB Flash Drive

A USB flash drive is a rewritable storage medium which is plugged directly into a computer through a USB port. Depending on the USB flash drive, it can hold from 128 MB to 16 GB or more of information. USB flash drives come in all different shapes and sizes, for example view the one shown below:

Once the USB flash drive is inserted into the USB port the removable disk icon will be displayed in the My Computer menu in Windows XP or in Computer menu in Windows Vista. It depends on which drive is available, but the removable disk icon will display, for example, as shown below:

After you have saved files onto your USB flash drive it is important to safely remove the hardware. To safely remove the hardware you can do the following:

• Make sure to save and close all the files that are being save d to your USB flash drive.
• Next, double-click on the Safely Remove Software icon on the bottom right had side of your screen.
• Then the Safely Remove Software dialog box will display, as shown below:

• Click on the Stop button.
• The Confirm Stop a Hardware Device dialog box will display, therefore choose which hardware device you would like to stop and click on OK.

• Finally, the Safe To Remove Hardware call out will display on the bottom right hand side the screen letting you know it is now Safe to Remove Hardware: