Jump drives, also known as USB drives or Flash drives offer a simple and easy way for owners to transfer data from one computer to another. If you've recently invested in or are thinking of getting yourself a jump drive, continue reading Mahalo's guide on how to use a jump drive to learn how to use it.
Jump drives, also known as USB drives or Flash drives offer a simple and easy way for owners to transfer data from one computer to another. If you've recently invested in or are thinking of getting yourself a jump drive, continue reading Mahalo's guide on how to use a jump drive to learn how to use it.
Introduction
- Jump drives have become indispensable little pieces of hardware for college students, executives and anyone else who regularly needs to transfer data from one computer to another. Sometimes referred to as Flash drives or USB drives, jump drives are small in size, relatively inexpensive and most can store between 64 MB and 32 GB of data. For these reasons, jump drives have replaced floppy disks as a means of storage.
Step 1: Connect the Drive
- To connect your jump drive to a computer, simply plug it in to one of the computer's USB ports. Since jump drives are plug and play, you do not need to install any additional software to ensure that the drive and computer are compatible.
Step 2: Locate the Drive
- Depending on your computer, a window may pop up to notify you that the jump drive has been connected and allow you immediate access to the drive. If a window does not pop up, simply navigate to the area on your computer where you go to access your CD, DVD or hard drives ("My Computer" or "Computer" on Windows machines.) The jump drive will be listed here, likely as a "Removable Drive," and will have been assigned a drive letter that is not in use by your other drives ("F," for example.)
Step 3: Transfer Files
- Once you have located your jump drive and opened the corresponding window, you're ready to transfer files. Transferring files from your computer to your jump drive is as easy as dragging and dropping the files from your computer hard drive to the jump drive. Conversely, if you have the file open, you can save it to the jump drive by hitting "save" and selecting the jump drive from the drop down menu. Reverse these processes to transfer files from your computer to the jump drive.
Conclusion
Using a jump drive, you can store files for easy access or transfer files from one computer to another in just a few simple steps as detailed above. Their small size and large data storage capabilities make jump drives vital pieces of hardware for many computer users.
