They are small, elegant, and many computer users have several of them. USB sticks, of course. When they were still new, their capacities of 64 MB and 128 MB perfectly bridged the gap between the floppy disk and the CD-ROM. Nowadays, USB sticks have developed into outright storage behemoths with capacities of up to 64 GB, easily outstripping even optical media. Some users actually carry around more storage capacity on their keychain than their computer has RAM. In the case of a 64 GB USB flash stick, which is worth several thousand Euros, this can lead to the absurd situation that the keychain is worth more than the car it unlocks. We’re sticking with more down-to-earth products in this review, though, as we look at four new products that found their way to our lab over the past few weeks.

The characteristics of USB sticks make them the ideal choice for a mobile data-exchange medium. Unlike hard drives, CD-ROMS and DVD-ROMs, they are not susceptible to jarring or scratching. The fact that they are thus largely indifferent to resistance to external factors coupled with their high and ever increasing storage capacity and their ease of use have certainly helped USB flash drives gain the widespread popularity they enjoy today. Windows Vista added another argument in their favour, namely Windows Vista ReadyBoost, which we will get to in a moment.

Portable Apps

The U3 standard that was introduced in 2005 may have contributed to the popularity of USB flash drives. Previously, it had only been possible to save data to USB sticks, but this new standard allowed applications to be installed and run from a thumb drive. Thus, it became possible to run U3 compliant applications such as browsers, word processors, games, email clients, etc. from the university computer pool, and internet café or even work using an appropriate drive. One of the criteria for this to work is that the applications in question do not change the registry of the computer(s) they are run on. However, that can’t always be avoided.

Also, U3 USB drives represent a certain danger for companies. While administrators try to keep their IT landscape up to date with patches for the applications and the operating system, the USB drives are out of their reach. Thus, they can pose a real threat to the company’s infrastructure if the apps on them are out of date and vulnerable to certain attacks.

Normal USB drives can’t be turned into U3 USB sticks. USB flash devices conforming to the U3 standard possess a second partition about 5 MB in size that to the operating system appears as a CD-ROM. This partition cannot be altered by the user. It houses all of the information necessary for the U3 applications to work as well as the so-called U3 launch pad from which the apps are started. A U3-compliant USB drive possesses an interface layer and a U3 kernel, where the Interface layer negotiates between the USB hardware and the U3 kernel. Both need to be installed by the manufacturer of the USB device and can’t simply be deleted later. Additionally, applications need to be adapted specifically to become U3 compliant. You can find a number of free and for-pay applications at the U3-Software website.