Description

• Pen drives, also known as thumb drives and flash drives, are solid-state storage devices with no moving parts. Measuring less than two inches, they are no bigger than a pen and weigh about an ounce. They are small enough to keep on a keychain or carry in a pocket.
  
  

Use

• These devices have built in USB connectors, typically covered by a cap. The drives plug into a computer's USB port. Operating systems such as Windows XP automatically recognize them as storage units, allowing files to be copied or backed up to them.
  
  

Capacities

• As of August 2010, Amazon shows that the highest-capacity drives can store up to 128 GB and cost around $350.