What Is a Flash Drive?
As we all know, a flash drive is a small portable storage device. It can exchange data with computer through USB (Universal Serial Bus) port. A USB flash drive has advantages of small size and compact design, low power consumption, strong physical damage resistance, relatively large storage capacity, low price, etc.
The USB flash drive is also known as pen drive, thumb drive, and jump drive. It realizes plug and play function and hot plug function. A USB flash drive is a necessary tool us. It can help you do a lot of things. However, do you really know how to use a flash drive on computer? This article can give you a step-by-step guide on how to use it.
How to Use a Flash Drive on Windows 10
How to use a flash drive on Windows? In this post, we will take Windows 10 as an example. Before using the flash drive, you should find a USB port and insert the USB flash drive into the port. Then, it will be displayed on Desktop or in File Explorer. If you don’t find the USB flash drive, you can click 10 Situations Where External Hard Drive not Showing up & Solutions to get solutions.
1. Transport and Store Data
Many of you may usually use a USB flash drive to transport and store data. You can transfer the data from computer into USB flash drive through copy and paste feature and then transport the USB flash drive with data on it safely to another place.
In addition, due to the strong physical damage resistance advantage of the USB flash drive, the USB flash drive is always used for securely storing data. Some people like to use it to back up important data to ensure data security.
How to transfer files to a flash drive? Here is the tutorial.
Step 1: Open File Explorer and find the file. Right-click on it and choose Copy/Cut.
Step 2: Open the USB flash drive. Right-click on blank place and choose Paste.
If the file is saved on Desktop, you can complete the copy process just by dragging the file to the USB flash drive.
2. Update Firmware
Why should you update firmware? Actually, you can solve some existing bugs and hardware incompatibility issues through updating firmware. Updating firmware can also improve computer stability.
Here is the brief tutorial on how to update firmware.
Step 1: You should check the current BIOS version before you really update it.
- Press “Windows + R” keys simultaneously.
- Enter “msconfig” in Run box and click OK button to open System Configuration.
- Skip to Tools
- Highlight System Information and click Launch.
- Then, remember BIOS Version/Date information.
Step 2: Download new BIOS version into USB flash drive.
Step 3: Plug in the USB flash drive and enter BIOS to update firmware.
3. Use a Flash Drive to Help You Recover Data
Obviously, you can’t just use a flash drive to recover data, but you can use it to make a bootable data recovery disk. Many people like to recover data through a bootable data recovery disk because the recovery disk can help you recover data when the computer can’t boot.
This tutorial will show you how to use a flash drive to create a USB data recovery tool and then use it to recover data step by step. But first, you need the help of a third-party data recovery software like Mini Tool Partition Wizard.
PW-Pro-Ultimate
Here is the tutorial.
Note: The USB flash drive will be formatted. Please back up the data in advance.
Step 1: Plug the USB flash drive on a normal running computer. Buy Mini Tool Partition Wizard and launch it to get into its main interface. Then, click Bootable Media on the toolbar.
Step 2: Follow the wizard and choose USB Flash Disk to complete a bootable disk directly.
Step 3:Plug the USB flash drive into the problematic computer. Follow the wizard that appears on the screen when you power on the computer to enter BIOS. Then, set Removable Devices at the first place of the boot sequence, and then boot the computer.
Step 4: Recover data and save it in a safe place.
4. Create an Operating System Installation Media
You might know that you can install Windows 10 with the help of a USB flash drive. But do you know the detailed steps? Just read on to know how to create an operating system installation media.
Note: The files on the USB flash drive will be deleted, please back up them in advance.
Step 1: Click here to download media creation tool program and create Windows 10 installation media on a normal running computer.
Step 2: Follow the wizard to create a USB flash drive installation media for another PC.
Step 3: Plug the installation flash drive into the computer and the computer will boot from it. Then, follow the wizard to install Windows.
If you are still confused about how to use a flash drive, please click Step-by-Step Tutorial on How to Use a Flash Drive to view the original post.