Tips for Using USB Drives

USB drives are a boon to those using computers because they are portable, reliable, fairly fast, and have a good deal of capacity. USB drives are well suited for transferring large amounts of data between computers that aren't connected by a fast network.

When selecting a USB drive for use with your system, you'll always get the best performance if you match the "generation" of the USB drive to what is supported by your system. In other words, if your system has USB 2 or USB 3 connectors on it, then you will get the best performance by using a USB 2 or USB 3 drive. You can use older generations of drives with newer generations of connectors, but the transfer speeds will only go to whatever speed is the slowest between your system and drive. (For example, a USB 2 drive won't perform at USB 3 speeds even if your system is capable of USB 3 support.)

One thing to be aware of when using USB drives is that if AutoPlay is turned on, the disk will be searched every time it's plugged in. When you plug in a drive, you'll see the AutoPlay dialog box appear. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The AutoPlay dialog box.

Don't be fooled into thinking that you must wait until the search is finished before you can use the device. Instead, simply click the Open Folder to View Files option near the bottom, and you'll immediately see an Explorer window appear for your USB drive. You can then navigate the drive just as you would any other disk drive.

Another unnecessary cause that may concern you is that occasionally nothing happens when you plug in a USB drive. When this happens, it's usually because the USB connectors need to be reseated. Simply remove the USB drive from the USB port and plug it back in. You should then see your drive appear.

Finally, it's recommended that you always safely remove the USB drive instead of simply pulling it out of the USB port. You safely remove a device by clicking the Safely Remove icon in your system tray. It looks like a USB cable with a check mark next to it. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The Safely Remove icon.

Once you click the Safely Remove icon, Windows shows you the USB devices it detects on your system. Click the name of the device you want to remove and Windows will shortly let you know if it is OK to remove it. Once you're notified, you are free to unplug it.

 This tip (12371) applies to Windows 7, 8, and 10.