Q: What’s “Grade A” or “Tier 1” Brand name Memory Chips At Cards180, Quality Speaks for Itself With so much variety in price, quality and capacity, how can you be sure you’re buying the best possible USB flash drives without buying the marketing hype? Cards180 cuts through the slogans to give our customers the straight story on USB flash drives, their components and capabilities.
Claim: “Grade A” or “Tier 1” Brand-name Chips Fact: The only way to verify the grade of a memory chip is by testing its speed and capacity. Within each grade, at least three to four tiers of quality exist, and even the top brands offer low-grade models. So when another USB flash drive vendor touts big brands or top-grade chips, it’s usually just hype. Additionally, it’s difficult to verify the brands of the memory chip. Check out the storage calculator.
Claim: “Lifetime Guarantee” or ”Lifetime Warranty” Fact: Every flash drive has a limited read/write life-cycle, typically about 10,000 uses for MLC and 100,000 to 300,000 uses for SLC chip. This means lifetime guarantees are little more than tall tales. NAND SLC flash – Memory chip stores 1 bit in every transistor. NAND MLC flash – Memory chip stores 2 bits at each memory cell. MLC can store more data on a memory chip with same physical size. NAND TLC flash – Memory chip stores 3 bits (tripple-level cell) has the highest cell density, but the lower performance and endurance specification. Retrieved from Micron. Let Cards180 help you separate fact from fiction in your USB flash drive choices.
Q: Capacity Calculator - How many files can I put onto USB Flash Drive A: USB flash drives are designed and manufactured at full capacity. However, some storage spaces are reserved for firmware and some are blocked as unusable space. The table below illustrates the number files can be stored on various USB flash drives. USB flash drives are designed and manufactured at full capacity. However, some storage spaces are reserved for firmware and some are blocked as unusable space. The table below illustrates the number files can be stored on various USB flash drives.
Capacity Estimate 1 GB USB Flash drive has 961 MB (0.94 GB) usable capacity. 2 GB USB Flash drive has 1908 MB (1.86 GB) usable capacity. 4 GB USB Flash drive has 4080 MB (3.79 GB) usable capacity. 8 GB USB Flash drive has 8067 MB (7.51 GB) usable capacity. 16 GB USB Flash drive has 16,109 MB (15 GB) usable capacity. 32 GB USB Flash drive has 31,919 MB (29.7 GB) usable capacity. 64 GB USB Flash drive has 60,949 MB (59.53 GB) usable capacity. Above calculation is based on the file size specified below: Photo (Hi Rez) - 2.1 MB, 2592 x 1936 resolution Photo (Normal Rez) - 0.6 MB, 1296 x 968 resolution Documents - 1 MB (Word, Excel, PDF, etc.) Music - 7 MB (High bit rate, MP3, M4a, etc)
USB Data Encryption How does USB encryption work? Encryption: No gimmick here — this is serious security. Learn how to protect your data and understand the difference between data locking and data encryption. Have a “sneak peek” you want to show to a limited group of customers? Encrypt the flash drives! There are several ways to encrypt data file on USB flash drives. Regardless of the methods, encryption software is required. There are two main software packages: resident software that requires installation, and portable software that does not require installation. Data locking: No trick, make your data non-erasable. It is simple and no software is required. Cards180 will partition you USB flash drive similar to CD format - read only files, and make the remaining partition available for user to store data. The data locking process will be perform during production. This process cannot be done by user.
Standard USB Encryption: (Software installation required on PC)
USB encryption is a simple way to protect important documents. iBizFirst step is to Install the encryption software on your personal computer then select and encrypt the files on USB flash drive. To decrypt and access the file, the user enters the password again to decrypt the file. If the user is using a different computer to decrypt the file, the computer will need exact same software running on his or her PC with same password. The user simply enters the same password again to decrypt the encrypted file. Both free and paid versions of encryption software are available to download on the Internet: USB Safeguard (Freeware) – http://usbsafeguard.com Cr!ptAES (Freeware) - http://madebits.com/criptaes/index.php
Portable USB Encryption (No software installation required on PC) Portable USB encryption is convenient and easy to use. No software installation is required and less iBiz confusing for users. To access the file, user simply double clicks the file and enters the password to view the file. Most portable encryption software requires license fee to use the software. The prices range from $15 to $50 depending on the quantity. USB Secure (License required) - http://www.newsoftwares.net/usb-secure/ Kakasoft USB Security - http://www.kakasoft.com/usb-security/