USB Drive

I call 'em "USB memory sticks".

Since there is no drive involved, USB memory works for me.

Lehman57, don't take this personally since you didn't do it, but I don't like it when the meaning of words is redefined to suit someone's fancy.

Who ever heard of booting something to start it? How DUMB!

Well, you did "axe", didn't you? _{That one would keep me from hiring someone, no matter how well qualified they were.}

Cheers!

"Who ever heard of booting something to start it? How DUMB!"

Though I'm sure you know, there are prob'ly many who don't, so this is for them.

"Booting" is a contraction of "bootstrapping". There's a lengthy description on Wikipedia, but in summary:

A sequence of instructions built into the the hardware of the machine (or stored in the "Boot ROM"^[1]) makes the machine read a section of code from the "boot sector" of a mass storage device (hard disk etc.) from which the machine is "booting".

The code thus read is then executed, which loads more code from mass storage.

This continues until the entire operating system is up and running.

The analogy is of someone pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps.

^{Kicking something to start it is (or maybe used to be) commonplace. I've spent many hours kicking a 'bike over. Booting is less taxing on the feet.}

[1] Read Only Memory.

Thanks, I needed that. Somewhere in the fog I may have, at one time, known that.

But, "Kicking something to start it is (or maybe used to be) commonplace."

I must be from the old school. I kick things when they DON'T start.

Who ever heard of booting something to start it? How DUMB!

This is just guessing about the origin of the name. I can't remember if this was from school at CWRU or from a job at Argonne Nat'l Lab, but the computer I was allowed to use had a punched paper "boot strap" tape to give the computer its initial education so it could do anything else. My guess is that "boot" may have come from something like this. Also, consider that giving something a swift kick in the pants may get it started--therefore, booting!

ISO 90018-FD no doubt dictates a specific wording for this; God forbid you should use any other term. Of the ones mentioned so far, I hadn't yet heard of "travel drive," though it is equally sensible.

External is by no means always an USB.

There are now motherboards or computer boxes with a SATA connection on the outside where one can fit any hard drive.

The external drive I use has a USB to SATA / IDE adapter therefore not a true USB drive but it is used in similar manner than a memory stick.

I don't know or care about the correct name but enjoy it. Maybe Handy drive.

Why not stick to external drive.

Then I also had some removable drives, (IDE drive in a tray that slide into a rack.

Long ago I had a disk platter in a cassette - removable drive,

Well, Wiki thinks it should be "USB Flash Drive" If you search for USB memory stick, thumbdrive, or JumpDrive, you are redirected to USB Flash Drive.

I usually call 'em Thumb Drive... Wiki sez "ThumbDrive" was a trademark of Trek Technology, and is no longer manufactured. I will probably continue to use the thumb drive handle... old habits die hard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive

The USB drive is also known as "pen drive".