A small portable storage device that connects to the USB (Universal Serial Bus) port of a computer is sometimes referred to as a Thumb Drive, USB Drive, Pen Drive, Flash Drive, Jump Drive or Memory Stick. The amount of storage space on the drive may vary in size starting at 16 MB (megabytes) to many GB (gigabytes).

Recent operating systems such as Windows XP and Macintosh OS X automatically recognize these devices and allow you to drag and drop files to them from your desktop computer. Older operating systems (e.g. Windows 98 or 2000) may require you to install the driver for the device before it is usable.

Note: Always properly eject the drive through your operating system before removing it from the USB port.

• On a Windows XP computer, mouse click on the "safely remove hardware" icon in the system tray (lower right hand of your screen.) and mouse click  "Safely Remove USB Mass Storage Device". An information window will appear that tells you it is safe to remove hardware.  Now you can safely unplug the drive from the USB port.

• On a Macintosh, drag the drive icon that appears on your desktop to the trash. Once the trash can changes into an eject icon and the drive icon disappears from the Mac desktop, you can safely unplug the drive from the USB port.