USB Flash drives are very resistant to scratches and other kinds of unintentional mechanical damage. They are also protected against dust penetration. These strong points give them substantial advantage if compared with their predecessors, such as compact and floppy disks. No matter how resistant USB flash drives are comparing with mechanical drives, still they can be damaged or corrupted by serious physical abuse. The circuitry of a flash drive can be harmed by improper wiring of the USB port.

The technology is much more sophisticated than the one of floppy disks, Zip disks, miniCD, miniDVD, CD-R/CD-RW and DVD-RW discs. Besides, these means of storage can be easily damaged by dust, physical impact or magnetic fields. All of the above have a much smaller storage capacity than the USB flash drives. Of course in the up-to-4Gb storage category, the USB flash drive can be replaced by CD and DVD discs, but the point is that they are very fragile. The Double-sided DVDs can store up to 8Gb which is very convenient, but they still are more fragile than a USB drive.

A company called R&D Electronics seemed to have done more than it was actually needed. However its USB Drive really impresses. The name of the device is “IronDrive” and its main advantage is the ability to resist high temperature, shock, vibration, caustic agents, electromagnetic impulses and most importantly – nuclear stresses. The drive was developed for both military and commercial purposes.

In 1994 Intel was the first computer company to introduce the USB silicon. This year saw the assembling of the USB core companies. Later in 1995 340 companies formed the USB-IF (Universal Serial Bus Implementers Forum) and this is when the first USB was officially introduced.