USB
Flash Drives
If you're ordering a custom USB flash drive for your package then make sure you get the right connector for your audience.
Capacity and Speed
Whether it’s creating your own bespoke shape or choosing from the numerous shapes, sizes and colours available, there will be a Flash Drive to suit your marketing or promotional needs. They can be branded in a variety of ways - screen printed, photo printed, laser engraved or embossed to name a few. In addition to the asthetics, there are different transfer speeds.
USB 2.0 High Speed version can handle 480 Mbps (megabits per second)
USB 3.0 Super Speed can transfer data between 5-20 Gbps (gigabits per second)
USB Flash Drive Capacity
The actual storage loss on a USB device is approximately 7-9% of the overall memory, so for a 32GB device you can expect a loss of approx. 2GB.
The actual memory size of your USB flash drive is always marginally less than advertised regardless of the overall storage of the device.
Here is a guide to the capacity you get when using a USB stick as well as the overall loss you can expect.
2GB - has 1905MB (1.86GB) available for storage
The remaining 143MB is used by the USB Flash Drive to store its firmware essential for operation
4GB - has 3809MB (3.72GB) available for storage
The remaining 287MB is used by the USB Flash Drive to store its firmware essential for operation
8GB - has 7619MB (7.44GB) available for storage
The remaining 573MB is used by the USB Flash Drive to store its firmware essential for operation
16GB - has 14980MB (14.63GB) available for storage
The remaining 1404MB is used by the USB Flash Drive to store its firmware essential for operation
32GB - has 29800MB (29.1GB) available for storage
The remaining 2968MB is used by the USB Flash Drive to store its firmware essential for operation
64GB – has 59500MB (58.11GB) available for storage
The remaining 6036MB is used by the USB Flash Drive to store its firmware essential for operation
Types of Connector and Port
The most common connector for flash drives is USB-A and some USB Flash Drives have dual port connectors.
