Pantone Matched USB

There are hundreds of standard factory designs available some with a cap that twists, some where the USB connectors retracts, and some that have a removable cap. The majority are manufactured from plastic; some from plastic and aluminium but you can also get versions that are made from leather or stainless steel.

Ironically with so much choice making a decision can be daunting. Some of the most important things to consider when making your selection are:

• Will the USB Flash Drive I choose be large enough to take my logo and show it off to best effect? Its surprising how “scrunched up” a logo can look if you print it on the wrong style of USB flash drive. A good idea is to make sure when getting quotes that you also get your supplier to send you high quality mock-ups showing you your artwork/logo on your short listed USB drives.
• If you expect the flash drives you hand out to have a reasonable life rather than just used once or twice and then discarded then it’s worth choosing a model and print style that will preserve your brand. After all, you’re paying for the USB flash drives so you want your brand to survive and not rub off after a couple of weeks!

  Some USB flash drives can be engraved and some look great with a resin dome sticker. Both of these options are more resilient to scratches and bumps picked up in everyday use. Dome stickers are not “cheap stickers” but are high quality resin stickers commonly used by the computer and automotive industry and allow a protective layer to be applied over a high quality 4-colour print.

• Choose a flash drive in a colour or finish that will compliment your brand or logo. Don’t settle for a standard “factory” colour or what the supplier happens to have available because getting the colour right can make all the difference to the finished product. If you’re not sure get your supplier to work up a variety of examples for you to consider.
• Cap or No Cap – The most popular promotional USB flash drive continues to be the capless Twister model.

Colour Matched USB Flash Drives

Finally don’t forget how powerful pantone matching can be. This is one sure fire way of lifting the profile of your flash drives. Pantone matching is simply colour matching the body shell to one of the primary colours from your logo. As the examples here show if you choose the right colour the finished flash drives can look stunning.

Clip USB Flash Drive

Can the Clip USB Flash drive challenge the Twisters crown – well, just like the Twister the Clip USB drive has no cap to lose, it’s small, lightweight, can be attached to a keyring or lanyard and it comes it a range of different finishes. Unlike the twister the whole drive is made from highly polished stainless steel so it has a “high-end” look to it.

The real beauty of the Clip drive is, as the name implies, that it can be “clipped” to most things easily and quickly – you

Clip USB

attach it just like you do a good quality pen. Ideal for attaching to your clothes, folders, portfolio files, bags and so on.

Because it’s made of stainless steel the Clip USB stick lends itself to engraving but you can also print onto it if you prefer.

Despite its small size (it’s only 38mm x 12mm) it’s available in memory sizes ranging from 128MB all the way up to a whopping 16GB!

If you’re looking for a promotional USB product that’s a little bit different but is still stylish and classy looking then you might want to add the Clip USB flash drive to your shortlist. If you’re not sure give us a call and ask for a sample so you can see for yourself just how compact and attractive the USB clip is.

Simply asking for quotes on say 500 x 1GB USB flash drives printed with a 2 colour logo on a Twister Style USB flash drive is likely to result in quite a spread of prices. Some of this will be down to the different margins that each supplier works on, some of it will be down to pricing for “extras” like print set up, data-loading, boxes, lanyards etc. but some of the difference can be down to the quality of the flash you’re likely to be supplied with.

Determining the quality of the USB flash drives you are being quoted on can be incredibly tough, particularly if you’ve not bought USB flash drives before. The problem is that from the outside a basic Twister 1GB USB flash drive looks much like any other basic 1GB Twister USB flash drive but if you were to examine the core components inside the flash drive (assuming you know what you are looking for) then you might be surprised at the differences.

The key components inside each USB drive are the flash memory chip, the controller (which is the “brains” and issues instructions to the flash memory), and the capacitor which manager the power. Each of these components are available in from different manufactures and as you might expect there are “cheap” low spec versions available as well as high performance versions.

Some suppliers of USB flash drives will quote prices based on “bottom end” internal components whereas others, recognising the issues they create and being concerned about their reputation and the reputation of their client will only quote for mid-range to top-end components.

It’s not unheard of for some suppliers to also supply “masked” USB flash drives. These are 1GB drives that might only have a real storage capacity on them of 600MB – difficult to spot because when they are plugged into a PC they will show 1GB of space available but if you write more than 600MB of data to the drives these files will fail!

USB Flash Drives

Masked USB flash chips are much cheaper to buy because they are typically chips that have been rejected by the factories that make them because but they are sold in the “grey” market as “B” or “C” Grade chips and then typically find their way into the promotional flash drive market.

If you end up buying cheap USB flash drives that have been assembled using “masked USB flash chips”, a cheap controller and a cheap capacitor then you can expect the drives to have a high failure rate, very poor read/write speeds and a short life span. For some companies who are looking to buy on price and price alone this won’t be an issue because they are willing to accept a high failure rate – typically these are companies buying promotional give-aways where a degree of failure is acceptable.

But, if you are looking to hand your printed USB flash drives out to your staff, your pupils or important clients/prospects and you want the drives to be used and have a reasonable life then you should be aware of these potential issues and you should ask some hard questions of your suppliers based not just on what the flash drives look like on the outside but what components are used on the inside.

Ideally, ensure you get some guarantees on the grade of chipset being used and check the credentials of the supplier.

As with everything in life you get what you pay for and printed and promotional USB flash drives are no exception!

His Model T-Ford car was introduced in 1908 and by 1914 over 250,000 had been sold. By today’s standard these numbers are not that impressive but sales of the Model T accounted for over half of all cars sold in the US by 2018!

Part of the success of the Model T-Ford was down to a determination to keep costs low by a continually striving to bring efficiencies into its manufacture. One such efficiency was the mandate that the customer could have the car in any colour they wanted so long as it was black! – The reason for this was simply because black had a quicker drying time and allowed the assembly lines to operate to maximum efficiency.

In a “nod” to Henry Ford we introduced the Black on Black USB Twister Flash Drive earlier this year and the reaction from customers has been phenomenal. The black “mono” USB twister flash drive is essentially a standard black twister but instead of supplying it with a standard silver “clip” it’s supplied with a black clip.

Black USB Twsiter Flash Drives

When these black “mono” twister USB drives have a logo printed on them in white they look stunning. The white print stands out incredibly well and the USB sticks have an “edgy”, almost stealth like look and feel to them.

The Twister USB flash drive continues to be the best selling promotional USB stick in the market today and this mono variant is likely to ensure that it retains this position for the foreseeable future.

If you do order any mono Twister USB flash drives then make sure you take the time to pre-load them with your sales material, sales brochures, media files etc. Pre-loading data typically costs little (or nothing if you’re only loading a few files) and adds significantly to the overall benefit of the USB drives you’re giving away.

Any files that are pre-loaded can either be “protected” so that they cannot be erased or they can simply be loaded just

USB Data Loading

like any other data which then allows the user to delete the files. If the files you are pre-loading are large and take up a significant amount of space on the flash drive then its recommended that you allow the user to delete them. If you don’t do this then the relatively small amount of space left of the drives for them to store and carry around their personal data will mean the USB drives won’t get used which sort of defeats the object of giving them out.

Typically data is pre-loaded onto the USB flash drives during their manufacture. Its done this way simply because it’s the most cost effective way to load the data but it does mean you need to be organised and have your data ready early in the process of buying branded USB flash drives.

You can pre-load the data after the flash drives have been manufactured and printed (just before delivery to you) but expect to pay a little more for this service because data loading at this stage is more labour intensive and take longer. Loading data at this late stage may, depending on your supplier, preclude options like “protecting the data” or installing the data as an “auto-run” (this is a solution when the files automatically run when the USB flash drive is connected to a PC). Protecting data and auto-runs are normally only available during the manufacturing process because the process is flash controller dependent.

At USB2U we have invested in state of art professional data loading hardware that allows us to offer data loading solutions in the UK including multi-partitioning of USB drives with CD-ROM and Read-Only Partition Support, auto-runs and protected files.

If you’d like a quote for branded USB flash drives with or without data pre-loading just give us a call or fill in our on-line quote form and we’ll get back to you in a flash!

If you use USB flash drives then there are a few things you can do to reduce the risk of data corruption and loss and this starts with understanding exactly what a USB flash drive is and how it works. Once you have a grasp of the basics its then much easier to understand the “do’s and don’ts” of how you use them which in turn will hopefully reduce any failures.

Twister USB

What is flash memory

Flash memory is probably the most commonly used digital storage in use in the world today. Flash is “solid state” memory with no moving parts and data is written to it and erased from it electronically over and over again. If you own a mobile phone, digital camera, MP3, iPod, or USB flash drive then you’ll have a product, which uses flash memory, but as you might expect there are differences in terms of quality and performance between the different types of flash memory flash available in the market.

The different types of flash memory typically used are:

Single Layer Cell Flash Modules (SLC) – This is the most expensive of all the flash modules you can buy because it uses less power (which in turn gives better battery life), it has excellent read/write speeds and because the data is written into a single cell (one bit of data is stored in a single cell) it is less susceptible to corruption. The vast majority of branded USB flash drives supplied by USB2U use SLC flash modules.

Multi Layer Cell Flash Modules (MLC) – As the name implies these flash modules store two bits of data per cell and hence can store twice the amount of information but with this improved data storage comes slight higher power consumption and a lower expected life. Because it’s cheaper than SLC flash modules MLC is commonly found in everyday consumer products.

Triple Layer Cell Flash Modules (TLC) – TLC flash modules are the cheapest type of flash available today. They allow you to write three bits of data to each data cells but the trade off is slower read/write speeds and a much lower life expectancy coupled with a greater propensity to fail. As such TLC flash modules tend to be used in “low end” consumer products where data storage is not “critical”.

Understanding how flash memory works:

Flash memory is a solid state “chip” that has no moving parts – it looks like a small printed circuit board encased in rubber so its not particularly exciting to look at but more importantly it is small, quiet, uses little power and generates hardly any heat. Data is “written” to the flash electronically as a series of “bits” and is erased in the same way.

Typical reasons for data corruption:

Life expectancy reached – Flash modules have a life expectancy and when reached they can lose their ability to retain data. Typically this is several thousand read/write cycles but the life expectancy will vary depending on the quality of chip used.

Condensation – If the products the flash modules are used are subjected to extremes of temperatures or humidity this can cause the flash module to short circuit or for corrosion of the contacts to build up.

Premature Removal – the most common reason for data loss when using a USB flash drive is removing the USB flash drive whilst it is still in use and without going through the “stop” and “safely remove” process. Doing this typically won’t damage your flash drive it will commonly lead to the loss of some/all of the data.

Branded USB Flash Drives

If you use USB flash drives to store critical data on then its worth ensuring you buy flash drives that use top grade flash chips (SLC chips) and you should make sure when you use the flash drive that you “stop” the drive using the “safely remove hardware” option before you physically remove it from the PC. Also bear in mind that flash memory degrades over time and has a life expectancy which when reached will mean permanent failure. So, if you’ve got a USB flash drive that’s been used regularly over a number of years its probably not a good idea to rely on it for the storage of critical data or precious photo’s!

Perhaps the news of the recent delivery of some excellent branded USB flash drives to Duston School has started to seep out. It wouldn’t be too surprising if this was the case because one of the reason USB sticks are popular as giveaways or as promotional items is that they create lots of interest and “chatter” which after all is exactly what you want if you are looking to promote something.

USB School Flash Drive

Clearly in the case of schools it’s less about the promotional benefits and more about providing teachers and students with a useful tool that can be used to save and carry data around on. Many schools now either provide their teachers and students with memory sticks at no cost or simply make them available to purchase at a heavily discounted price.

With the growing use of PC’s and white boards in the classroom it perhaps surprising that USB memory sticks have not found themselves onto the list of items every student must have when they start school. It wasn’t too long ago that calculators were the preserve of the few whilst everyone else struggled with slide rules and log-tables. Today of course calculators are cheap, plentiful and a core part of daily life at school. How long will it be before USB flash drives go the same way?

If you are considering buying branded USB flash drives for your school or university then get in touch with the team at USB2U. They always have lots of offers on like free data-loading, free gift boxes, free lanyards and every school or university immediately qualifies for 30-day trade terms.

Its always useful to talk your requirements through with one of the team at USB2U because memory sticks used in schools are typically subject to a fair amount of punishment so they can advise you on USB flash drives that are going to be robust enough to stand up the job. Equally if you’re concerned about the students losing them its possible to get each and every USB flash drive sequentially numbered so they can be “bound” to the student and returned in the event of loss.

So, get set for the start of the new academic year and order up your School USB flash drives now.

Live USBs have many advantages and limitations when compared to the live CD.  Unlike live CDs the data contained can be changed and stored.  At the same time, people are able to carry their favorite operating system with them.  There is enhanced privacy with live USBs is due to the compact size and ability to store it in smaller places or carry it with you.  Live USBs usually start faster, though this is not true if a computer is lacking USB 2.0 support.  Older computers may not have BIOS that supports USB booting.  In this case, an initial bootable CD may be needed.  Due to the writing cycles of the live USB, the life of the flash drive is reduced.  This is not a worry with live CDs.

With the know-how, you can find programs that will help you to create custom USBs.  You can search the internet to find these programs that will support Windows or Linux operating systems.  In order to do this, you will need a broadband internet connection.  Some people find that creating their own custom USB suits them better.  It takes up very little space on the USB drive as well.  This allows you to personalize your live USB to your business and personal needs.

Many programs can create a live USB that is compatible with Windows and Linux.  The install for programs are completely non-destructive.  Due to this, there is no need to deal with formatting or partitioning your custom USB key.  Various programs also support automatic downloads through Fedora and Sugar on a Stick.  Storage creation is persistent, so you can save files and make modifications that will remain and persist after you reboot your system.  You are also protected when it comes to making sure that you have downloaded the correct elements.

Many, many sites are available on the internet which allows you to buy live or custom USBs.  There is also an endless amount of support on these sites to answer your questions as to what you may need, or step by step instructions to create your own.  The options that you have with live USBs are extremely vast.

There are many advantages to a live USB.  It can make life much more convenient for those who travel as well as using multiple computers. There is no more worrying about whether you are going to have the file support and programs that you need when you are traveling around.  It is a wise investment.