I remember that awkward period after we outgrew floppies but before USB flash storage became mainstream when CD-RW and CD+RW (Yes there was a difference and it mattered!) being peddled as the next portable storage format. My first USB stick was 128 megabytes and cost around $60. I actually still have it, but it may no longer work. I believe I bought it in around 2003 or 2004. I remember them steadily decreasing in price, or at least price per unit storage, very quickly over the ensuing years, to the point where they were giving away multi-gig sticks by around 2009 or 2010.
I don’t remember the first time I used one, but the first one I bought was a 1GB PNY Attaché for about $29.99 in 2005, at Best Buy. I used that thing for many, many years, even after the glue holding the plastic failed and the connector receded into the housing. I still have it around here somewhere, it’s just a pain having to pull the connector out to use it.
I don’t think I used one until about 2008. Until then they were pretty prohibitively expensive (for me, at least). I used CDs for most of my rather minimal data storage needs.
When win95 osr2 came out. First Windows that supported it.
In 2002, I was taking a computer programming class at community college. The teacher recommended a floppy disk since we’re just saving text files, but I got a 64 MB drive and loved it right away.
I remember paying 20 dollars to a guy at staples who had a 512 MB drive, instead if buying it for 45.
Oh 2003
64MB, bought from a bestbuy store in 2003. I used it for college to print reports instead of the CD-RW method. Only problem was, many computers didn’t have the necessary USB drivers so they wouldn’t recognize the flashdrive (they were introduced with Windows XP service pack 3 which was not yet common), so you had to first install the drivers from a little mini-disk. But then you were good to go! I had a couple computers on college campus which i had pre-loaded with the drivers, so I world hope that one of them had nobody sitting in front of it… otherwise I’d pick a random computer and load the drivers onto it. I specifically looked for other computer labs that were off the beaten path since it increased the chance of getting the same computer.
Whenever it cost £35 for a 256MB stick. The Internet suggests 2003 or 2004 which tracks.
Back in 2003 or 2004 I had an MP3 player with 64MB of storage and a USB plug on one end (with a cap to cover it up), which technically counts as a USB stick.
I never used that for anything other than music files though.
My first proper USB stick I got in 2005 and it had 128 MB
I’m always carrying around an encrypted drive and at this point it’s basically an external SSD with a few TB storage.
Really handy while travelling internationally
I am too young to remember. The flash drives were always there. Probably somewhere in primary school for some assignment.
Lately I’ve just been using Samba.
I remember when we called those little USB devices dongles. And before flash drives, there were Zip drives. We’ve come a long way from floppy disks!
Some USB devices are still called “dongles”. USB Bluetooth and Wi-Fi dongles, for example.
Some companies still use license dongles for their software too.
I bought my first flash drive on sale for $12, a whopping 512mb. Fuck if I knew what to do with it at the time but I liked that I could carry cool pics and links to my favorite flash games with me. It wasn’t long after that I got my second, 2. fucking. gigs. Brought the entirety of Diablo 2 and a few Pokemon ROMs home from my uncle on that bad boy. Used it to put XBMC on an original Xbox. Got into Pirate video thanks to that thing. Still have it to this day, think it still has my d&d 3.5 collection on it.
The one I miss most though, tasteful little orange steel swing design. Wore it at all times as a necklace because it had this minimalist jewelry vibe. I had a live Ubuntu boot and ftp client on it, filled the whole drive, but I could boot into that instead of most computers and remote home to access my computer. Blew a lot of minds in highschool with that. Accidentally left it plugged into a computer on the last day before graduation and never got a chance to go back for it. I’d kill for 128gb or higher with that same external design, but you can’t find them from reputable places these days.
Maybe around 2003? It was a weird little device that was also an MP3 player. It had a headphone jack, play/pause/next/prev, and that was it. Was like 128mb and played mp3s in order they were written to the device, I think.
I thought it was really cool, but maybe not my best purchase.
Was it shaped like a boom box? Because i had that, right between minidiscs and “real” mp3 players.
I don’t think so. I think it looked like a normal rectangle flash drive, but with some buttons on one side.
Oh! It was the creative nomad muvo, the model without the screen. Looking online it was actually two pieces- the flash drive part slid onto the audio part? Man, it’s been a while.
That was just an mp3 player. Using it as a flash drive is the bonus.
I’m pretty sure that was just how mp3 players came back then.
was it a nomad muvo?
I had an mp3 player in 2003 that was basically just a usb stick with a minijack, two buttons, and a volume control. When inserted into what was essentially a battery case, it worked as an mp3 player. When inserted into my PC it worked as a USB drive. I loved the simplicity, and in a pinch I could use it for other files too.
128MB, iirc
I had a similar one. The earphones it came with were specifically designed to act as a strap as well so you can hang the mp3 player around your neck.
