It seems that everyone calls USB flash drives something different. Every day it's


You get the point. What do you call those things? Wikipedia calls them flash drives. I call them flash drives, but a lot of people have their own little term for them.

I call it a USB-key... Cuz it used to be on my keychain (until it broke off).

USB-key because I keep it on the key chain.

USB Key

ive never even heard of usb-key
i call them flash drives

Flash drive here, cuz they are oh so fast.

well it would be USB-Stick for me here in germany. but we always have the dumbest names for thing just imagine what we call "mobile / cell phone" .... it is actually "handy" and that isn't even a translation.
actually "pen drive" will be what most stores will call it here, but "usb stick" is more common

just take a look here

USB Stick for me in UK. I guess its "real" name over here is USB Flash Drive, but saying stick is easier

generally pen drive

it does annoy me when people just call it a USB without being more discriptive

you mean no one calls it a USB Mass Storage Device

Yeah, when people just say "USB" that tells me nothing. There are hundreds of thousands of USB devices out there. For cameras, cell phones, printers, hard drives, media card readers, graphing calculators, scanners, floppy readers, mice, keyboards - many, many things that are "USB". USB Mass Storage Device is a bit better, but my camera shows up as a USB Mass Storage Device when I plug it in, because it's connected by USB and it's got an SD card which is a Mass Storage Device.


I see lots of people who wear them on a lanyard. The dad of one of my friends calls it "Geek bling" when you wear a flash drive around your neck.

I call it a "pen drive" for daily usage because that's what everyone here calls it. I get blank stares/pauses if I were to refer to it as a flash drive, which is how I call them while writing articles.

"Thumb Drive" here. At least to me, its shape resembles more a thumb than a pen.

I call them "flash drives". No one here calls them pen drive or just "USB". The name most peole here use is "Memory Stick". It seems like they confuse it with a Sony memory stick. Trying to tell peole here, that a memory stick is a completely different device from a flash drive, just results in frustration.

BTW: The reason I think that Flash Drive is an appropriate name for these devices, is because they use flash memory for storage and windows treats them as removable drives.

I call it a memory key, just because, well, it's memory and it goes on my keychain

so what so you call a solid state drive? same stuff... its a memory drive?

i call it a flash drive cuz that be what the market tell us they are..lol

I'm quite irritated in the tone that you use to talk to people on this forum with. You may have a bit of experience with hardware, but that doesn't give you the right to talk down to people. I have read a lot of your posts, and each post I see by you, is very rude.

And to answer your annoying response to what I said, no. It vastly depends on what it is, if its a solid state memory card (ie, CF, SD, XD, Smart Media) it is considered a memory card. If it has a USB connection on it, its memory key. If it's and external Hard drive, its a hard drive.

That answer your question?

let me just apologize. i may come off that way alot of time but it has nothing at all to do with you. whenever i get in an argument i tend to be rude with knowing it.

I call it a USB stick.

Hmmm, "Usb flash drive" appears to be the most "correct" one,
but there are of course exceptions, I guess these:
Pen Drive
USB key
Thumb Drive
USB Stick
can be called differently with no risk of misunderstandings.


jaclaz

call it a usb pen!!!

well see to me a key opens things.. so i just dont understand usb key at all.
not quite sure where pen drive came from. does anyone have one that is connected to a pen?

ive heard lots of ppl use thumb drive tho

@ripken204

If you click on the links on my original post, you might be able to understand the idea behind it.



jaclaz

oh, well i guess that would makes sense.. but the funny thing about those car keys, if your cell phone goes off next to it, the key on the flash drive can get messed up and it wont start the car

Here, we call it USB Drive (short for USB Flash Drive).

Welllllll.... I guess those are very literal interpretations of the names. Very good work finding those.



I've heard that before, but I still think USB drive isn't specific enough; as I stated earlier, there are many kinds of USB Drives. None the less, if someone just blurted out "where's my USB drive," I would think flash drive, not a hard drive with a USB connector or something like that.

--------------

It appears that so far, (USB) Flash Drive has won.

im with you Idontwantspam. a usb drive could be almost anything. you could even call a usb floppy drive a usb drive... completely different things tho.

Yep, the "Thumb Drive" really cracks me up.... I wish I had one of those.

jaclaz

I usually say "Flash Drive", but if I'm lazy, I just say "USB"...

euwhm.... is just USB also good? most of the time people here in NL ask if i have my usb with me, and the other way around too ofcourse, and if they/i mean a usb whatever you can call it, yes they do

In English I call it “USB flash drive”. In Swedish it’s always just a direct translation of “USB memory”, which is what it’s called in computer magazines and among techies.

Many people here call it (in Swedish) “USB memory stick”, “memory stick”, “USB stick” or simply “the stick” (on the subject of portable data storage, “put it on the stick”). In rare cases it’s called “USB memory card”, because it’s put in the same category as other memory cards in online stores.

Just USB memory.

Well... At least I'm not the only one that calls it a Thumb Drive.

i call them "flash bellek" in turkish. which means flash memory.

I call them either usb-keys or thumb drives, just depends on how i'm feeling that day but most of the time i find my self calling it a thumb drive.

Me too!

Me three! That'll really go well with my "palm top" and "lap top".

lol, i dont even use my laptop on top of my lap. and what if u call it a notebook? you dont take notes in it and its not a book..

A word of WARNING:
DO NOT EVER try to swallow a "Tablet PC"

;)

:rofl:

jaclaz

Ha! What do those look like?


I call it a laptop even though I never put it on my lap. Most people I know call them laptops. The computer companies often call them notebooks. I think they should be called portable computers, but who wants to say all that instead of just laptop?


I learned that the hard way. Thing is I fried the computer, too, because I tried to take it with water.

Ha! What do those look like?


I call it a laptop even though I never put it on my lap. Most people I know call them laptops. The computer companies often call them notebooks. I think they should be called portable computers, but who wants to say all that instead of just laptop?


I learned that the hard way. Thing is I fried the computer, too, because I tried to take it with water.

i call them laptops too. i'de have to agree the portable computer is the "technical" name also..

Most people I work with call it a thumb drive.

Pen Drive here, some times flash drive, but more so pen drive

No, not even my computer. My computer does, however, call my MP3 player a USB Mass Storage Device.

simply Flash or USB

e.g you see my new usb?

i m calling it "Pen Drive". not just me..almost 99% ppl here calling it Pen Drive!

I call it Sarah.

I too used to call mine Sarah, but, besides the fact that it evidently did not understand it's name as it invariably failed to come to me when I called it aloud, my wife began thinking I was:
a. mad
b. having an affair with another woman

So I quitted.

jaclaz