USB _________ (fill in the blank)

[Idontwantspam]

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

"Pass me that flash drive."

"You mean my USB key?"

"What? That's a pen-drive!"

"You're talking about a ________"

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.

[gamehead200]

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

[nitroshift]

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

[XL-DJK]

USB Key

[ripken204]

ive never even heard of usb-key

i call them flash drives

[CptMurphy]

Flash drive here, cuz they are oh so fast.

[Nephilim]

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

Edited June 3, 2007 by Nephilim

[Biohead]

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

Edited June 3, 2007 by Biohead

[awergh]

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

[Idontwantspam]

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.

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

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.

[[deXter]]

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.

[lost_packet]

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

[vinodh]

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.

[prx984]

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

[ripken204]

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?