A couple of thoughts on USB flash drives

A few years ago, many of us “plugged” very tightly onto USB flash drives. Finally, there was an opportunity to carry an e-mail program with all the correspondence, compilers and work projects themselves, films on one small keychain - whatever. What can I say, solid pluses.

However, for several years of daily work with flash charms, I found a couple of flaws that I consider to be quite serious. Next, I will clarify what I mean and offer my thoughts on how to solve these problems. If you want, this is a discussion of how to make a flash drive with interesting competitive advantages.

1. Connector

Of course, you all know about the usual USB connector (not B, not mini, - normal). Almost all flash drives come with him. I believe that there are two serious problems in it.
The first problem: you insert a flash drive, and it is somehow crooked. Well, it happens, especially if it is a laptop a little less than a brand assembly (however, the old woman happens ...). Of course, you can say a lot of words about the Chinese quality, etc. But in essence - the connector itself is made in such a way that it does not guarantee good contact.
The second problem: one careless movement with the little finger, and the contact was broken. That is, the flash drive is still kind of inserted, and almost did not move. And the contact is gone - alas, a constructive feature of the connector. A slightly rougher tolerance when performing one of the parts - and a file system failure is inevitable.
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After all, there was a great idea in the BNC connectors. The idea of ​​one simple movement, which fixes the device in the connector. The implementation of one to one will be for flash drives, of course, too monstrous.


You can slightly change the approach to fixing, for example, something like a modern network connector RJ-45.

Of course, the direct transfer of RJ-45 is irrelevant. I just want to say that there must be a fixation, anyway.

By the way, the USB-connector has two slots on one side. They could be used to pin the flash drive. In this case, locking the flash drive in the slot could still allow you to pull out the flash drive, but with more noticeable effort. Moreover, the operating system (or the flash drive itself?) Could block and unlock the fixation in the connector for write operations. In general, there is a whole area for improvement.

2. Data

The second problem is more specific. But even more people are encountering it.
Unfortunately, at the current stage of development of technology, the loss of individual files and the probability of the collapse of the entire file system of the flash drive is relatively high. If you have not yet encountered this, then you are very lucky. Many people are constantly confronted with the fact that an unsuccessful touch, incorrectly performed grounding of the PC case, and maybe a wool sweater, are the reasons for the loss of important data. Well, if this is a movie that you transfer from a local network to a friend. And if this is an important working correspondence or source? The answer suggests itself: backup. Software solution, of course, exists, it has not been canceled, especially if it is important data.
But what if the problem is solved otherwise. We have a flash drive, there is a cap. Imagine a situation (without thinking about how to implement it): we worked with important data, turned off the computer, covered the flash drive with a cap and went to another office. What if the cap will have its own flash drive? Then during this time, while the flash drive is in the cap, does it synchronize its data mirror with the main flash drive? By the time you arrive at the office, you will have a full copy of your data. Neither the physical failure of the flash drive, nor the problems with the file system, nor failures of the chip, are no longer fatal. In extreme cases, we take the same, only new, flash drive, we put a cap on it from the old one, we smile and continue to work.
Of course, there are plenty of potential problems and options for this solution. Take at least the question of where in the cap the power to synchronize. But, again, there are options. In addition, this problem is not acute for everyone. But, I am sure, those who store really important working information on the key fob will appreciate this opportunity, even if it costs two to three times more. For example, I would buy one for myself.

Update: please do not take too close examples with BNC and RJ-45. Of course, I think that the decision should be less intrusive and more lightweight. What exactly - this is a question in the hall. The main thing is that the flash drive should not freely "hang out" in the nest, causing contact bounce.