Thumb Drive Security

Clarifications

1. What size is the drive?

2. What version of USB is it?

3. How is it formatted?

4. What OS is on the other systems and on your? Not all Win XP is the same either - Home and Pro will sometimes do things a bit different.

Any, and all, of these can affect the way the USB drive operates. Putting a USB 2.0 device in a system using USB 1.0 should NOT be an issue with a quality device, but some do have problems with the difference. Some OSs using drivers for older USB devices have issues trying to read newer devices that are larger than what they expect. Also if the drivers of the public system expect a FAT 32 formatted drive and you have one formatted to another system it will have major issue - - and yes, before you go off, you can format a USB drive to NTFS or EXT3, a lot depends on the device itself and I've done it with several. My laptop has Linux on it and my thumbs are formatted Ext 3 to go with the Linux better. I've had a few vanish while at the college library, they usually turn up in the library lost and found a couple of days later with a note about a damaged thumb drive being found stuck on them; but they still work perfectly in Linux. I suspect some people were seeking 'cheap' drives and dropped them when they didn't work.

spoken to anyone in authority at these places about the problem. They should get their act together and prevent this from happening. You could invest in a Thumb drive that has a Write Protect Switch but it wouldn't do you much good if you have to write to it.