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 think around 2003ish.
Y’all don’t forget the hot minute where Zip Drives with 100mb disks were almost a big deal.
I was the nerd with the Zip 250.
I had a zip drive for a minute. Useless.
I still have mine.
It was a 32mb (megabyte) flash drive. that I used to hack my original Xbox, which I also still have.
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.
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.
When win95 osr2 came out. First Windows that supported it.
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.
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 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.
That’s so coolllll
Lately I’ve just been using Samba.
