Redjake

I've noticed that everyone at work calls them "jump drives." I think this is really annoying, not sure why. I call it a "USB drive." What's your preference? Flash drive? Memory stick? USB stick?

Edit: I'm asking the mods for a poll! This should make it more interesting!

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Plaid13

Have always called them flash drives. Sometimes usb drive but not as often. never jump drive though. But have heard them called thumb drives as well. Whatever they are called they are very handy to have. Love being able to run firefox and a messanger off them.

Daniel_

I call them USB drives, because that's what they are - a USB device that shows up as a drive on a windows PC.

Seems easy enough.

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ols

usb refers to the interface, technically its flash memory. you could have usb optical disks (external hardrives). i think the type of drive it is should be designated by the way it stores info, imo

yellowmac

Wow, there's no way I can vote in this poll. I think I oscillate between "jump drive", "memory stick", and just "stick"... If I had to pick one, I'd probably say "memory stick" more often...

snowy

Seems to me most people around these parts call them jump drives, myself included.

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meanSpleen

... memory key


don't ask why. I have no idea either!

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telekinetic

Thumb drive. My wife just calls them a "USB"

To me:
Jump drive: uh, what?
Flash drive: internal solid state hard drive
Memory Stick: RAM comes in sticks, flash memory does not
USB Stick: see above
USB Drive: All my 500-750 gig external hard drives are USB also...they are what I mean when I say USB drives.

highthief

I always used to refer to it that way too, but more recently seem to use "flash drive".

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Hain

For a long time I just used whatever someone else said so that I didn't confuse them, but if I say it, it is either USB drive, but more often than not I call it by the product name: my Cruzer 4GB flash memory stick is my Cruzer; my Lacie 1TB external hard drive is the Lacie; etc.

spindles

thumb drive or sometimes flash drive

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ottopilot

I call my USB drive Steve.

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Moyaboy

I call them flash drives. I work in the printing industry. So many of my customers can call them all of the above and more. I agree that the way it stores the data is what you should call it.

What else would you call a hard drive? Although I have heard my grandmother call a computer a hard drive. That term to her encompassed the whole computer. Excluding the monitor, mouse and keyboard. Those were the TV, Mouse and typing keys.

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Charlatan

Thumb drive...

I have never heard the term jump drive.

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Tully Mars

flash

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Esoteric

Flash drive. I've never even heard the terms "jump drive" and "thumb drive" to describe it until now.

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ratbastid

I don't really know why, but I call it a thumb drive.

Anxst

I do the same, occasionally using 'external drive' instead. It's irrelevant to me if it's a flash drive, or optical disk, or whatever. It's an external data storage device accessed by USB. USB drive.

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snowy

Mine is actually named Pippin.

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jewels

Jump drive.

Before I actually knew they existed, my kids were using the term to describe them.

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NeoRete

I call mine thumb drives, USB drives are larger external HD's. My favorite name given to them by a colleague: geek keys (affectionately referred to because all the techs in our departments wore them on lanyards along with our ID badges).

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mrklixx

The title of the thread totally sounds like thwe beginning of a nerd joke. Some thing like "What do you call a usb drive inserted in your rectum?"

"An I/O error"

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Lasereth

Thumb drive. Everyone I know calls them that too.

MiSo

flash drive.

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shakran

i call them "lost."

I can't keep track of the damn things for more than 2 weeks at a time.

On the rare occasion that I know where mine is, I call it a thumbdrive.

CinnamonGirl

I know the feeling... the one I recently lost had all my English papers on it, too


I say flash drive. Occasionally USB disk. Even though there's nothing disk-ish about it...

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LoganSnake

USB stick/drive. It varies.

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guthmund

I've used all of those at one time or another with no preference to any....

Whatever I call them, no one around here ever has any clue what the hell I'm talking about the first time through the conversation.

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PonyPotato

Flash drive, generally. My boss usually calls it a thumb drive, sometimes I call it a USB drive.

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Dragonlich

Over here, most people I know call it a USB stick, or stick for short.
I've heard most of the other names too, but I've never heard anyone call it a "jump drive".

Leto

thumb drives primarily. Intermixed with USB sticks.

Frosstbyte

I call them USB keys, which apparently makes me a ridiculous outlier because it's not even on there. Sad day for me. My wife and I (though we don't use them much anymore) always carried them on our keychains, so I just started calling it a key. yeah, I'm weird. I'm ok with that.

LoganSnake

That's what I call them mainly. Always have my 2GB SanDisk with me.

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MontanaXVI

I call them a USB drive or thumb drive, but more USB drive than thumb.

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