Mishandling your USB drive could cost you your presentation

The USB flash drive is a wonderful invention that lets you store a big hunk of data on a little trinket the size of a key or pen. These drives are often called data thumbs, thumb drives,pen drives, or USB sticks. As you’ve found, properly saving files to them, or any other USB file-storage device, such as a camera or digital music player, can get tricky. In our experience, there are no actual save issues with these devices and PPT files; rather, the danger most often lies in the save process itself.

A USB device is plugged into a free USB port on your PC you’re your PC must recognize the device as a new drive on your computer before it’s usable. When you plug in a USB device, Windows presents the message that a new drive has been found, usually called Removable Disk. You can find the new drive by clicking My Computer and looking for the Removable Disk or a new drive letter. The best way to save files to a USB device is to right-click on the files or folders you want to save and choose Send To from the menu, and then select the Removable Disk drive letter.

To ensure your data is saved, you must allow your computer to finish communicating with the new drive before removing it. The most common cause of data loss when saving to USB devices is due to improper drive removal. When you’re done copying files, such as your PowerPoint presentation, to your USB storage device, it’s crucial that you click on the USB icon that appears in your system tray and select Safely Remove.

Your computer then removes the drive and saves your data. When it’s done, you’ll see a confirmation message in a Safe To Remove Storage Device pop-up window. Only now can you physically remove the USB device from your PC. If you remove it before your PC says it’s safe, you run a high risk of losing your files. We hope this helps you keep your presentations safe when transporting them with external storage devices in the future.