How to Use a Flash Drive as a Hard Drive for File Storage

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Are you running out of space on your PC or Mac hard drive? If you have a USB flash drive, you can connect it to your computer and use it just like a hard drive. Modern USB flash drives are affordable, fast, and come in large sizes, making them great alternative to pricy external hard drives. While you won't be able to make a flash drive your primary operating system's hard drive, you can still use it for storage, backups, and even to boot operating systems like Ubuntu Linux. This wikiHow article will teach you simple ways to use a flash drive like a hard drive on your Windows PC or Mac, plus how to boot Ubuntu Linux from a flash drive on a PC.

Things You Should Know

After plugging your flash drive into your PC, you can copy files to and from the drive in File Explorer.
On a Mac, connecting your flash drive will add an icon for the drive to your desktop.
To boot Ubuntu Linux from a flash drive on a PC, you'll first need to enter the BIOS and make removable devices first in the boot order.

Storing Files on Windows

Plug the flash drive into a USB port. If you have not plugged in this type of flash drive into your computer before, you may have to wait for its drivers to be installed. It may also need to be formatted. Windows will guide you through format process, but understand that formatting this flash drive delete any files that are already saved on the device.

Open the File Explorer. Press Windows Key + E, or click the File Explorer icon in your Start menu.

Click This PC. You'll see this in the left panel. Now you'll see all drives connected to your PC, including your flash drive.

Save files to the flash drive. As long as the flash drive is plugged into your computer, you can save files to it as you would your hard drive. To move files from another folder, open another folder to click-and-drag files to the flash drive. This will create a copy of the file on the flash drive. You can save new files to the flash drive using the “Save” dialog of most Windows programs. When saving files to the drive, select the drive letter you previously noted. To organize files on your flash drive, use the Windows interface to create new folders and move files around just as you do with your hard drive.

Storing Files on a Mac

Plug in your flash drive to a USB port. If you have not yet plugged in this type of flash drive, you may have to wait a few moments for its drivers to be installed. After it is finished, a USB icon will appear on your home screen. You may also have to format the drive to work with your computer. If you see a message that says your USB flash drive needs to be formatted, understand that this will erase any files you've stored on the drive. If you're using a Mac desktop computer, it's better to plug the flash drive into a USB port on the back of the computer rather than the keyboard.

Double-click the icon that appeared on your desktop. Click and drag files to the window that opens to copy them to the flash drive. You can also save new files from programs using their save dialog, by clicking the USB icon and then clicking “Save.”

Open or delete files from the flash drive. As long as the flash drive is plugged into your computer, you can open, save, delete, and organize files as you would your hard drive. As long as the flash drive is plugged into your computer, you'll be able to save files to it as you would your hard drive. When saving files within an application, select your flash drive from the left side of the screen.

Running Ubuntu on a PC

Boot into the BIOS. You'll need to act quickly because you only have a few seconds to enter the BIOS once your computer boots. Turn on (or restart) your computer and watch for a message that says something like “Press F2 to enter setup” or “Setup=F1.” The exact message and key to press are different across different sorts of computers. Press the key as instructed to enter the BIOS. if you're having trouble getting to the BIOS, check out our simple guide on entering the BIOS on any PC.

Set the BIOS to boot from a USB drive. BIOS menus vary, but look for the option that mentions “Boot” and select it with keyboard commands.

Set the boot priority first to CD, then Removable Device. This will allow you to boot to install your operating system from a CD, and load it onto the flash drive.

Disconnect your hard drive before installing the operating system (OS) on your flash drive. Disconnecting the hard drive leaves the operating system unaffected and prevents boot errors from grub (Ubuntu's operating system loader) if the USB drive is not present.

Put the Ubuntu CD in the CD-ROM drive. Make sure the flash drive is plugged in, then reboot the computer.

Follow the prompts from the installer to install Ubuntu. Select the USB flash drive as the location where you want to install the new OS.

Reboot the computer and re-enter the BIOS. Depending on the computer, it may reboot automatically. Re-enter the BIOS and set the boot order to this order: 1) Removable Device, 2) CD, and 3) Hard Drive (HDD). If you see an option to enable “boot from USB,” as will be present on most Intel-enabled PCs, change it to “on” or “yes.”

Reconnect the hard drive. Remove the power cord and reattach hard-drive cable(s).

Turn on the computer. To boot into Ubuntu, make sure the USB drive is plugged in. If you want to use the OS on your hard drive (in other words, not the version of Ubuntu you just installed on the USB drive), remove the USB drive before rebooting. When the USB drive is disconnected, it will first try to boot from CD. If there is no bootable CD in the CD-ROM drive, it will then boot from the hard drive as normal.