When determining the sources of electronically stored information during the eDiscovery process, cell phones, PDAs, laptops, hard drives, and 3 1/2" floppy disks may come to mind. But the following highly portable data storage devices should not be overlooked. They might contain the proverbial "smoking gun" you're looking for.
1. USB Flash Drives
USB Flash Drives are small, highly portable data storage devices that do not require electrical power to keep the information stored. Think of them as fast, portable hard drives that can save Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, emails, etc. USB Flash Drives can store up to 64 gigabytes (GB) of information, which is roughly equivalent to 4 million pages of MS Word documents. USB Flash Drives can be connected to any computer or device that has a USB port. Here's what a USB Flash Drive looks like.
2. Memory Cards
Memory Cards are just like USB Flash Drives, except that they can be used in a wider range of devices, e.g., mobile phones, portable audio and video players, PDAs, laptops, printers, etc. But Memory Cards cannot store as much information as USB Flash Drives. The current maximum storage capacity in Memory Cards is only 16 GB.
There are four major types of Memory Cards:
