Mass storage refers to the variety of ways to keep large amounts of information that are used on a computer. Over the years, the removable storage devices have grown smaller, increased in capacity, and transferred the information to the computer faster. The 8" floppy disk of the 1960s stored 100 kilobytes, or about 60 typewritten, double-spaced pages of text. The 5" disk of the 1970s held 360K, and the 3" diskettes from the 1980s stored 1.44 megabytes. Today, Zip disks begin at 100MB, and CDs hold about 650MB--6,500 times the storage of the 8" disks! To use any of these disks, the computer needs a disk drive in which to insert it. The latest in removable storage devices, called flash drives (also known as jump, pen, or thumb drives), change all of that. This small device (about the size of a stick of gum) combines the storage medium and the hardware into one. This article briefly describes flash drives and their storage capabilities.