portable hard drives vs flash drives

[blind_fury]

a flash drive with 8GB cost $150.

a small portable hard drives with 40GB cost as little as $70.

what's the advantages of a flash drive?

 

[aptget]

Really small, portable
You can flash your BIOS from them.

Although new BIOS can be flashed from an executable

 

[blind_fury]

what are BIOS?

 

[aptget]

I should also say that External HDs are huge rip offs
They are essentially HDs with cases
and an extra 70 dollars added to the price
You can buy a 250GB HD for 70 bucks

 

[aptget]

what are BIOS?

I think this can explain it better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS
"BIOS refers to the firmware code run by a computer when first powered on. The primary function of the BIOS is to prepare the machine so other software programs stored on various media (such as hard drives, floppies, and CDs) can load, execute, and assume control of the computer. This process is known as booting up."

Dells and probably other companies do weird stuff so you never even know they exist. For instance, in my iMac i had no idea what a BIOS was. I never saw it

But when I built my PC I now see it everytime I boot up.

 

[blind_fury]

thanks