which is preferred? some pros and cons porfavor. I have a good bit of music on sd cards, they seem to work well. Thats all I ever used with the pocket PC as it had such little memory. I keep seeing these flash drives for sale from 1 to 250GB’s. 
Not sure how you would judge “preference”. If you have an MP3 player or
camera or something that accepts an SD card, then you want an SD card…
USB Flash drives have the advantage of being usable in any computer, without
needing an SD card reader. They do tend to come with software preloaded,
but that can be removed.
I have heard that SD cards can be more durable, physically. I have a USB
flash drive with a retractable USB plug, and I don’t think it will last very long
before that moving part gets broken.
Hi Tansy-
I agree with the post above. It really depends what you’re using it with. Flash drives are easy to use and are sturdy. I too have the one with the retractable USB plug, as do many of my students (fifth grade) and I’ve never had a problem during the five years I’ve been using one. In fact, I still have the same one. My students have never had a problem, and if anyone would-they would. Best of luck.
Guess it depends on what you are using it for. USB flash drives are more compatible between computers but SD cards seem to be in most cameras, but high end cameras often use Compact Flash Cards. I’m not sure about music players, but I’d guess SD more likely. They are all build from the same technologies, so all have similar speed ranges, prices, the differences being in the interface/form. I have several of each type for various uses and in several years of using them have only had a couple of them fail – a 1 GB USB drive and a 256 K USB drive.
KAC
Thanks all for shining the light. They both sound equally good. I’ll most likely stick with the SD for now as that’s what I have and my notebook PC, pocket PC and camera all accept them. It’s amazing how much music you can put on a 1 GB SD card.
I have a “Jumpdrive” thingy that I bought from Target in 2003, it looks like a USB flash drive but has no internal memory. You open a little door and there’s a slot where you put a SD card, a MMD card (now not very popular) or a Sony memorystick. Best of both worlds.
I just reread your question, and I’m curious where you’re seeing these high
capacity flash drives? I wondered if maybe you were seeing ads for portable
hard drives which come with a USB flash drive. Sometimes those ads are
worded in confusing ways…
At the local Sams club they have a 250 GB flash drive for $119.00. It’s about 4"x6"x1" and has a short cable to plug into a USB port. that’s a lot of memory 
at least to me.
I could be wrong, but I honestly don’t think that’s a flash drive. It sounds like
an external hard drive. I don’t think we’ve got solid-state drives that big
available to the consumer, yet.
Did the Sam’s drive look like this?
Right, that’s probably not a FLASH drive, just an external hard drive USB powered.
The biggest flash drives I’ve seen are like 16 G.
KAC
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. The Macbook Air can be bought with a
64GB solid-state drive instead of the base 80GB harddrive, but it costs
an extra $999.
I’ll check when I go back. it caught my attention because it didn’t say hard drive only flash drive. It is different than the one you pictured, solid black with a 6" cord and USB plug. It will be a week before I go back but I’ll get all the specs I can and post them here.
I have a black Western Digital 250 Gb that I paid about $130 for it sounds just like the one you describe. I love it.
KAC