System and apparatus for compressing and decompressing data stored to a portable data storage device

摘要

A portable memory device is provided that is capable of easy connection to a personal computer via a universal serial bus (USB) port, IEEE 1394 (i.e., firewire) or similar port. Included in the portable memory device is a compression/decompression engine capable of compressing and decompressing data. Data residing on a personal computer or other host platform is compressed by the engine and saved to the memory of the portable memory device. Compressed data is retrieved and decompressed by the engine and transmitted to the personal computer for use by the user. Embodiments of the present invention thus provide a highly convenient system and apparatus for users to access and save larger quantities of data to a relatively small device.