Flash drives are solid state storage devices that use flash memory to store data versus the spinning platters of conventional disk drives. Unlike a USB stick, flash drives typically emulate conventional hard drives in size, shape, and interface so that they may easily replace hard drives. Flash drives don't have any mechanical parts and there is nothing in the device that is being 'driven' mechanically. However the application for flash drives is for very high performance workloads being handled by conventional disk drives, hence the 'drive' moniker.