A woman friend of mine is writing a book using a laptop, but is very computer unsavvy. Right now, the Word document is over 4 megs. I've tried to teach her to use Zip to compress the file to fit on a floppy, but so far she has just found this too confusing.

So, yesterday we went out and got one of those USB Flash Drives--a Cruzer Mini by SanDisk. It's about the size of a Bic cigarette lighter, and holds 128 MBs of data. You just stick it into an available USB port, and it creates an extra "drive" on your computer. This one even comes with a lanyard, so you can wear it around your neck.

Anyone else use these things? It seems like a nifty little backup device.

Yeah, I use it for my portable MP3 player. They are sweet. You can also use it to back up photos on your drive. I had a ton on my drive and found that they took up to much space. Backing them up on a memory stick is the way to go (plus they're safe if your hard drive crashes).

Yes, they are highly convenient. I find that floppies are very frequently too small. Especially in a work/business environment, they are very helpful.

I think your friend needs to take some beginner's classes to get her more confident about her computer skills. Then she won't be so easily flustered by things like zip.

I've been thinking to buy one of these to transfer files from the company computer to home.

(I'm not supposed to store stuff on the office computer, but there is about 500mb of mine on it :naughty: )

But I'm also thinking about a portable harddrive via USB or firewire.

I use a 128MB SD card for my Palm (pics, MP3s, movies), and I'm looking foward to them replacing floppies altogether (*crosses fingers*).

I have 2 of these dealies. One 16mb that I have on my keychain and use regularly for taking files to/from the lab/classrooms on campus and a 512 MB one that I use for taking music files to the studio and to my buddy's PC.

...and I thought storage technology peaked with the advent of double density magnetic drives :D

I need one of these things cuz I take files EVERYWHERE but I dont know ummmm anything about them WHATSOEVER!!!

Ha! Double density mag drives. How ancient that seems...

Ter!!! You have to get one NOW!!! How can you call yourself a geek without some form of flash-based portable storage!!!

These (http://www.theback40.com/nerdy_keychains.jpg) are mine.

Ter!!! You have to get one NOW!!! How can you call yourself a geek without some form of flash-based portable storage!!!

These (http://www.theback40.com/nerdy_keychains.jpg) are mine.

Because the real geeks just use ssh or a vpn to dowload the files as needed.
:lol:

Because the real geeks just use ssh or a vpn to dowload the files as needed.
:lol:
But what about those times where *gasp* you do not have access to the Internet??!!??!! The studio I am using does not...

But what about those times where *gasp* you do not have access to the Internet??!!??!! The studio I am using does not...

The true geeks use ham radio to beam the data directly from their home server :lol:.

Then again, if you really must do portable storage, flash is for wuses. The über über geeks just couldn't do with a piddly 512M flash device when they can bring their own laptop or the pocket 120Gig hard disk drive. After all, how else can you bring your entire record collection stored using lossless compression (because oog just ain't good enough, and don't even mention mp3), a healthy selection of usenet porn, a Two Towers bootleg and at least two operating systems to work without one? :lol: :lol:

What lossless compression do you use?

I need one of these things cuz I take files EVERYWHERE but I dont know ummmm anything about them WHATSOEVER!!!

Well, they are quite new to me. I feel more like Rip van Winkle every day.
Can't keep up with all the new technology. There are several brands. Here are a couple of links.

Here's the one we bought, mainly because it was the brand on the shelf at the local Office Depot. If you can take the time to shop around for the best one to fit your needs, best price, etc., you should probably do so.

http://www.esend.com/sandisk/product.asp?sku=SDCZ2%2D128%2D768&mscssid=BQ63MFVK98849KH9CV3CLNVG152A9ETE#

Here's an extensive review of one brand, many pictures, etc:

http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/gizmo/

CONCLUSIONS & AFTERTHOUGHTS

After using a flash drive liberally for the past year or so, I haven't had a floppy in eyesight other than for the random BIOS flash. With more and more motherboards on the market natively being able to boot from a USB drives, floppies are looking down the barrel of extinction and my guess they will be completely wiped out in about 5 years. USB flash drives are here to stay and are the new standard in safe, affordable, trouble free data transport.

Moving on to Crucial's example reviewed today, I am left with mixed feelings. The drive performs well and problem free, and could be touted as one of the smallest USB drives around. But on the other hand, the price is almost twice as some other manufacturers drives with the same capacity. ... I feel that their are more honest, affordable solutions out on the market right now. As I said before, click on the PRICEGRABBER link at the top of the page and you will see what I mean.

Because the drive does perform problem free, it is awarded the "Good Product Award"

Pro's:

- Performs Flawlessly
- Small Size
- 128Meg capacity should be fine for most users



http://www.pendrive.com/intro.php

http://www.pendrive.com/faq.php

See esp. #19, "What are the applications for [i.e., uses of] the Pen Drive?"

What lossless compression do you use?

I don't but flac seems to be the top running one if you have tons of disk space to spare.

ty

Floppies are the one part of the computer that haven't really changed for around 15 years. Everything else has been updated but in the glory days of the floppy, windows 3.1 came on something like 10 floppies (probably less), and I can clearly remember one version of office on 26 floppies around 1992 (how long did that take to load!! - ages). The earliest office PC I can remember (and this was covered in dust on a cupboard) ran Windows 2.0, and had a 20 or 30MB hard drive. Lets just say it was basic!

I think these USB stick are great, but its only now that on new PC's they've
1) given enough USB ports (i.e.) 2 to 4 minimum before you have to get an external expansion box.
2) stuck the suckers on the front of the PC where they are actually useful.

Personally I would say it depends what you want, but there are a number of options;
1. USB Stick - Robust, pretty easy to use.
2. Media cards - Mulitiple format card readers are becoming a new standard front panel must for new PCs. Most handle all the main card types, e.d SD, compact flash, etc.
3. Portable devices - PDA and the like. Many now offer media card expansion.
4. USB External Hard Drive Cradle - Plug a normal IDE hard drive into a USB cradle, and use as a local drive. Could have a portable 120+GB device.
5. VPN etc. Great if you have the connection, or can IR your PDA to cellphone.

Personally, I'm just getting into the PDA option (now have a (cheap) HP IPAQ) with SD card slot. I can use it as an mp3/video player, or as a universal remote device. Does cut down versions of Word, Excel etc. Plus arcade (c 1993) quality games. Interestingly ID Games stars Tom Hall and John Romero (Doom and Quake among others) are now writing PDA Games.

My Zire71 is pretty cool for the price, and I love having music and movies on my PDA thanks to the SD expansion slot.

I think your friend needs to take some beginner's classes to get her more confident about her computer skills. Then she won't be so easily flustered by things like zip.

I revisited her today, thinking we would hook up the external cd burner we bought last time. But she told me instead that she was just going to return the burner to the store and get a refund. I think her patience was just about exhausted, and she was going to have to return to LA two days earlier than planned.

So we spent some time with my showing her (again) how to .ZIP up her book and save it to floppy. I think she has gotten the hang of it. At any rate, she wrote down a list of all the detailed steps, so I hope she can repeat them by herself.

We also practiced again how to save her book without .ZIPping by using the USB Flash Drive. I installed this Ziff-Davis freeware (actually, formerly freeware) utility called WMerge, which helps you "synchronize" copies of files on a "source" and a "target" directory.

I think she is kind of happy with the Cruzer Mini. She asked her nephew about it, and he said it was no big deal. But then she asked some of her friends about it, and none of them had one. So she's ahead of the curve in her peer group. :)

During the course of all this, she sighed: "I don't want to learn all this technical stuff. I just want to write!"

At the end of our session today, she graciously donated her older laptop to our environmental group, in care of me. I will back up all the contents for her, then use an eraser/overwrite program to erase all the personal files and programs from the hard drive. She said she does not need the tax deduction until next year, so that will give me some time to put it into shape.

She and I attended a "macro" potluck on Saturday night. The hostess of the potluck runs a non-profit school, and had somehow lost the addresses for her e-mail list. I spent part of last night fishing some of these addresses out of past mailings.

I mention this only because it seems that data loss of some sort or other just seems all too common, and if I might have helped my friend from even possibly losing her work, then all the aggravation I caused her will have been worth it.

Joe: what os does your friend use?

Maybe it would be a good idea to automaticly make a back-up from certain directory's.

(windos schedueler?)

Joe: what os does your friend use?

Maybe it would be a good idea to automaticly make a back-up from certain directory's.

(windos schedueler?)

She's using Win98SE. That's an interesting idea, but what exactly do you have in mind? The main problem seems to be the lack of back up media. Right now, her laptop only has a cd-rom. So, really the only back up medium she has is floppies. And she shuts the computer off when she is done using it. She also has the USB Flash Drive, which is an external add-on.

I've heard of people using schedulers to do automatic backups to tape drives and such, but she does not have such a medium.

And I think she is more than willing to just back up her work manually before shutting the computer off. Her late husband drilled this into her. She does not get to work on her book or other writings every day.

She is flying back to LA tomorrow, and won't be back in Nashville until the spring.
So she'll have to make do with floppies and the flash drive until she gets back.

I thought, it's a big file, lots of work in it, some one who isn't experienced with computers.......well...disaster scenario's get in my mind pretty quick.

I thought, why not a backup on the harddisk just in case she messes up and deletes something..(those things happen)

Usb drives get lost too......

(I'm a big supporter of Murphy's law)

I thought, it's a big file, lots of work in it, some one who isn't experienced with computers.......well...disaster scenario's get in my mind pretty quick.

I thought, why not a backup on the harddisk just in case she messes up and deletes something..(those things happen)

Usb drives get lost too......

(I'm a big supporter of Murphy's law)

A spare external hard drive or a CD burner may be a very good idea.

I thought, it's a big file, lots of work in it, some one who isn't experienced with computers.......well...disaster scenario's get in my mind pretty quick.

I thought, why not a backup on the harddisk just in case she messes up and deletes something..(those things happen)

Usb drives get lost too......

(I'm a big supporter of Murphy's law)

Ok, now I understand. I guess I focussed on the possibility of a hard disk crash.
She does have several copies of her book on her C:\> drive. These multiple copies were created more or less by accident.

USB Flash Drives do get lost. But since she had to pay for hers out of her own pocket, I don't think she is likely to lose hers out of carelessness.

BTW, she e-mailed me asking me to drive her to the airport, because her sister had to be out of town. I e-mailed her back and said "sure." She e-mails me back and says "Are you serious?" I e-mail her back and say "yes." I ended up driving her to the airport. She was able to tell her next door neighbor, who had offered, that she had it taken care of.

Now, what that was really about--I have no idea. Whip me, beat me, make me drive you to the airport? Is that really such a big deal?

She does have several copies of her book on her C:\> drive. These multiple copies were created more or less by accident.


:yes: in the same way files get delete more or less by accident. Let's hope her "recyle bin" isn't set to automaticly empty after "x" time.