Portable storage devices

I have off and one problems with my printer (yes I really need a new one) and was thinking of buying one of those portable devices to say store our taxes and some of my bookkeeping stuff on and then Neil could take to his office and print them out on his printer. I don't want to burn a CD.
However I have no clue on how they work, is any type better than others.
Can you also store photos on them and how many photos?? I can buy some just for photos to.
Can you continue to add stuff to them??? Where can I learn about this??

Thanks!!

Also called flash drives or flash sticks they are all pretty comperable. You can put anything on them and they are forever re-writable so you can always remove, add or change things on it. I don't think they make any for specific files. Mine is a bit unique in that I can store programs on it as well. Like say I want to take ICQ to another machine. If it's on my drive I can and then when I leave, it leaves with me instead of being installed on the other computer.

Anyway, if you only want it for simple things any one should do. For that a 256m should be adequate but if you price shop you can find a 1g for not too much more and that will take forever to fill. You simply plug it into any USB port on a computer and it shows up as a drive under "My Computer". My only suggestion is stick to a name brand you recoganize because if they do crash (and I've had it happen) you can't retrieve anything in most cases.

Like an external hardrive or a smaller flash drive?

Both will hold pretty much anything, I use my iPod to store some files I want to take to the office with me!

USB Flash drive. They're easy to install. Just plug in and start using it!

I have 3 and I use all 3 (just separate them between work/school/backup).

Another product I've just become aware of is a pocket card reader. It's about the size of a thumb drive, and takes SD or MMC cards, plugs into your USB port and behaves just live another drive. You can leave the card in the reader, if you want. It has caps both ends, so you really can stuff it in your pocket and not get it gummed up with lint. Store anything on the cards that you ordinarily would -- documents, pictures, mp3s... -- and transport to wherever. As long as you have a USB port, you're in business. Win 98 does not have native drivers, but later Windows versions do.

You can also buy portable storage devices that are not exactly flash or stick drives. They look like tiny external hard drives and are bigger (hold more) then a flash drive. Usually around 10 GB or so. I have one of those and a flash drive. Love em! you can store anything on them. Documents, pictures, music, anything you can store on your computer, you can store on a portable storage device. These are different then the card readers too. You don't need to use a card. They're just like a hard drive.

Thanks for all the information. I got another coupon in the WSJ this week for $10 off a $20 or more purchase at Office Max so I will see if they have anything good. I did get a new printer which helps me out tremendously, but I know I still should pick one of these things up.

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

Like an external hardrive or a smaller flash drive?

Both will hold pretty much anything,

I use my iPod

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to store some files I want to take to the office with me!

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Apple made a bundle with this thought. After all, the iPod is a glorified flashcard. I use SD cards with my PDA to simulate an iPod. The thing about SD cards is my cameras all use them, my printer, my PDA, my montiors and HDTV, etc. and I can just pull them out of one device and stick them into another. This makes them slightly more versatile than a USB plug but storage costs can be high if you are not proficient at compressing data before storing. Most people soon learn after buying a digital camera that compression can be done easily up to ten times with no noticeable degradation in quality meaning that a one GIG card can actually save TEN GIG of data when compressed. Music and photos have different compression rates but I have literally tens of thousands of photos backed up on just a few SD cards.

Of course you can back up data to DVD or even CD at the very cheapest possible price but these are not as convenient or as versatile. In the case of my PDA, I have several SD cards filled with music and can just pop out one SD card and put in another with no hassel of using a computer, something the iPod still cannot do. And if you look inside an iPod you will basically find just that, an SD card unless you buy one of the new 30G iPods, but they actually have a hard disc in them which means moving parts. Things that do not move do not break like things that do move.

After all sorts of hassles with discs and CDs/DVDs, I got myself an external hard disk for backups. It's roughly the same size as a pack of cigarettes, but not even half as thick, and stores a lot! For some reason, I made a note that it stored 40 GB, but have discovered that its capacity is 400 GB. It cost <$100, and is very portable.

Originally Posted by jcat

After all sorts of hassles with discs and CDs/DVDs, I got myself an external hard disk for backups. It's roughly the same size as a pack of cigarettes, but not even half as thick, and stores a lot! For some reason, I made a note that it stored 40 GB, but have discovered that its capacity is 400 GB. It cost <$100, and is very portable.

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400 GB for $100??? HOLY SIMOLIANS! That is so inexpensive! Maybe I ought to have you send me one some time.

Wow I just bought a 250GB on sale for $130 +tax ($100 off) and was impressed.

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

Wow I just bought a 250GB on sale for $130 +tax ($100 off) and was impressed.

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I'd consider that a great deal before I heard about the 400 GB for $100!

Best buy was "selling" the 512MB for 99 cents when you bought tax software.
They would only sell one per customer though.

Originally Posted by mzjazz2u

I'd consider that a great deal before I heard about the 400 GB for $100!

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I would have been more impressed if it was for me, I picked it up for work after sending the GM out twice and him coming back with internal hardrives both times. I showed him it when I bought it and he said 'well why didn't you just say you want a back up machiney thing )

My 180GB was $210 + tax

I have a Western Digital Passport (external hd). It's 180GB and I got it for around $150. I love the thing to pieces. Never go anywhere without it. It fits in the pocket of my jeans which is just awesome.

Originally Posted by mzjazz2u

400 GB for $100??? HOLY SIMOLIANS! That is so inexpensive! Maybe I ought to have you send me one some time.

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Our nephew was absolutely astounded at my "good buy". I swear I bought a 40 GB external HDD, and was shocked when it turned out to be 400 GB. Maybe it was mismarked? I'm certainly not going to complain or return it! It certainly holds more than 40 GB, as I currently have about 160 GB stored.

Originally Posted by jcat

Our nephew was absolutely astounded at my "good buy". I swear I bought a 40 GB external HDD, and was shocked when it turned out to be 400 GB. Maybe it was mismarked? I'm certainly not going to complain or return it! It certainly holds more than 40 GB, as I currently have about 160 GB stored.

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I wouldn't complain either! Congratulations!

Originally Posted by mzjazz2u

I wouldn't complain either! Congratulations!

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It was definitely mismarked! Our computer science teacher went to the same store, and the price is now >3x what I paid. I guess I really lucked out!

Originally Posted by jcat

It was definitely mismarked! Our computer science teacher went to the same store, and the price is now >3x what I paid. I guess I really lucked out!

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Well I think it's cool and I'm happy for you! Jealous... but happy. I was looking at an ad the other day and saw a 1 terabyte external hard drive. Now what would we do with all that storage?

1 terabyte!?!?! Holy macaroni - that is so much space. Don't tell my hubby, he will go on and on about wanting one!