123c54438b91
tech



Hello David - 

DD>>> None of the above, the USB drive proved to be far more
DD>>> effective than the floppies were. 

CA>> USB external drives looked good to me for awhile until
CA>> people started finding software that was incompatible. I'm
CA>> not sure I want to deal with proprietary hardware. 

DD> What sort of software? The Windows OS supports it,
DD> therefore I'd expect any app designed for Windows should
DD> work. 

There are 'apps' for Windows that drop to DOS and will not see
all external USB devices. Image copying software would be one
area. 

DD> However, I wouldn't recommend anyone have their only copy
DD> of data on a USB memory drive, rather, work the the hard
DD> disk and use the USB for copying it somewhere else. 

That works if you are a member of "the church of what's
happening now" but if you have a collection of files gathered
over a period of years that method doesn't work. I don't move
'recent' files on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. 

DD>>> Via the LAN within our home. The router is just one
DD>>> device on that LAN - all of the computers on the network
DD>>> have Internet access. 

CA>> My setup had no 'shared' files or directories, just the
CA>> internet access. 

DD> How do you share that, via Ethernet? Why not share
DD> resources on the machines too, it save so much time copying
DD> files between them. 

One word, "children". My grandchildren used the other computers
scattered around the house and would answer "yes" to any popup
asking to install any software. Now and then they would
download a game and try to install that. The other machines
were down for re-install as often as they were up and running. 

None of the adults wanted to 'share' virus etc. with the
children. 

[...] 

CA>>>> Possibly. CDs are quite inexpensive here. The 'thingies'
CA>>>> at dollar(s) per meg seemed less than a bargain to me.
CA>>>> When/if they get a 512meg'r down to say $10 I will
CA>>>> reconsider - maybe. 

DD> I don't believe USB drives are intended for permanent
DD> storage... 

DD>>> CDs are just so slow to burn 

CA>> Mine _was_ slow until I bought a newer CDRW 52x35x52 for
CA>> $30US. Now it takes just a bit over 4 minutes. :-) 

DD> Takes about 15 seconds to copy that much to a USB memory
DD> drive, and you can flush and re-use it over and over. 

One CDRW CD costs less than $1US. The 'thingie' of comparable
capacity costs you how much? 

DD> I see CDs as more useful for something more permanent, but
DD> then they don't hold enough - DVDs are a little more
DD> realistic. 

DVDs aren't really more realistic. I wait for quite some time
to collect enough to fill a CD. Waiting to fill a DVD would be
an additional risk factor that something would go wrong on the
computer and I would lose what I had before getting enough to
burn a DVD.

I did however buy a double sided DVD writer and install it
here but my machine would lock up after a reboot and I decided
it wasn't worth worrying about.  Double sided media is more
expensive and I just don't move/offload enough to worry about
the extra capacity.

My brother, OTOH, is into photography and ripping his CD collection
etc. and does have a DVD writer and now wishes he'd waited for
the double sided DVD writers to come out.

Soon there will be 'blu-ray' and all the weenies will have to
repurchase and reinstall again. :-)

--8<--cut 

DD>>> The USB drives are just "recognised" by all 2000/XP/2003
DD>>> machines. 

CA>> Not recognized by all software as evidenced in the Win95
CA>> echo of late. 

DD> Win95 (up to OSR2) does not officially support USB so I'm
DD> not surprised, but who uses that any more? 

There are FIDO users who use W95 and even W31 and DOS. I am
one of them. :-)

W98 USB support for USB is/was 'iffy' as well.

DD>>> The USB drive is more efficient when just copying files
DD>>> to another location too. 

CA>> Possibly. I would have to use 2-400 CDs to match the cost
CA>> of one external USB drive and by that time the drive would
CA>> be obsolete replaced by something even better? ;-) 

DD> Do you burn a CD just to move a 2 mb file? 

I would if I had to, yes. I keep a half dozen or more CDRW CDs
around for just moving files and use normal CDR CDs for
offloading of files as 'archival' and yes I do know CDs don't
last all that long. 

DD> What do you do with all of those used CDs? 

I donate them to the old-timer's skeet clubs. ;-) 

>
>        ,                          ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich      \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >          USA, MI           < \   __\__
 

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