CHARLES ANGELICH -> DAVID DRUMMOND wrote:

 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 people
 CA> started finding software that was incompatible. I'm not sure I
 CA> want to deal with proprietary hardware.

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

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


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

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

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

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

 DD>> CDs are just so slow to burn

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

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

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

 DD>> plus require "special" software and hardware to be
 DD>> installed on the machine in order to write the data to the
 DD>> media.

 CA> Both Windows and Linux install burning software as a part of
 CA> the install. Not sure about Macs but I'd guess they do too.

None of my Linux installs installed burner software (I don't have a burner
in them). They all talk to the USB drive though (well, except for the old
486 - files to/from that have to be done via the LAN)

 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 echo
 CA> of late.

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

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

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

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

What do you do with all of those used CDs?

-- 

regards

David

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