Question about Flash Drives

[oliegirl]

Radii and I are looking into purchasing a Flash Drive which I could save certain documents (only word and excel files) in case my laptop ever goes down and I can't access files. This has happened three times in the past year - problems with the power cables and a un-chargable battery. Anyway, we found some at Best Buy tonight - one was 256 MB for $50, but with $30 in rebates. Another was $128 MB for $20...not knowing anything about these we didn't buy anything but thought I'd post here for advice. Does anyone have one? Are there differences from brand to brand? Are they as easy to use as they seem to be (just plug into USB port and the device shows up on My Computer as a removable drive - like a digital camera does?) Thanks!!!

[jbmagic]

they work great.

there not much difference between brands. just get the size you need and plug to your usb port on the pc.

there way better than using floppy to transfer documents word and excel.

very easy to use.

[MizzouRah]

Radii and I are looking into purchasing a Flash Drive which I could save certain documents (only word and excel files) in case my laptop ever goes down and I can't access files. This has happened three times in the past year - problems with the power cables and a un-chargable battery. Anyway, we found some at Best Buy tonight - one was 256 MB for $50, but with $30 in rebates. Another was $128 MB for $20...not knowing anything about these we didn't buy anything but thought I'd post here for advice. Does anyone have one? Are there differences from brand to brand? Are they as easy to use as they seem to be (just plug into USB port and the device shows up on My Computer as a removable drive - like a digital camera does?) Thanks!!!
They are extremely easy to use and if you don't have a ton of data to backup, the choice for data backup. I would go with the highest one you can afford (memory size) as the amount of data you want to backup will only get bigger as time goes on.

Shoot, my Oulook pst file is a gig or so in size, so I spent $110 and purchased an external USB 80 GB HD. Of course it's not as small and handy as a flash drive, but it's just as easy to save data and as much more space, of course.

[FrogMan]

Ollie, I bought a Iomega Micro Mini, 64Mb for only 8.99cdn after rebate and I can tell ya, it's as simple as using your digital camera. Plug it in, it's recognized immediately. I think when I got mine, it was going for something like 3.99$us after rebate at tigerdirect.com, but I think they're out of it, and it may be too small for you. It does the trick for me as I simply keep it in my pocket and it replaces 40 floppies ;)


FM

[MikeVic]

I've had horrible luck with flash sticks and will never use them again.

[mrsimperless]

I've had horrible luck with flash sticks and will never use them again.

What happened? I've never had or heard of anyone having problems.

[Airhog]

We are using these at work now for failure information from returned product. My department just got a new 1.2tb server to handle all the information

[Buccaneer]

I have about 5 of them, ranging from 64mb (for Quicken backups) to 40gb (for hard drive backups, cost $129). Amazing technology, esp when one remembers paying $450 for 4mb of RAM.

[Loren]

they're great, although mine broke when the laptop took a tumble..teehee..and now i still have the plug on the usb port and the rest in a drawer, im hoping if i buy the same kind i can hook it up somehow cuz i got a lot of pics on there i want:(

[Easy Mac]

They're cool, but I've never used mine.

[MikeVic]

What happened? I've never had or heard of anyone having problems.

I've tried three different sticks... and after awhile, all three had the problem of "corrupt information, cannot read." I always removed them using that Safe Removal thing on the taskbar... just bad luck I guess.

None of them were mine though. One was at work, and two were friends'.

[gstelmack]

Shoot, my Oulook pst file is a gig or so in size, so I spent $110 and purchased an external USB 80 GB HD. Of course it's not as small and handy as a flash drive, but it's just as easy to save data and as much more space, of course.
I'm looking into getting a networkable external HD as well (networkable because we've got more than one machine at home). My backups to DVD+RW are getting upwards of 3+GB, thanks to digital pictures and the like.