[bigal41]

I am currently running vista on my machine. need to back up files etc I am toying with the idea of either a USB flash drive or using one of my older XP hd's in a external case. What say you out there ...I am leaning towards a flash drive say about 2 or 4 gig worth..the cost for doing so seems very close.

what are the pro & con's here

Thanks for the input.

Al

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USB pen drive you can carry in your pocket, external drive is harder to carry + probably heavier.
External drive can hold lots more stuff but pain in the behind to set up everytime. USB device = plug it in, job done.

A lot depends on how much stuff you have to back up.

[Neil Jones]

USB pen drive you can carry in your pocket, external drive is harder to carry + probably heavier.
External drive can hold lots more stuff but pain in the behind to set up everytime. USB device = plug it in, job done.

A lot depends on how much stuff you have to back up.

[Ryan_88]

hi i am currently using a 4GB sandisk USB memory device and its brilliant!

you can set up different partitions on it to allow you to separate your work and backups!

for price i would say its brilliant as it only cost £17 (around $34)

i'm dead happy with this device and i believe it deserves this positive post from me!

ry

[SRX660]

I must add that at 22 cents a disk and around 4.3 gigs per disk, DVD's are the real way to backup data. Also you can usually buy a 100 pack of TDK CD's for around $10 right now. Thats 10 cents per disk with 650 MB of data per disk. This is pure long term backup about as cheap as you can get. The good part is every computer can read this data and seldom does it get damaged except by pure disregard to keeping the disks clean and properly stored. I still have some of the first CD's i ever burned files to. I install programs i bought years ago off CD's i've burned. There is no easier method. Meanwhile i have had Flash drives go bad, damaged a few while they were in my pocket, and found some computers just would not read them no matter what i tried.

Yes, i would prefer flash drives over mechanical hard drives for transferring files between computers. I also do not use USB hard drives for much of anything lately. I have taken most of the drives out of the USB enclosures i have to use in computer builds.

Just a thought for you.

SRX660