Removable storage

[mesc]

For travel reasons I run my inventory software on a 250Mb zip drive, so that the software travels with me, but unfortunately the drive gave out on me destroying most my data :mad:

The thing that I'm looking for is a replacement remobavle data stoarge sistem that is fast enough, at least 128Mb per disk, and most of all reliable.

My best option so far is a 128Mb Compact Flash type I card w/ a USB reader, but I'm concerned about the read/write speed.

[mesc]

Sorry if I missplaced this tread.

I'm new to the forum and thougt this was the place for it. I tried to delete it, but I'm not allowed to do so.

Will move the tread to /peripetial

[classicsoftware]

The zip is still your best bet, but you MUST BACKUP.

I have given this advice before and I will give it again.

There are only two kinds of computer users, those that have experienced hard disk failure and those that are going to.

This goes double for zip disks. Why don't you just backup on the hard drive periodically during a session and at the end of a session. That way unless it croaks at the last possible momemnt, you won't loose all of your information.

Zip disks and all other media like it, hard disks, floppies etc, will all fail. The problem was your failure to backup and prepare for this eventuality.

[mesc]

Thanks,

I did have backup of my crytical files on a HHD, and also on a second Zip, but anyhow a lot of data was lost.

At first I thoght it was a disk failure, so I popped in my backup Zip, but it was destroyed as well, so I'm not very confident in Iomega anymore!

[classicsoftware]

Then the best thing to do is, run the program off of the hard drive and use the zip drive for transport.

Without getting more detail from you about what kind of application it is and why you are running it in 2 locations, it's hard to give more advice.

Please provide more detail about the systems you are running this app on, what kind of app, VB, FoxPro, Access, proprietary etc and finally what kind of internet access you have at both sites.

[Paul Komski]

There are only two kinds of computer users, those that have experienced hard disk failure and those that are going to.

Love it. Sooooooooo true!

[mjc]

There are several varieties of the USB storage (some are little devices like a keychain) and they are not quite the fastest thing around,but they are much faster than a USB harddrive. They are vaery portable and come in sizes upto 1GB....

Moving to "Buying and Upgradng...."

[mesc]

Thanks a lot guys,

About my software: I'm runing a jewellry inventory program with its databases in Cobol 85 that I use at three diferent locatons where I have Win ME desktops.

Due to limitations in the software, it can't run as multy-user so I have to move all the files with me all the time. Besides this gives me the added benefit of leaving no traces of the data on the HDD, for added security.

The files add up to aprox 100Mb. and before anybody suggests that Cobol 85 is out of style, let me tell you taht the program is as useful, safe and robust as they come.

Since I need to run the software from a HDD-like location, I'm considering the Flash Card (as the ones ised for digital cameras) with the USB reader as I'v heard taht it is very rugged and well behaved in error performance.

Maybe the initial cost of the media is more costly per Mb than Zip, but the again my data integrity and portability are more important.

My only concern with this type of readers is their data transfer, as they are mostly designed for down-streaming of pictures, eventhough they are designed as ATA devices.

In the backup department: I have managed to recover all my essential files, and many of the other ones, thanks to fragmented bakups made at the different computers.

[Rick]

I have one of the 128meg cards.
Transferring all of it from card to hdd is By far faster than ZIP drive.
Yes I have one of those POS (zip) drives also.

Go with the card and a Good quality reader
You won’t be sorry

Cobol 85 :>
Cool.

[kenja]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the infamous .Zip drive click of death. (http://grc.com/tip/clickdeath.htm)

If all the computers have USB ports, I might consider a portable hard drive solution (http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=4MB-EXT-KIT) . There are others available with all-new parts, of course, but I see compgeeks does ship internationally. I haven't used one of these, though

[mesc]

Hey guys (and/or gals?) for your comments.

I´m going for the flash card, for what i´v read their incredibly reliable, even to 10g shoks, thanks to non moving parts!.

The price per Mb might be high, but since I´m also palnning on buying a digital camera it will be money well spent.

Regarding the Click of death, I had no idea about this being such a popular misshap.

If I should have known of the possibility of such damage I´d have discarded my drive sooner!

I´ll be away on vacation for a couple of weeks, but once I get home I´ll try to get my data back with TIP, or else by tering my drive appart.