Thumb Drive Recommendations?

XP is very compatible with all thumb drives. I've never head of any problems.

One of the things you might find on many thumb drives is U3. It's a program format that runs programs right off the thumb drive. So you can take the same copy/version of Firefox with you to any computer you want. BUT, you don't have to install or use the U3. (There's also a U3 version of OpenOffice, too.)

Buy one as big as you want, but don't spend money on an 8gig drive if you don't think you'll even use 8 gigs in the next couple years. Flash drives do have a life expetnancy.... so buying a size that you'll grow into in five years isn't cost effective. (IMNHO.) I bought a 2gig drive recently as that was the smallest I could find-- I was replacing a 64Meg drive that I never even came close to filling!

Just one word of caution: I had a thumbdrive on a shared family computer. I kept the drive in and not sure if it got cooked from leaving it in for so long (over a day) or it was because of everyone using the puter and changing their profiles back and forth while it was in, but it corrupted all the data.

Since I stopped leaving it in that computer, I haven't had a problem with them.

I buy the cheapest ones and use them as temp drives. I back up constantly and don't leave the drives in the USB port. I can get a 4GB drive for like $10. I use them mostly for transport and temporary back ups, but I don't depend my life on them. If they break, they break. That's why I buy the cheapest ones.

ElaraSophia said:

I've got a thumb drive which I won in a competition about six years ago. It's only 64 MB, but I've never got close to filling it. I used to use it as a portable MP3 player for a couple of years before it became a backup drive. I use it now daily to sync writing files between my desktop (Windows XP) and a laptop (Vista), and have never had any problem with it. I think if I have a larger one, which seems probable as I doubt you get them as tiny as 64 MB now, I'd use it to back up my whole computer. Great for grabbing in an emergency. Thumb drives are brilliant for writers!

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I found an old camera with the SD card still in it so pilfered that (from myself) for use as an extra back-up drive. As it's only 64mb it's only good for my word documents and maybe a couple more files, but it's still a back up.

I've also got a 128mb pen drive, a 1gb SD card and a 4gb pen drive.

Next time I'm in town I'm going to pick up another couple of SD cards or pen drives; you can never have enough.

One tip I have is, don't buy a pen drive with a huge memory and put everything on that. Buy smaller pen drives or SD cards and spread your files around. God forbid any of your back-up drives should become corrupted but if they do, you haven't lost all your files at once.

Or, if you shove everything on one large external drive, do so several times. Never have just one back-up destination.

Further to that, dpaterso just reminded me: your mobile phone, too.

OK...stupid question alert!

Is a thumb drive the same as a flash drive?

Yes.

scarletpeaches said:

One tip I have is, don't buy a pen drive with a huge memory and put everything on that. Buy smaller pen drives or SD cards and spread your files around. God forbid any of your back-up drives should become corrupted but if they do, you haven't lost all your files at once.

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God forbid you should only use one form of backup.

True backups include redundancy. I also have the same versions of important files at at least three or four different places: external drives, cloud-base backup, DVD-ROM, thumb drives, etc. Spreading the files around is sort of a management nightmare -- where are the files? And how up-to-date they are? How often do you backup? I'd rather have everything on the same device, but have redundancy. That way, if one device dies, I have a backup of the same backup. It would probably take an apocalypse for all my backup devices to fail at once.

Thumb drive=flash drive= USB memory stick= jump drive= pen drive= thingy you plug in the computer to save stuff on = solid state mass storage device. =)

Okay, I need to get OFF google and get back to work on my homework! =)

A couple of geek notes:

I have seen some older computers (meaning 4-6 years old) that won't read a thumb drive over 2 GB.

DO NOT leave a thumb drive in for long periods of time (i.e. overnight) The hardware can overheat, causing it to fail and become a really light paper weight.

To keychain or not to keychain? Items on your keychain get a lot of travel abuse. Something to think about. (Flipside? How often do you launder your keys as opposed to how often do you launder loose stuff in your pockets?) Sure, I guess you could be an organized neat person and carry your flash drives around in one of those spiffy compartmentalized wallets....

There are companies out there who specialize in recovering data off of damaged thumb drives, but it ain't cheap.

Many jump drives/flash drives/thumb drives (call them what you wish) will allow you to "rename" them, so that, when you plug them into a computer they show up under "My Computer" as "Williebee's New Story Notes" or whatever, instead of just another letter.

A jump drive is not the end all-be all of backups. As said above, have more than one back up. Thumb drives can and do fail, same as anything else. AND keep them in separate locations.

Just as two copies of the same file on the same computer is useless if the computer fries, two copies in the same room or house aren't much good if the wicked witch sends her new twister after your neighborhood.

Thanks, Clair and Elara for making me feel a lot less stupid.

Williebee said:

...Sure, I guess you could be an organized neat person and carry your flash drives around in one of those spiffy compartmentalized wallets....

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Like me, you mean?

Williebee said:

...Many jump drives/flash drives/thumb drives (call them what you wish)...

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Pen drives?

Williebee said:

...will allow you to "rename" them, so that, when you plug them into a computer they show up under "My Computer" as "Williebee's New Story Notes" or whatever, instead of just another letter.

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Like mine, you mean?

SP is what Granny Martha used to call "precocious".

These days we just call them "special".

Although, in SP's case, we usually add the word "hot".

well, though this is not a likely hood, windows 95, 98, me, and i think nt don't have thumb drive drivers. so you won't be able to use them without installing drivers.

if you have other computers they are good to keep backups on. i have few old hard drives in my closet that i boot with linux every so often and put backups on, and Cds, i have a backup at my dads house on his computers, a backup on my grandpa's comptuer, one on my moms, on on my desk top, and one on my new laptop.

also with your thumb, if you have important papers (birth certificate, soc, insurance etc.) get an encription system for it. it unencripts when you put in a password so you can use them on any computer if you know it.

while your thumb drive are amazing, don't just have one, have many. you should also get a small one for emergancies. put it in your emergancy box (if you don't have one you should) with your medical records, soc, insurance, pictures of all the stuff in your house. keep it in a fire proof box.

short rambling

ElaraSophia said:

I've got a thumb drive which I won in a competition about six years ago. It's only 64 MB, but I've never got close to filling it. I used to use it as a portable MP3 player for a couple of years before it became a backup drive.

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How did you not come close to filling it using it as an mp3 player? I can't even fit one album into 64Mb! I have around 23Gb of my 30Gb iPod filled with my music.

scarletpeaches said:

Further to that, dpaterso just reminded me: your mobile phone, too.

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And also the above mentioned iPod can be made to function like a jump drive.

Williebee said:

To keychain or not to keychain? Items on your keychain get a lot of travel abuse. Something to think about. (Flipside? How often do you launder your keys as opposed to how often do you launder loose stuff in your pockets?)

Click to expand...

Keychain = loose stuff in my pocket.

Many jump drives/flash drives/thumb drives (call them what you wish) will allow you to "rename" them, so that, when you plug them into a computer they show up under "My Computer" as "Williebee's New Story Notes" or whatever, instead of just another letter.

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I have two jump drives and a USB external hard drive. The 128Mb one is called 'Little', the 256Mb one is called 'Medium', and the 120Gb behemoth is called 'Big'. I'm so original.

I just saw this. I've bought two Ativa thumbdrives at two different times and neither one works on my computer. My computer will recognize the Scandisk one, but neither Ativa ones, so I don't think it is my machine. And I checked Ativa's website looking for a patch or driver or something and there's nothing there. So, I won't be buying another one their thumb drives.