Opinions of USB flash drives

[Maverick91]

Here's yet another that may need to be moved....

What are opinions of USB flash drives? I still keep some personal files on a 3.5" floppy... ...which is now stuck in the drive slot (#$%! floppy disk door!). I don't need a tremendous amount of memory.

[scott.wilcox]

USB keys are fast, reliable, and easy to use. Floppy discs are definitely not reliable. Most new computers in my office do not even have 3.5" drives.

[glee.94356]

USB drives are pretty convenient.
I used to have redundant ways of bringing work back from the office. VPN and usb. Before that zip drives. Floppies are still too dinky and well, floppy.
Except that I made the mistake of not having floppies in my newer machines. Can't create rescus disks. My DVD RW is suppose to be bootable but most programs still don't know how to write to it to create rescue disks.
You stick the usb in, go to explorer drag and drop your files and you are good to go. Drop the thing in your pocket. Small and lots of capacity. Buy the fancy ones, and you can record voice on it. Good for meeting notes. Get the fancier ones and you can listen to MP3 music.
Any fancier and you're talking PDA. That's beyond me. I can't afford one.
But if you are lugging a laptop around, may not need one.
My usb drive has sat around doing nothing for awhile now. More like a quicky backup drive, if I don't have the time to burn a backup CD.
Oh, you can retrieve that floppy. Shut down, unplug, remove back, pull drive, take out hammer and have fun.

[Maverick91]

Oh, you can retrieve that floppy. Shut down, unplug, remove back, pull drive, take out hammer and have fun.

Actually, I was leaning toward that tire iron in my Jeep. Only after saving everything to my hard drive.

[glee.94356]

I have never tried creating a rescue disk on a usb drive.
Is that doable? Anyone know.
Might make me feel better about not having a floppy on the newer machines.
I know Xp can recover itself but I'm old fashion. Don't trust the darn thing.

[glee.94356]

Why tire iron. use the jeep.

[Maverick91]

I have never tried creating a rescue disk on a usb drive.
Is that doable? Anyone know.
Might make me feel better about not having a floppy on the newer machines.
I know Xp can recover itself but I'm old fashion. Don't trust the darn thing.

That's one reason when I spec'ed out my home computer from Dell, I asked for a 3.5" floppy drive as well as USB slots and a DVD-RW. A mix of old and new.

[glee.94356]

Yeah, it's what I intended to do but it slipped my mind when I put the spec for my Dell together. So I make lots of backups.
Just no updated rescue disk.

Oh well. At least I'll remember for next time. But by then something else will have taken it's place, distract me and I'll forget to order the hard drive.

[J. Grouchy]

I have never tried creating a rescue disk on a usb drive.
Is that doable? Anyone know.
Might make me feel better about not having a floppy on the newer machines.
I know Xp can recover itself but I'm old fashion. Don't trust the darn thing.

i don't think you can even use a floppy for a WinXP emergency rescue.
i don't have a floppy on my home computer

[Glenn Pope]

I have never tried creating a rescue disk on a usb drive.
Is that doable? Anyone know.
Might make me feel better about not having a floppy on the newer machines.
I know Xp can recover itself but I'm old fashion. Don't trust the darn thing.

It will depend on the hardware you have. I believe there are some motherboards out there that can be set to boot from a USB device.