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Should I buy a thumb drive? (read for details)

ravenvii

ravenvii

macrumors 604
Original poster
Mar 17, 2004
7,585
494
Melenkurion Skyweir
I have a group of files that I don't want to lose, basically. This totals about 150 MB.

I want to keep them separate from my main computer harddrive, so I'd never worry about them when I want to reinstall or whatnot.

Is a thumb drive a good place to store those files? Safe, etc? Or are thumb drives only good for transferring files from place to place?
 
for the 10 bucks you spent on a thumb drive you could burn those files onto about 25 blank cds and have 25 backups. lol.

Thumb drive would be fine thought, but i'd say just burn a cd of those files. perhaps 2 if you are really worried about getting scratched or something.
 
Yeah, it'd work. It'd be particularly good because its solid-state and won't be prone to scratching.

But just be sure to get the cheapest you can get, which I'd wager would be around a 256MB - unless you intend to add to the files you've got, you won't need to spend any more on more storage.

edit...post 500. woohoo!
 
I've thought of burning them to a CD, but it'd be impractical because it's a amorphous bunch of files. I keep adding to them (my huge animated gif collection), deleting a bunch of files (mainly class notes and assignments, once the semester is done, they're trashed), and stuff.
 
Or you could set up a gmail account and store them there - they offer +6GB of storage :)

You can email them to yourself there - Gmail seems pretty stable.
 
There is an interface - for PC only I think, which allows you to "see" your Gmail box as a hard drive and upload via drag and drop, but I was not suggesting that as it is not Mac based, AFAIK.

Also, if these files are so important to you I assumed that investing some time to make them secure would be given.


Edit : link here
ravenvii said:
Email myself 200+ individual files?

LOL thanks anyway, I'm grabbing a thumb drive.
Click to expand...
 
A thumb drive would be very good. However, NEVER have the only copy of important files on a pen drive, they are two easy to lose. What you should do is keep them on the pen drive AND your computers hard drive. That way you are protected against both situations of reinstall and losing the drive.
 
Amorphous files? Adding and deleting? That is exactly why you need to burn backup copies on CD-R or DVD-R. A backup isn't just for when your hard drive crashes -- it's for when you accidentally delete or edit files and you want the original version back, too. Blank CDs and DVDs are cheap enough that you can burn them at intervals. Make multiple copies and keep them at your house and your work and your mom's house and wherever. You can lose your thumb drive, or accidentally erase an important file from it. It's good to know that, even if your house burns down or your purse or keys get stolen, you still have a copy of your important files somewhere else.
 
Eric Lewis said:
its .72 cents and shipping


so not free!
Click to expand...

where are you getting 72 cents? Its 9.95 with free shipping, which is less than the $10 credit from google checkout.

I did this a long time ago and it was 100% free and never showed up on my credit card, its even gone down in price from exactly $10.00 when I ordered it to $9.50.
 
But it says on orders over $10 before shipping and taxes. I'm going to try it and see what happens.

EDIT: Yeah, it doesn't work. I'm going to try and find something real cheap there though, so I can get it for like a dollar.
 
ravenvii said:
Email myself 200+ individual files?

LOL thanks anyway, I'm grabbing a thumb drive.
Click to expand...

it's actually quite easy if you archive the files into bins that are just about the max size a gmail email can be...

that would probably reduce the number of "files" you need to upload.
 
Oh I think I know what they did. The USB stick used to be exactly $10 when I ordered it a few months ago, they must have lowered the price so it doesnt meet the $10 minimum to stop people from getting it for free.

You can probably find a USB stick on the site between $10-12 that would qualify and pick one up for next to nothing.
 
ravenvii said:
Email myself 200+ individual files?

LOL thanks anyway, I'm grabbing a thumb drive.
Click to expand...

Why don't you use Mozy, just as I stated above.... if you constantly update your files, Mozy, once a day, will backup the folder. It's also stable... I've backup'ed 1.7 gb without a hitch. Getting the backup is also VERY easy. Under 1 hour, you have a link to you backup, and you download a .dmg of it. Simple as that.
 
ravenvii said:
I've thought of burning them to a CD, but it'd be impractical because it's a amorphous bunch of files. I keep adding to them (my huge animated gif collection), deleting a bunch of files (mainly class notes and assignments, once the semester is done, they're trashed), and stuff.
Click to expand...

A thumb drive is perfect for this. If you're worried about having a backup copy of your files, get two thumbdrives. They're certainly cheap enough now, and they're way more convenient than always burning stuff to a CD.
 
Agurri said:
Why don't you use Mozy, just as I stated above.... if you constantly update your files, Mozy, once a day, will backup the folder. It's also stable... I've backup'ed 1.7 gb without a hitch. Getting the backup is also VERY easy. Under 1 hour, you have a link to you backup, and you download a .dmg of it. Simple as that.
Click to expand...

It's not as cheap as a thumb drive, though.

ravenvii said:
Email myself 200+ individual files?

LOL thanks anyway, I'm grabbing a thumb drive.
Click to expand...

Put them in a file and compress the file. After that, send the single file to yourself.
 
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