Removable media

Robin Siegel <rsiegel [at] ngs__org> writes

>I have started using my camera's Compact Flash cards to carry files
>from one computer to the other, and also to back up my computers in
>case of a failure. I work on our disaster preparedness committee,
>and I'd like to be able to recommend this as a good backup medium,
>but I don't know if there might be a reason not to.
>
>Does anyone else use these handy little cards (or the equally handy
>thumbdrives) as backup media? Any information would be appreciated.

I use these drives regularly for backup--never a problem so far. I
use the Sony Memory stick from my camera, which gives a huge
256MByte drive--much larger than the now defunct floppy drive. I
suggest you invest in a PC card reader, especially if your PC has a
USB connection, rather than use the camera as a card reader. Bear in
mind flash cards do have a definite life, based on the number of
writes that you perform, but it is probably in excess of 10,000
writes, so not normally a problem.

One other point to note is that when the PC writes a file to the
camera card, it may well make the card unaccessible by the camera,
ie, when you insert it back into the camera, it will report that it
cannot access the card. You will then have to re-format the card
using the camera. This is not really a problem, just a
consideration.

Tony Esdaile
S. A. Esdaile Conservation.


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 18:13
                 Distributed: Tuesday, August 17, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-18-13-004
                                  ***