Shopping For External Storage - First Three Options
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Option 1: CDs
At first blush, using CDs for your chosen mode of storage sounds like a great option; after all, you probably have a CD burner on your machine and CDs in your house right now. Even if you don't own CDs, they are cheap, and you can get them just about anywhere -- even most grocery stores carry them now. You can even label them easily with any marker in your house.
CDs are okay, as a short term option, but not for any real length of time. CDs degrade as they get older; remember that one you bought three years ago that has skips in it now? That's the idea. Also, since the writable side is exposed, you can easily damage the disk by dropping it, scraping it or even touching the bottom with sticky hands. In addition, CDs have ample space if you are storing relatively small files like text-based documents, but store a database or video files and you'll see how quickly you reach the limit on a CD's storage capacity. If you choose a CD as your mode of storage, then you will have to use quite a few.
Option 2: A zip drive
Wait, I bet you haven't seen one of these souped-up floppy disks in awhile, have you? That is exactly the reason you will not be using one for your storage. They're hard to get, which means that you will have a hard time getting your data back if your zip drive fails, leaving you with a heap of useless disks. Moving on...
Option 3: Flash or thumb drives
Call them what you will, but it means the same thing. A flash drive is a small memory device, usually ranging in size from a key fob to a credit card, that has memory on it that you can access by inserting its plug into the USB drive on your computer. They hold anywhere from half a gig to a terabyte or more of memory -- and the more memory they hold, the more money they cost. These are great if that's all that you need from your memory.
The best thing about choosing this method for your storage is its portability. Like a CD, they are inexpensive to get your hands on, but easy to lose, though unlike a CD you are unlikely to damage it by touching it. Just keep it away from extremes of heat and cold; don't leave it in your car's glove box, for example. If you use lots of small files, then this is a real and viable choice for you.
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