Those little flash thumb/stick backup drives

[flintstone mop]

' check the manufacturers page, they usually have something. "

The something was,  win98 aint  suported.... ..


klc

At work I am stuck with what I have to use for computers to service two-way radios. We will go out and look for thumb drives drives and wifi modems that will run on Win 98 SE minimum. There is still a lot of stuff that will work. The minimum system now is WIN 98 second edition.
A lot of extra work but one day win98 will be gone.
The computers we are using are slow enough to read two-way radios and pagers. Using XP starts to push the limits and then it's hit and miss success of programming the radio. Especially talking out of a USB port.
After 2013 a lot of the DOS and win98 need will go away.

[K1JJ]

Just out of curiosity Tom, what were you using prior to your recent thumb drive discovery?  Floppies?  Printing everything out on paper?  
Rob

Hi Rob,

Cassette tapes, what else?  

As I mentioned in the first post, I was using a duplicate "E" hard drive in the computer to occasionally ghost-backup the first "C" drive.  I've been doing that since 1988 in one way or another. Even had one of those older external Zip drives using mini-discs until recently.

The potential risk was if the computer itself were to catch on fire, get hit by lightning, etc and take out both drives.  The solution is a removable media that can be stored away in a fire-proof safe.

Using an external hard drive is another solution, but as I learn more, these thumb flash drives are really a great way to go.  I rely on them now.

I read that they are not as fast as real hard drives, otherwise would be used as the main storage device with no moving parts. That day will come.

T

[Bill, KD0HG]

Thumb drives have pretty much replaced burning CDs for a lot we do at work. More reliable than CDs in the short term, too. You can't scratch them.

My home PC has a 5" 1.2 meg floppy drive installed for grins. The last true floppy disc.

[K1JJ]

My home PC has a 5" 1.2 meg floppy drive installed for grins. The last true floppy disc.

I remember the transistion when they were phasing out floppies. For a few years some of the software companies still offered to send a floppy in the mail. And some of the older programs in storage were still on floppy. So having one in the computer was important for a while longer.

Nowadays, just download it off the website. Nice.

But, Bill -  needing a floppy in 2011?  That's like breaking into an alligator ssb QSO using a DX-100!    

I still need to use a 3.5" floppy in my older telescope control computer, so I hear ya.

T

[flintstone mop]

Just out of curiosity Tom, what were you using prior to your recent thumb drive discovery?  Floppies?  Printing everything out on paper?  
Rob

Hi Rob,

Cassette tapes, what else?  



T

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[Pete, WA2CWA]

I still maintain one PC here that runs either of two partitions, Win98 or DOS 6.22, has a 5 1/4 inch 1.2/360 floppy, a 3 1/2 inch 1.4/720 floppy, 2 hard drives, 1 CDR drive, one CDRW drive, and a PCI/USB card to connect to a thumb drive. Ya never know when you have to run some old stuff or want to transfer some "old" stuff to newer media or vice-versa.

[WBear2GCR]

If anyone notices a thumbdrive that works on 1.0USB, lemme know?
I'd even take an older one...
Actually anyone with a 1gig Kingston drive that works on 1.0 that would be ideal.

I need to migrate an older machine's main files without making extra work.

Yes, I know there are other ways. But this is so dumb and stupid.

Seems thatmost of the 1.0 drives want a driver installed on the computer, which would be easy enough IF you could just plug in a USB drive and download it!  Otoh, I could burn to a CDR, IF I had a machine running with a burner...

Anyhow, I have had one drive refuse to write anylonger (drat!) and that was a Kingston that was 1.0 compliant with a driver on the machine... it worked a long time before it stopped writing. It reads ok.

I now have a fair number of these suckers in the 4 & 8 gig size, some redundant for safety. Not enough to back it all up, but enough for some critical stuff... for bigger back up I have a 500gig USB HD...

                  _-_-bear