OK - first let's establish that I am a technophobic middle aged mum who
knows not a lot about computer hardware......my daughter has come home from
school and requested the purchase of a memory stick to make life easy
transfering info from our home PC to school and vice-versa for projects.
She also tells me that I would find one useful for backing up our harddrive
instead of worrying myself to death that one day I'm going to lose all my
info from our computer.

So can any kind person please tell me what I should be looking for, how much
it is likely to cost and where I can get one from (preferably online).

Many many thanks in advance for any help you can offer - and apologies for
cross posting and maybe using the wrong newsgroups...

Lynette

I think the memory stick she is referring to is most likely a USB drive
which plugs into a USB socket and acts as an additional drive.
Do a google and you'll find tons of suppliers.
To back up your stuff you're better off burning to CD or DVD.

LynLyn wrote:
OK - first let's establish that I am a technophobic middle aged mum who
knows not a lot about computer hardware......my daughter has come home from
school and requested the purchase of a memory stick to make life easy
transfering info from our home PC to school and vice-versa for projects.
She also tells me that I would find one useful for backing up our harddrive
instead of worrying myself to death that one day I'm going to lose all my
info from our computer.

So can any kind person please tell me what I should be looking for, how much
it is likely to cost and where I can get one from (preferably online).

Many many thanks in advance for any help you can offer - and apologies for
cross posting and maybe using the wrong newsgroups...

Lynette


She's not winding you up!! There is quite a range of size an price.
Maplin might be a good place to look, or CPC. Both have on line
catalogues but you need an account for CPC, but this is easy to set up.
Sizes range from 32Mb to 1Gb.

I've just ordered another 128Mb from CPC for £20 or so. (Whether this
is the best price I don't know, I was ordering other stuff too) It's
quite a reasonable size. I keep most of my data for work on one this
size and carry it home. It is much lighter than a laptop!

http://custom1.farnell.com/cpc/
http://www.maplin.co.uk

Andrew

In article . com,
StealthUK wrote:
I think the memory stick she is referring to is most likely a USB drive
which plugs into a USB socket and acts as an additional drive.
Do a google and you'll find tons of suppliers.
To back up your stuff you're better off burning to CD or DVD.

Or simply fit a second HD, and have it done automatically from time to
time.

--
*What was the best thing before sliced bread? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

O

So can any kind person please tell me what I should be looking for, how
much it is likely to cost and where I can get one from (preferably
online).

Many many thanks in advance for any help you can offer - and apologies for
cross posting and maybe using the wrong newsgroups...

Lynette

Ebuyer have them, your local computer fair will be selling them at a very
low cost. You wont be able to back up a hard drive with one, the biggest
ones are around 512MB. What you can do is back up your data files with one.
I paid approx £14 for my 128MB one and the price of those has now come
down to around £10. Micro Mart is out tomorrow at W H Smiths etc and most
advertisers in there will have them.

HTH

Dave

--
For what we are about to balls up may common sense prevent us doing it
again
in the future!!

Just to add - the normal term is USB pen drive, NOT memory stick. When
people talk of memory sticks it normally means the Sony style memory
cards to me which I doubt your daughter is after.

or they are also called USB flash drives...just had to add that before
someone else corrected me.

LynLyn wrote:
OK - first let's establish that I am a technophobic middle aged mum who
knows not a lot about computer hardware......my daughter has come home from
school and requested the purchase of a memory stick to make life easy
transfering info from our home PC to school and vice-versa for projects.
She also tells me that I would find one useful for backing up our harddrive
instead of worrying myself to death that one day I'm going to lose all my
info from our computer.

So can any kind person please tell me what I should be looking for, how much
it is likely to cost and where I can get one from (preferably online).

Many many thanks in advance for any help you can offer - and apologies for
cross posting and maybe using the wrong newsgroups...

Lynette


Hello,

I think your daughter has a good point. I would get one and back up all
the useful stuff you need, stuff like your personal data (basically
everything in your my documents folder - word docs and excel
spreadsheets etc), stuff that you wouldn't want to lose. I wouldn't
suggest you use it to back up all your programs etc., there are better
ways of doing this.
Have a look at how much data you want to backup and then at least double
i (or treble it) and get the next size memory stick up from that. Have a
look on somewhere like amazon or dabs, they are fairly reasonably price
on there.

Mike

LynLyn leaveme.alone@spammfree wrote:
OK - first let's establish that I am a technophobic middle aged mum who
knows not a lot about computer hardware......my daughter has come home from
school and requested the purchase of a memory stick to make life easy
transfering info from our home PC to school and vice-versa for projects.

First, 'memory stick' is a (sony?) trademark, that is a type of removable
memory that is used by sony (and other products).
It tends to be more expensive for the capacity, though it can be plugged into
a PC through an inexpensive adaptor.

An example of what you're probably looking for can be found by going to
http://www.ebuyer.com/
On the menu bar at the left of the page, near the top, click "flash memory"
Now "USB Flash drives".
"Show all in this subcategory" (at the top),

Many of the products shown will have free shipping.

Depending on what she's doing, the first (6 quid, 64MB (MB is a measure
of capacity) one may even be adequate.

Daughter may also want to store music on it, in which case that size would
only fit an album or so on.

USB 1.1 is an older design of connector and will write this size of disk
in a minute or two.
USB 2 can often be several times faster (it can be plugged into the same
socket, but the slowest link will determine the speed)

You can get devices of this type with up to 1000MB (1GB) of storage, for
around 50 quid.

Alternatively, electronics - portable audio/mp3

These are 'mp3 players', and will play/store music.
Many of these will also store data.

Generally anything with 'iPod' on it is very desirable, and also very
expensive.

Something like order code 81583 (Ebuyer 256MB MP3 player) is much, much
cheaper, this one at 30 quid, which will work to store music on.
Or 78183, which comes with FM radio, twice the memory, and voice recording
for about 50 quid.
(as an example of iPod pricing, the iPod Shuffle (no voice/FM/display) is
16 quid more)

Hope this helps.

LynLyn leaveme.alone@spammfree wrote:
OK - first let's establish that I am a technophobic middle aged mum who
knows not a lot about computer hardware......my daughter has come home from
school and requested the purchase of a memory stick to make life easy
transfering info from our home PC to school and vice-versa for projects.

First, 'memory stick' is a (sony?) trademark, that is a type of removable
memory that is used by sony (and other products).
It tends to be more expensive for the capacity, though it can be plugged into
a PC through an inexpensive adaptor.

An example of what you're probably looking for can be found by going to
http://www.ebuyer.com/
On the menu bar at the left of the page, near the top, click "flash memory"
Now "USB Flash drives".
"Show all in this subcategory" (at the top),

Many of the products shown will have free shipping.

Depending on what she's doing, the first (6 quid, 64MB (MB is a measure
of capacity) one may even be adequate.

Daughter may also want to store music on it, in which case that size would
only fit an album or so on.

USB 1.1 is an older design of connector and will write this size of disk
in a minute or two.
USB 2 can often be several times faster (it can be plugged into the same
socket, but the slowest link will determine the speed)

You can get devices of this type with up to 1000MB (1GB) of storage, for
around 50 quid.

Alternatively, electronics - portable audio/mp3

These are 'mp3 players', and will play/store music.
Many of these will also store data.

Generally anything with 'iPod' on it is very desirable, and also very
expensive.

Something like order code 81583 (Ebuyer 256MB MP3 player) is much, much
cheaper, this one at 30 quid, which will work to store music on.
Or 78183, which comes with FM radio, twice the memory, and voice recording
for about 50 quid.
(as an example of iPod pricing, the iPod Shuffle (no voice/FM/display) is
16 quid more)

Hope this helps.

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 19:55:23 UTC, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article . com,
StealthUK wrote:
I think the memory stick she is referring to is most likely a USB drive
which plugs into a USB socket and acts as an additional drive.
Do a google and you'll find tons of suppliers.
To back up your stuff you're better off burning to CD or DVD.

Or simply fit a second HD, and have it done automatically from time to
time.

OK until a power surge or a burglar...!

--
Bob Eager
begin a new life...dump Windows!

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes
In article . com,
StealthUK wrote:
I think the memory stick she is referring to is most likely a USB drive
which plugs into a USB socket and acts as an additional drive.
Do a google and you'll find tons of suppliers.
To back up your stuff you're better off burning to CD or DVD.

Or simply fit a second HD, and have it done automatically from time to
time.


Second Copy from http://www.centered.com/ is ideal for this.

--
dave @ stejonda

LynLyn wrote:

school and requested the purchase of a memory stick to make life easy
transfering info from our home PC to school and vice-versa for projects.
She also tells me that I would find one useful for backing up our harddrive
instead of worrying myself to death that one day I'm going to lose all my
info from our computer.

So can any kind person please tell me what I should be looking for, how much
it is likely to cost and where I can get one from (preferably online).


http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/list...drives+storage

I would recomend the smaller ones. They do wear out and can be damaged b
poor handlng (in particular unplugging the thing too soon) so 2 small
ones are better than one 512MB.


--
David Clark

$message_body_include ="PLES RING IF AN RNSR IS REQIRD"

In message , Andrew Chesters
wrote

She's not winding you up!! There is quite a range of size an price.
Maplin might be a good place to look, or CPC. Both have on line
catalogues but you need an account for CPC,
I've just ordered another 128Mb from CPC for £20 or so.

CPC have two payment methods. If you pay by card at the time of ordering
you don't need an account with CPC. However both Maplin and CPC appear
to be expensive for flash drives (UBS). I've recently purchased a 128M
device for £8.50 (incl. p&p) from ebuyer.

(Whether this is the best price I don't know,

A few months back it would have been a good price. I've seen 1G flash
drives for around £50.

One thing the OP should note that kids passing data at school is a good
way to get a virus. A virus checker that is constantly kept up-to-date
(perhaps daily) would be a good idea.
--
Alan

Mike Hibbert wrote:
LynLyn wrote:

OK - first let's establish that I am a technophobic middle aged mum who
knows not a lot about computer hardware......my daughter has come home
from
school and requested the purchase of a memory stick to make life easy
transfering info from our home PC to school and vice-versa for projects.
She also tells me that I would find one useful for backing up our
harddrive
instead of worrying myself to death that one day I'm going to lose all my
info from our computer.

So can any kind person please tell me what I should be looking for,
how much
it is likely to cost and where I can get one from (preferably online).

Many many thanks in advance for any help you can offer - and apologies
for
cross posting and maybe using the wrong newsgroups...

Lynette


Hello,

I think your daughter has a good point. I would get one and back up all
the useful stuff you need, stuff like your personal data (basically
everything in your my documents folder - word docs and excel
spreadsheets etc), stuff that you wouldn't want to lose. I wouldn't
suggest you use it to back up all your programs etc., there are better
ways of doing this.
Have a look at how much data you want to backup and then at least double
i (or treble it) and get the next size memory stick up from that. Have a
look on somewhere like amazon or dabs, they are fairly reasonably price
on there.

Mike
DO NOT use a USB memory stick as a backup device. Why not? Well, you can
lose it, damage it, corrupt it. CD or DVD is the best option for most
home users at the moment.

As a convenient way of transporting data, then yes, USB memory sticks
are brilliant.

Biggles
Remove packing to e-mail me

Ian Stirling wrote:

First, 'memory stick' is a (sony?) trademark, that is a type of removable
memory that is used by sony (and other products).

That's as may be, but that doesn't prevent the term being used
colloquially to refer to any type of solid state memory device which is
sort of stick shaped (or not, it's a free country). I work at an
educational establishment where these things are in widespread use and
most non-techies refer to them as memory sticks.

Probably explains why the term is not used much in advertising for
non-Sony products though :-)

Biggles

"Biggles" wrote in message
...
....
DO NOT use a USB memory stick as a backup device. Why not? Well, you can
lose it, damage it, corrupt it. CD or DVD is the best option for most home
users at the moment.

They do, however, have the advantage that you can wear them around your neck
in bed at night, which at least one writer uses as a safeguard against
losing her current work in case of theft or fire.

Colin Bignell

In article ,
Dave Stanton wrote:

...the biggest ones are around 512MB.

1 Gig models are easy to pick up now and 2GB ones are almost he

http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/333/C3647/

for example.

Granted, still not a lot of use to back up a whole HD these days...

Darren

Biggles wrote:
Ian Stirling wrote:

First, 'memory stick' is a (sony?) trademark, that is a type of
removable
memory that is used by sony (and other products).

That's as may be, but that doesn't prevent the term being used
colloquially to refer to any type of solid state memory device which
is
sort of stick shaped (or not, it's a free country). I work at an
educational establishment where these things are in widespread use
and
most non-techies refer to them as memory sticks.

Probably explains why the term is not used much in advertising for
non-Sony products though :-)

Biggles
A bit like referring to any old vacuum cleaner as a Hoover.

MBQ

StealthUK wrote:
Just to add - the normal term is USB pen drive, NOT memory stick.
When
people talk of memory sticks it normally means the Sony style memory
cards to me which I doubt your daughter is after.

Nah... 'USB Memory Stick' is a far more common term, as reflected by a
Google search:

'USB Pen Drive': ~2.36 million pages
'USB Memory Stick': ~5.96 million pages

Mathew J. Newton wrote:
StealthUK wrote:

Just to add - the normal term is USB pen drive, NOT memory stick.

When

people talk of memory sticks it normally means the Sony style memory
cards to me which I doubt your daughter is after.


Nah... 'USB Memory Stick' is a far more common term, as reflected by a
Google search:

'USB Pen Drive': ~2.36 million pages
'USB Memory Stick': ~5.96 million pages


Ahhh... but if you actually took the time to look at the results you would
see that 4.93 million pages (or there abouts ;-)) for 'USB Memory Stick'
actually refer to USB connected memory stick readers, for Sony Memory Sticks.


cheers

David

wrote:
Paul Mc Cann wrote:

Forget memory sticks at al. Get a CF card, now up to 5gb (yes
Gigabyte,
we're talking reals mans storage here) in certain guises, or an SD
card.

You will need a card reader with it. That way when you get that new
multi megapixel camera you can use the same memory cards.

And who is going to pay for the school to install card readers in all
it's PCs?

Not necessary - the card reader simply travels with the CF card. I
think Paul's got a good point: maybe the OP already has a digital camera
which takes memory cards, and doesn't raelise that all she needs is a
card reader to use it as a 'memory stick' (with most cameras you don't
even need the card reader, you can plug in the camera to a USB port and
use it as an expensive 'memory stick'!)

Anyway, I bought a 10GBP USB 2 card reader off ebay a while ago to
transfer pictures from the camera - it's the size of a matchbox and
comes with a USB cable attached, and I regularly use it with my spare CF
card almost permanently fitted, as a glorified memory stick to transfer
data between PCs.

David

LynLyn wrote:
She also tells me that I would find one useful for backing up our harddrive
instead of worrying myself to death that one day I'm going to lose all my
info from our computer.

As others have said, your needs for backing up your PC are different
from your daughters requirements in a memory stick...

Regarding backing up, I skimmed over a 'Doors' article in last
Saturday's Times, intending to revisit before the paper got chucked out
(oops), concerning an online system which apparently backs up your data
to secure online storage, virtually as you type, which sounds fantastic.
Can't find any mention of it at thetimes.co.uk unfortunately: does
anybody have a link to it?

David

"dmc" wrote in message ...
In article ,
Dave Stanton wrote:

...the biggest ones are around 512MB.

1 Gig models are easy to pick up now and 2GB ones are almost he

Almost here? I've had one for months.

Granted, still not a lot of use to back up a whole HD these days...

Very useful for transferring videos from my home machine, which has the
editing software, to work, where the video can be incorporated into my
quality system technical file.

For backup at home I have a 300Gb external hard drive.

Colin Bignell

"Paul Mc Cann" wrote in message
.. .
....
Forget memory sticks at al. Get a CF card, now up to 5gb (yes Gigabyte,
we're talking reals mans storage here) in certain guises, or an SD card.
You will need a card reader with it. That way when you get that new
multi megapixel camera you can use the same memory cards.

OTOH, having a USB drive hanging around your neck is probably the latest
fashion accessory at school.

Colin Bignell

I wouldn't want my personal data floating over the internet!

David M wrote:
Mathew J. Newton wrote:
StealthUK wrote:

Just to add - the normal term is USB pen drive, NOT memory stick.

When

people talk of memory sticks it normally means the Sony style
memory
cards to me which I doubt your daughter is after.


Nah... 'USB Memory Stick' is a far more common term, as reflected
by a
Google search:

'USB Pen Drive': ~2.36 million pages
'USB Memory Stick': ~5.96 million pages


Ahhh... but if you actually took the time to look at the results you
would
see that 4.93 million pages (or there abouts ;-)) for 'USB Memory
Stick'
actually refer to USB connected memory stick readers, for Sony Memory
Sticks.


cheers

David

I remain unconvinced.. :-)

The message
from Lobster contains these words:

Regarding backing up, I skimmed over a 'Doors' article in last
Saturday's Times, intending to revisit before the paper got chucked out
(oops), concerning an online system which apparently backs up your data
to secure online storage, virtually as you type, which sounds fantastic.
Can't find any mention of it at thetimes.co.uk unfortunately: does
anybody have a link to it?

No idea but that sounds suspiciously like the Micro**** plan for total
internet dominance that has all software as well as all files at a
distant location with only the means of access on the local computer.

--
Roger

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 08:28:54 -0800, StealthUK wrote:

I wouldn't want my personal data floating over the internet!

Especially if MS has any control over it.

Dave

--
For what we are about to balls up may common sense prevent us doing it
again
in the future!!

"StealthUK" wrote in message
oups.com...
I wouldn't want my personal data floating over the internet!

The services I've seen offering this use a direct dialled phone connection.
Being designed for business use, they are not cheap.

Colin Bignell

Roger wrote:
The message
from Lobster contains these words:


Regarding backing up, I skimmed over a 'Doors' article in last
Saturday's Times, intending to revisit before the paper got chucked out
(oops), concerning an online system which apparently backs up your data
to secure online storage, virtually as you type, which sounds fantastic.
Can't find any mention of it at thetimes.co.uk unfortunately: does
anybody have a link to it?


No idea but that sounds suspiciously like the Micro**** plan for total
internet dominance that has all software as well as all files at a
distant location with only the means of access on the local computer.


It does a bit doesn't it; however this definitely wasn't MS, and it was
certainly a backup system. There are other online back systems I know
of, like www.simplysafebackup.com, but the one in Saturday's paper AFAIR
keeps backing up the whole time, rather than on demand or to a
predetermined schedule.

David

StealthUK wrote:
I wouldn't want my personal data floating over the internet!

I assume it's encrypted (but that's one reason I'd like more details of
the system!) I know that the the other similar system I know of, but
haven't tested out (www.simplysafebackup.com) has up to 512-bit
encryption. (And unless you're into industrial espionage or something,
is anyone really going to go to the bother of cracking your personal data?)

David

In message , Lobster
writes
Roger wrote:
The message
from Lobster contains these words:

Regarding backing up, I skimmed over a 'Doors' article in last
Saturday's Times, intending to revisit before the paper got chucked
out (oops), concerning an online system which apparently backs up
your data to secure online storage, virtually as you type, which
sounds fantastic. Can't find any mention of it at thetimes.co.uk
unfortunately: does anybody have a link to it?

There are other online back systems I know of, like
www.simplysafebackup.com, but the one in Saturday's paper AFAIR keeps
backing up the whole time, rather than on demand or to a predetermined
schedule.

Timesonline's search facility isn't brilliant but I think this is what
you saw: http://tinyurl.com/4lv2v - an article by David Hewison about
http://www.datadepositbox.com/

--
dave @ stejonda

In message , Biggles
writes
Mike Hibbert wrote:
LynLyn wrote:

OK - first let's establish that I am a technophobic middle aged mum
who
knows not a lot about computer hardware......my daughter has come
home from
school and requested the purchase of a memory stick to make life easy
transfering info from our home PC to school and vice-versa for projects.
She also tells me that I would find one useful for backing up our
harddrive
instead of worrying myself to death that one day I'm going to lose all my
info from our computer.

So can any kind person please tell me what I should be looking for,
how much
it is likely to cost and where I can get one from (preferably online).

Many many thanks in advance for any help you can offer - and
apologies for
cross posting and maybe using the wrong newsgroups...

Lynette


Hello,
I think your daughter has a good point. I would get one and back up
all the useful stuff you need, stuff like your personal data
(basically everything in your my documents folder - word docs and
excel spreadsheets etc), stuff that you wouldn't want to lose. I
wouldn't suggest you use it to back up all your programs etc., there
are better ways of doing this.
Have a look at how much data you want to backup and then at least
double i (or treble it) and get the next size memory stick up from
that. Have a look on somewhere like amazon or dabs, they are fairly
reasonably price on there.
Mike
DO NOT use a USB memory stick as a backup device. Why not? Well, you
can lose it, damage it, corrupt it.

I had one die on me a couple of months ago - I could read from it but
not write to it.

It contained a backup of my company database, payroll and banking
information. (I always back up to TWO pen drives having anticipated the
possibility of this sort of occurrence)

I had one hell of a job getting CPC to send me another without sending
the original back, containing sensitive data

So, whatever medium you store information on, just think what you would
do if it failed under warranty and you wanted it replaced

--
geoff

In message , Paul Mc Cann
writes

CPC (see FAQs) do a 512meg USB memory stick for about £50

You can probably find them a bit cheaper elsewhere, but that's what I
use for backing up my company database every day

It's no way big enough for backing up a hard drive, but for transporting
data it's the canine gonads


Forget memory sticks at al. Get a CF card, now up to 5gb (yes Gigabyte,
we're talking reals mans storage here) in certain guises, or an SD card.
You will need a card reader with it. That way when you get that new
multi megapixel camera you can use the same memory cards.

No - for several reasons

1/ What does the average person need so much backup memory for ?
5 gigs is a lot

2/ How long before you (or rather I) lose it, carrying it about from
home to work?

3/ You can't just plug it into a computer unless you carry a card reader
around with you all the time

4/ Err ...
--
geoff

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
Or simply fit a second HD, and have it done automatically from time to
time.

OK until a power surge or a burglar...!

Well, a 'power surge' might corrupt the backup while it's happening, but
shouldn't affect the original. So just do it again.

And you can get removable drives - or backup to a second machine.

But I do backup 'essential' files to CD as well.

--
*The e-mail of the species is more deadly than the mail *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

dave @ stejonda wrote:
In message , Lobster
writes

Roger wrote:

The message
from Lobster contains these words:

Regarding backing up, I skimmed over a 'Doors' article in last
Saturday's Times, intending to revisit before the paper got chucked
out (oops), concerning an online system which apparently backs up
your data to secure online storage, virtually as you type, which
sounds fantastic. Can't find any mention of it at thetimes.co.uk
unfortunately: does anybody have a link to it?



There are other online back systems I know of, like
www.simplysafebackup.com, but the one in Saturday's paper AFAIR keeps
backing up the whole time, rather than on demand or to a predetermined
schedule.

Timesonline's search facility isn't brilliant but I think this is what
you saw: http://tinyurl.com/4lv2v - an article by David Hewison about
http://www.datadepositbox.com/


That's the one, many thanks!

Yes DataDepositBox - I think I may take them up on their free 30-day
trial. Uses 448-bit ("bank grade") encryption apparently, and normally
costs 1 US cent per Mb uploaded

David

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 00:26:38 UTC, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

OK until a power surge or a burglar...!

Well, a 'power surge' might corrupt the backup while it's happening, but
shouldn't affect the original. So just do it again.

I was thinking of a destructive one that fried both disks....!

--
Bob Eager
begin a new life...dump Windows!

In article , says...
In message , Paul Mc Cann=20
writes

CPC (see FAQs) do a 512meg USB memory stick for about =A350

You can probably find them a bit cheaper elsewhere, but that's what I
use for backing up my company database every day

It's no way big enough for backing up a hard drive, but for transporti=
ng
data it's the canine gonads


Forget memory sticks at al. Get a CF card, now up to 5gb (yes Gigabyte,
we're talking reals mans storage here) in certain guises, or an SD card.
You will need a card reader with it. That way when you get that new
multi megapixel camera you can use the same memory cards.
=20
No - for several reasons
=20
1/ What does the average person need so much backup memory for ?
5 gigs is a lot
=20

The latest snap shot digital cameras have 5 megapixels and=20
correspondingly large files. These are only going to get bigger.=20
Digital images, (those precious, uggh , memories) eat up storage space=20
and these are the very ones you are going to want to back up/transfer .

Also given that even the most modest computer has a 60gb or thereabouts=20
hard drive 5 gb is not going to go that far doing a back-up, whatever=20
128mb will do.=20

512mb and 1gb cf cards are now very cheap and offer a lot more=20
versatility than the average memory stick =20

2/ How long before you (or rather I) lose it, carrying it about from=20
home to work?

Well I carry CF cards regularly and have yet to lose one, apart from=20
theft. Besides, whats to stop you from losing a memory stick ?
=20
3/ You can't just plug it into a computer unless you carry a card reader=
=20
around with you all the time

Memory card readers are very small and are available with the connector=20
built-in so its not even necessary to carry a cable. They plug straight=20
into the same socket as the memory stick. Besides how many computers=20
does the average person interface with? 2, 3 ? Its a lot easier having a=20
cf card reader attached to each one and sitting atop the cpu or=20
somewhere convenient than having to pull out the cpu to plug in the=20
memory stick if your computer doesn't have a usb socket on the front=20
panel.=20

4/ Err ...
=20
Exactly. 128mb memory sticks are very restricted in what they can do. CF=20
/SD cards being usable in cameras, MP3 players and some of the newer=20
mobile phones are much more versatile devices IMHO.
--=20
Paul Mc Cann