Storage: safe to keep usb flash key in computor
safe to keep usb flash key in computor
by Hele - 6/10/09 7:05 AMHi
I would like to know if its safe to keep a usb flash key with my backup saved on it in my computor usb drive at all times or when i have finished a backup should i take the usb key out?. This is because i noticed it flashing red when i was not using it. and i was wondering why it was flashing and thought it was spyware or was it just windows XP os or firewall checking it.
Thanks
Go back to the key rules of "backup."
by R. Proffitt
- 6/10/09 7:14 AM
In reply to: safe to keep usb flash key in computor by Hele
1. Multiple copies.
2. Remove the media from the site.
3. Write protect the media.
There are more but this is not backup as long as there is no write protection, not removed from the computer and no second, third and more copies.
I'm going to answer "no."
Bob
Absolutely
by Zouch - 6/20/09 6:33 AM In reply to: Go back to the key rules of "backup." by R. Proffitt
Bob is absolutely right - if this is your backup - you have no backup if you leave it in the computer.
It's not unknown for USB ports to "spike" which can destroy a Flash drive; if someone accidentally pulls it out without stopping it properly, it can be history (see archive posts) and, of course, some klutz like your pet may knock it and break it.
To be honest, I don't think flash drives are a good long term backup device. An external hard drive is better and reasonably affordable these days.
It ain't necessarily so.....
by jaybee48 - 6/21/09 4:26 AM In reply to: Absolutely by ZouchI can understand the logic of keeping backups out of harm's way - up to a point - but I can't go along with the idea that flash or pen drives are any more vulnerable to being damaged or corrupted than any other type of drive - quite the reverse in fact.
All my PC's have USB2 expansion cards installed, with an on-card internal socket; I use a 2 or 4 GB pendrive in that socket as a permanent backup drive for recovery use should the system go down for any reason.
In the case of my Xeon server, the original pendrive is still fully functional after six years of logging site and data changes, plus hit counters and IP logs on a daily basis, so I think the point is proven from that angle.
The other aspect of the equation is that hard drives are heavy, hot and use a lot of power to drive them, which vastly increases the running costs; however the move towards SSHD's is gaining momentum now that initial costs are falling, so we'll probably see the demise of conventional IDE / SATA drives within the nexr ten years or so.
As SSHD's are little more than parallel-banked flash memory modules, I really don't see the distinction between them being of any great importance - the HD version is simply a bigger version of the same thing.
JB.
leaving a usb flash key plugged in the pc
by Hele - 6/27/09 8:00 AM In reply to: Go back to the key rules of "backup." by R. Proffitt
Thanks every one for the all your helpful advice.
The usb flash key is not my only backup. I do have cd rw and cd r backup. There could be something Bob mentioned about the media that i backed up and with the music license that i backed up the write protection and copies.
There is also a possibility what mikebliv said about window explorer doing a quick scan of what drives are available on the system making the usb drive blink.
My usb flash key has 4GB it is a ready boost available. I do find using it convenient easier than a cd.
I will now not leave the key plugged in the pc as a precaution. Thanks
Hele
Explorer looks at it
by mikebliv - 6/19/09 7:14 PM In reply to: safe to keep usb flash key in computor by HeleIf you open up Windows Explorer or an open/save dialog in most software (which opens up a subset of Explorer), Windows may do a quick scan of what drives are available on the system, thus making your usb drive blink.
Flash drive
by Mharvhin - 6/20/09 4:25 AM In reply to: safe to keep usb flash key in computor by HeleNo, it's not a good idea, and here's why; a flash drive has a limited life - I've heard 100,000 "writes" mentioned as the limit. If the drive is flashing, it means that it's being accessed, and it's life being used up. This is specially true of "journalling" OS's, like NTFS; a read accesses the drive as much as a write. Burn it to disc(s)and get an external hard drive; most come with backup software. Yes, and burn that to disc.
Today is a good day to do this.
A word about Vista on this one
by Dango517 - 6/20/09 9:12 AM In reply to: safe to keep usb flash key in computor by HeleVista has a terrible time with USBs left plugged in. They can seriously effect the start up of an already slow starting OS. I kept mine plugged into the back of my PC to run "ready boost" and had loads of problems with it.
Additional note: I was using SP1 at the time
by Dango517 - 6/20/09 9:24 AM In reply to: A word about Vista on this one by Dango517There could have been changes made in SP2 to have fixed this problem.
Bottom line for me is, if I can't leave a USB plugged in to run "Ready boost" I will not waste the time plugging one in each time I use my PC. The small improvement "Ready Boost" provides in performance is simply not worth the effort nor the hassle.
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