AboutMike Expertise Areas of expertise: PC Hardware, Peripherals, Barcode Scanners, Printers, and Applications, Networking, Microsoft Applications. I am good at researching issues and have a lot of contacts in the IT industry. So, if I can't directly answer a question I can likely find the answer.
Areas I won't be much help in: Apple Computers, Linux, older Networking technologies like Token Ring, or Thick/Thinnet.
Experience I'm currently a Network Administrator for a contract circuit board manufacturer in Oregon, USA.
I've been working on PCs from a hobby standpoint for better than 25 years. I've been doing it professionally for 4 years.
My concern is - is it as reliable as zip or CD disk when it comes to daily backup of date files ? The files are almost the same and changes very little everyday.
Also, can I leave the flash rive connected to the USB all times, or, do I need to disconnect it when turniing the pc off and on?
Thank you very much, Gabe
ANSWER: USB flash drives are more reliable for data storage than a zip disk because zip disks are still magnetic media and flash drives aren't. This means a zip disk is easier to accidentally erase where as a USB flash drive could likely go through the washing machine in your pants pocket and still be perfectly fine.
As far as CDs go, those are always more reliable simply because they are Write only, generally, so the data on them is safe for a very long time. You just can't add/remove data from them so they're not as convenient for constant backups.
I don't recommend CD-RW disks for backing up valuable data because the surface that makes it so you can read/write/delete from a CD-RW disk also makes it degrade faster than a normal CD-ROM disk.
USB drives make very good, portable storage media for backing files up and your USB flash drive should be completely fine left plugged into a USB port all the time.
With one major concern. I have personally had a USB port go completely haywire once when I had my flash drive in it and it completely corrupted everything on the drive. This would be an extremelty rare event so it's up to you if you want to chance it.
To make even more sure that you keep your data safe you can use the Safely Remove Hardware icon that pops up in your Notification area when it is plugged in. This will allow you to Stop the drive before removing it. This isn't an absolutely necessary step, but it does help keep the data secure and the drive to last longer if you do that prior to taking it out.
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QUESTION: Hello again
Very happy with your answer, only thing, could you please explain exactly how to use this -
"To make even more sure that you keep your data safe you can use the Safely Remove Hardware icon that pops up in your Notification area when it is plugged in. This will allow you to Stop the drive before removing it."
Gabe
Answer When you put your USB flash drive in a little icon will pop up in the lower right corner of your Start menu. It has a little green arrow on it.
If you double-click on the icon it will bring up a window that will show your USB drive listed. In this window you can select your thumb drive and then press a Stop button.
This will stop the connection between your computer and your USB drive and will allow you to pull it out without concern of possible data corruption.
You can check out this site with some better instructions:
