Meli,

First, I don't advocate the use of USB flash pen-drives for archiving data 
... they are quite handy for transferring data from one system/place to 
another.

I used the word 'permanent' ill-advisedly, what I should have said is 
'non-volatile.' Nevertheless, the anti-static technology of the latest 
generation of USB pen-drives has been vastly improved. In fact, I bought a 
new one a couple months ago that doubled the capacity of the one I had been 
using (from 4gb to 8gb). Only a few days after acquiring it, I inadvertently 
left it in my trousers pocket and it got run throught he laundry (both wash 
& dryer cycles). Naturally, I was chagrined (not for the anticipated loss of 
the data contained, but for the loss of the $50 value it represented), 
thinking it desroyed. Imagine my surprise when I plugged it in a couple days 
later and all was perfectly well! Eventhough the washing was vigorous enough 
to remove the silk-screen printing on the plastic case, the data was still 
totally intact ... and I'm still using the unit.

Bob


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Meli Diamanti" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 8:50 AM
Subject: Re: old notes


> If you are talking about USB flash drives, they are NOT permanent storage. 
> Unlike CDs or DVDs, one good (bad) electric shock can wipe out all the 
> data and ruin the drive.  I speak from painful experience.  So beware of 
> the the way static builds up on your body in winter, such as sock feet on 
> household carpet, and dispell the charge before you touch that flash drive 
> to remove it from the computer.
> Meli Diamanti
>
> Bob Skiles wrote:
>>   But, fortunately the alarmists scairt me enough a few years ago so that 
>> I had all the data on them (worth keeping) transferred to new media 
>> (currently I like the little USB pen-drives  ... tiny ... permanent 
>> ...huge capacities ... no separate power-source necessary for use ... and 
>> now affordable ... plus, HP has a free utility that'll format these into 
>> either an emulated bootable floppy or bootable hard-drive).
>>
>>