Stupid Flash Drives

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 24, 2007

I hate these things. I've never seen anything so unstable. Everyone I've owned has at some point just forgotten everything that was on it. I just lost everything on this one. It still has a "Writing" folder, but it's not a folder, it's been changed to an unreadable file. Stupid!

I'm glad I backed up most of the stuff a few days ago to my stable and happy hard drive.

WTF was wrong with floppies?

SpookyWriter · Dec 24, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
I hate these things. I've never seen anything so unstable. Everyone I've owned has at some point just forgotten everything that was on it. I just lost everything on this one. It still has a "Writing" folder, but it's not a folder, it's been changed to an unreadable file. Stupid!

I'm glad I backed up most of the stuff a few days ago to my stable and happy hard drive.

WTF was wrong with floppies?

Sorry to hear about your loss. I love my floppies.

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 24, 2007

It could have been worse. I tend to keep all writing on it and rarely remember to back it up to my home computer. I did lose a lot of "work" related stuff, but that doesn't really bother me much.

But yeah, I like floppies because you can make wonderful pieces of art with them.

astonwest · Dec 24, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
I hate these things. I've never seen anything so unstable. Everyone I've owned has at some point just forgotten everything that was on it. I just lost everything on this one. It still has a "Writing" folder, but it's not a folder, it's been changed to an unreadable file. Stupid!

I had a similar thing happen when we had a flash drive plugged into the computer when it was turned on (a Vista machine). For some reason, it seemed to be attempting to boot off the flash drive?

Get ready...they're making hard drives based on the same technology as flash drives, instead of the old "moving parts" variety out there.

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 24, 2007

Well, I don't recall restarting the computer, but I've had it plugged into the puter since Friday and we keep changing from my user account to my wife's, so maybe something was corrupted. Same thing happened last time to a different flash drive. I have to remember to just do what I'm doing and then take it out.

Unique · Dec 24, 2007

Admit it. You made it crazy and it quit on you. That's it, isn't it?

Williebee · Dec 24, 2007

"For some reason, it seemed to be attempting to boot off the flash drive?"

It would try to boot from the flash drive, same as it would the floppy or the CD. The computer can be set to look for "boot" files on each of these. It used to be that, by default, computers would look to the floppy for a disk, then the cd, then the hard drive. But now you can keep an entire operating system, browser, mail program, and office suite on a single flash drive. Turn on whatever computer you are sitting at, let it boot from the flash drive, and it's like you are sitting at your computer.

On the other hand, it is a bad thing to leave your flash drive in all the time. A number of them will overheat and cook the contacts that connect the drive to the PC.

As a general rule, though, a portable flash drive is NOT what you want to use as your ONLY drive. Better that they be just back up and transport devices.

as always, take my nickel for the two cents it's worth.

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 24, 2007

Unique said:
Admit it. You made it crazy and it quit on you. That's it, isn't it?

I do have that ability, yes.

SpookyWriter · Dec 24, 2007

Unique said:
Admit it. You made it crazy and it quit on you. That's it, isn't it?

Sounds like my kind of woman.

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 24, 2007

Williebee said:
As a general rule, though, a portable flash drive is NOT what you want to use as your ONLY drive. Better that they be just back up and transport devices.

I did notice it gets very hot. I just assumed that, like a floppy, you could leave it in all the time and simply access it when you needed it.

This, my friends, is what they call advancement.

Unique · Dec 24, 2007

Join me in the Kingdom of TechNoNot, Shadow Ferret - there's room here.

astonwest · Dec 24, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
This, my friends, is what they call advancement.

Try putting all your digital holiday photos on a floppy...then we can talk.

Christine N. · Dec 24, 2007

I always send copies of my writing to my gmail account. Star the files and archive them. Instant backup. I just tag the message with the date and word count so I can find the version I want.

Stormhawk · Dec 24, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
It could have been worse. I tend to keep all writing on it and rarely remember to back it up to my home computer. I did lose a lot of "work" related stuff, but that doesn't really bother me much.

But yeah, I like floppies because you can make wonderful pieces of art with them.

That is awesome!

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 24, 2007

astonwest said:
Try putting all your digital holiday photos on a floppy...then we can talk.

I believe in film.

Christine N. said:
I always send copies of my writing to my gmail account. Star the files and archive them. Instant backup. I just tag the message with the date and word count so I can find the version I want.

I trust Google even less.

astonwest · Dec 24, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
I believe in film.

I believe in saving my money and only printing out the most important pictures.

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 26, 2007

astonwest said:
I believe in saving my money and only printing out the most important pictures.

Maybe you should learn to only take the pictures you want then. :tongue

Personally, I have never seen a digital picture look anywhere near as crisp and bright as something taken with a quality SLR and printed professionally to quality Kodak paper.

Besides, kind of hard to fill a shoebox with digital memories.

astonwest · Dec 26, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
Maybe you should learn to only take the pictures you want then.

The delete key on the camera is a wonderful thing...

Personally, I have never seen a digital picture look anywhere near as crisp and bright as something taken with a quality SLR and printed professionally to quality Kodak paper.

The beauty is you can print digital pictures at home on Kodak paper and still be better off than having to buy a full roll of film and then process 24 pictures (or 48, if you do double-prints), half of which were unknowingly fouled up by poor lighting, etc.

But I can understand digital pictures are somewhat like e-books. Some folks will always desire to have the hard-copy version, and nothing will change their minds.

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 26, 2007

astonwest said:
and still be better off than having to buy a full roll of film and then process 24 pictures (or 48, if you do double-prints), half of which were unknowingly fouled up by poor lighting, etc.

That's what I meant by only taking the pictures you want.

Anyway, the only advantage to having a digital is the ability to instantaneous see if the picture was excellent or not so excellent instead of several days later.

And the biggest disadvantage is having to keep around all these megafiles on your computer or flash drive or CDs. I hate bogging down my computer with tons of files that I might only look at once in a blue moon.

The shoe box seems so much more helpful.

To me, digital photos are the equivalent of MP3s. OK for portability, but if I want real quality I'll play a CD on my stereo with my full-range speakers.

I'm not a technophobe, I just think things aren't as good as they once were. People are accepting mediocrity for the sake of technology.

Which brings me back to why I think flash drives suck. They hold more, but they seem less stable than a floppy.

Deleted member 42 · Dec 27, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
T

Which brings me back to why I think flash drives suck. They hold more, but they seem less stable than a floppy.

Lord no, they are much much more stable; the catch to a flashdrive is that you need to remember to unmount is, just as you did with floppies, before ejecting.

Stupid Flash Drives

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

SpookyWriter

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

astonwest

2 WIP? A glutton for punishment

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

Unique

Agent of Doom

Williebee

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

SpookyWriter

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

Unique

Agent of Doom

astonwest

2 WIP? A glutton for punishment

Christine N.

haz a shiny new book cover

Stormhawk

Angry Bunny Girl

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

astonwest

2 WIP? A glutton for punishment

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

astonwest

2 WIP? A glutton for punishment

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

Deleted member 42