Thumb Drive Suggestions?

[nat_wheatley]

Reccomendations for a decent one? I know nothing about them, but would to have one on hand to transfer files from my design and control computers. The two computers are networked, but the connection can be 'moody', and my current alternate route of transfering is a 3.5" disk...
Thanks.

[Brady Watson]

Whichever one is the cheapest...get it. Target, Wallymart, Staples etc all have them.

-B

[englert]

Another option is to use a small external drive. Larger capacity and they have come way down in price though it is hard to beat a pin drive's price. Advantage to the external drive is that it is harder to lose. I'm always concerned about misplacing the pin drive.

[ron_churches]

I use my Android smartphone. I just plug the USB data/charging cable into the PC and the phone prompts me to mount the USB drive. I have all of the partfiles and toolpaths I am currently working on stored on the phone and can load them on any of the three computers I use to make changes.

[stumpgrinder]

My husband uses one called Imakey. It looks like a key and goes on your keyring. It has stood up to plenty abuse rolling around in his pockets with his keys, a leatherman, a buck knife and loose change.

[dana_swift]

With thumb drives they are all "decent". There are basically two chips in the thumb drive one is the memory, the other is the controller. Some controllers are about 2x faster than others, yet it is hard to know which is which.

I would only steer clear of the SanDisk brand, they comes with a program on them that installs itself on your computer automatically (basically a benign virus) when you plug it in the first time. Doing that to any computer is a bad idea, and the shopbot control computer does not need any additional burden.

They provide no option to "opt out", however after the program is installed it can be removed from the thumb drive. Too late, its on your computer now.

Why any company would do such a thing is beyond me.

As to my thumb drive use, I run my files from the thumb drives. I just copy the SBP file and the aspire file onto the drive and plug it into the bot control computer. I dont bother copying it there.

Flash drives are slow to write and extremely fast to read. So running a cut file from one is not a problem. Writing the log file to the flash drive is not a problem either.

D

[nat_wheatley]

Thanks guys!

Nat

[harryball]

pretty cool idea

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Wi-Drive-Portable-WID-32GBZ/dp/B00576APEI/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1322757575&sr=1-3

/RB

[jerry_stanek]

I have some sandisk usb drives and they did not install anything you have to agree to install the software. I format the drive and you get the full use of the drive. I even have one setup to load ubuntu from in case I need to do some weird things that windows won't do.

[englert]

The WI-Drive is pretty cool, though a bit expensive. I bought a 750GB Seagate drive at BB for $107 on Cyber Monday. It's a small unit and is USB 2 and 3 compatible. The WI-Drive is listed at $99 for 32GB. That's probably plenty of storage but comparatively expensive bit-for-bit.

The wireless thing is really catching on, so maybe these drives will be more competitive in the future or there is something out there already. I noticed that the iPhone app seemed to go viral this morning. I think there were five pages added as I was reading it. So wireless appears to be the wave of the future.

[gene]

look on e bay . i use kingston , good and cheap

[cnc_works]

My experience has been that the cheap off brands tend to fail much more often due to contact failure or corruption. Stick to major brands in this case. Kingston, Lexar, Sandisk etc. When you are dealing with data, saving money should be the last consideration.

[bleeth]

For want of the backup the data was lost, for want of the data the job was lost, for want of the job the business was lost, for want of the business the home was lost, for want of the home the family was lost.

Get a decent networked back up data storage unit with twin drives that keep everything duplicated and proper UPC protection. Both going out irretrievably is virtually impossible.

[adrianm]

Don't forget offsite backups or at least a fire safe though. All the backup strategies in the world won't save you if all the backups are in the same place as the original data in the event of a fire.

[Brady Watson]

...would to have one on hand to transfer files from my design and control computers. The two computers are networked, but the connection can be 'moody', and my current alternate route of transfering is a 3.5" disk...
Thanks.

Yo! GEEZERS! I thought we were talking about thumbdrives...not backup solutions :rolleyes:

As long as you don't abuse it...by mashing it, ANY will do just fine. If you do wind up mangling it, you can still recover the data with a little crafty soldering. I've done this more than once for friends with heavy hands...Since you are just using it for file transfer a la sneaker network...who cares if you kill it eventually. They are dirt cheap.

-B

[nat_wheatley]

Bought one earlier today at Walmart for $8. Should be a vast improvement over the 3.5" disk.

Thanks again,

Nat

[donchandler]

I am still using DOS on my old PR machine. My "sneaker net" is 3.5" disks.
I use a USB thumb drive on my PRT and like it.
Has anyone figured out how to get DOS to work with USB?? I sure would like to get away from the 3.5" disks.

[nat_wheatley]

Ultimately I'd like to find out what's causing my network to occasionally 'choke'. I have zero confidence in my ability to troubleshoot it. That may need to be another thread, though...

[ssflyer]

Don,

You might want to check Here. (http://www.bootdisk.com/usb.htm)

[knight_toolworks]

I am still using DOS on my old PR machine. My "sneaker net" is 3.5" disks.
I use a USB thumb drive on my PRT and like it.
Has anyone figured out how to get DOS to work with USB?? I sure would like to get away from the 3.5" disks.
you have to buy the dos hamster to power that thing (G)

[bleeth]

[QUOTE=bradywatson;119916]Yo! GEEZERS! I thought we were talking about thumbdrives...not backup solutions :rolleyes:

You might learn a new trick from an old geezer. ;) Many of todays disk storage solutions come with remote access built in. The access can be via network, internet, wireless, or cellular at no additional monthly charges. This not only goes to the data protection issue in this thread running nearby:
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14115

but also addresses data transfer issues in this thread even if you sit at home designing and go to a shop for machining.
Granted, it costs more (a lot more) to set up then buying a thumb drive but adding up hours spent dragging data from computer to drive to computer over the course of a year is kind of like showing up on an installation with a yankee screwdriver instead of a screwgun.

[knight_toolworks]

I bought this guy to have as a weekly backup.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VUP2IY/ref=oh_o06_s00_i00_details