What Storage Media Do You Prefer

[amateurrobotguy]

Cd-R
Massive Storage
Less-Corruption Rate
Fast Read Speed
(Cd-RW:Multiple Writes)
--
Write Once
Exposed Data Surface
(Cd-RW:Unstable on some systems)
Little more expensive
Special CD Drives Needed(=More Cost)

DVD
More storage than CD-R
Same as Cd-R from here on.
--
More Expensive than Cd-R
Same as Cd-R from here on.

Floppies
Re-Writable
Cheap
--
Small Storage
Flimsy
Slow Read/Write

Flash Drives/USB Drives/ Jump Drives (All Are Same Thing)
Fairly Large Storage
Low Corruption
Quick Read/Write
Compatibility on almost all systems
Small(About the size of your thumb)
--
Not all systems have USB
Very Pricy(256mb=$40)
Physically locks access to other USB ports.

USB Hard Drives
No Courruption
LOADS of Storage
--
Really Expessive

iPOD
LOADS of Storage
Plays Music
--
Little Pricy
'Inappropriate'

Whole laptop
Great for multiple tasks
Lots of Memory
--
Bulky
Not very rugged


So what do you use to get your robots digital gear around? Personally, I use Cd-R. Just to be careful, I do still use floppies as a backup copy. I would probably get a USB Drive, but they are a little pricy and don't have much memory to justify the price. However, 5 gb is about $126.
It all comes down to how much storage and portability you need. Some might also have to factor in cost benefits. E.G. To just move source files, don't spen $40 on a USB Drive :)

[Kyle]

I use flash drives, CDR and also my 300 gig external drive to back up/store stuff on. Flash drives are soooo great at robotics meetings to transfer small files from one laptop to another.

[evulish]

I just used a DVD to update firmware on the computer. I don't have any floppies (or even a drive) or CD-R's. Heh.

[amateurrobotguy]

Floppies could also serve at meetings to give quick transfers...Hey, got a new disadvantage for Cd-R...

[KyleGilbert45]

I prefer using jump drives. Seems to be the most convenient for me because I can just keep it on my key chain. They are also getting to be very reasonable in price too.

[amateurrobotguy]

I agree...3 years ago 1gb cost $500. Maybe I will put in an order for a 1gb USB Drive for next year.

[Kyle]

I prefer using jump drives. Seems to be the most convenient for me because I can just keep it on my key chain. They are also getting to be very reasonable in price too.
And you can get them with the FIRST logo on them now to.
http://www.logoloc.com/first/13055.html

[amateurrobotguy]

And you can get them with the FIRST logo on them now to.
http://www.logoloc.com/first/13055.html
Holy God, thats only 32 mb for $40?!? I can get 7x that for the same price on Amazon.com. Thats not near enough memory. Just today, I had to portablelize 100mb(I did it to a Cd-R). Cool though with the FiRST logo.

[Kyle]

Holy God, thats only 32 mb for $40?!? I can get 7x that for the same price on Amazon.com
But is has FIRST logo on it....

[amateurrobotguy]

HEHE, I forgot to mention in my list the people who just take their whole computer with them :D

[Joshua May]

I just use my iPod, basically a 20GB USB drive that can play music. :D

[peaseonearth]

iPod all the way! I mean you just can't beat the cool factor of an iPod. Plus firewire is extremely fast.

[DarkJedi613]

CD-R...its cheap, and fast...almost as fast (for me) as your Flash drives.

Though I use CD-RWs for backups and Floppies for small transfers.

[Jay H 237]

HEHE, I forgot to mention in my list the people who just take their whole computer with them :D

I'm one of those. ;)

I purposely purchased (actually won) an extra laptop off Ebay to carry around. I got it for $412 including the shipping from California. It's a Toshiba Satellite 2805-S201, 650 mhz, 320 mg ram, dvd drive, and now I upgraded it with a 30 gig harddrive after I ran out of space on the original 6 gig. I have Windows 2000 Pro on it.

For a $400 laptop I don't worry about it too much and carry it around with me a lot. Here's an actual photo (http://www.team237.com/gallery/Build-Season-2005/PDR_2240_Medium) of it. Elgin took a pic of my laptop while it was on CD showing a pic of Team RUSH's electrical board and a sample of the Panduit wireway I brought in.

[Rombus]

I think i figured out i have over half a terabyte of storage among all my devices.
Personally im a huge fan of USB Hds and USB Flash Drives.
Heres a quick rundon:

Movable Storage
Primary Backup: AKA: BlackHole, a 250 gig HD in a USB Enclosure: Main uses: Backup of all important data, Also movment of rather large files that dont fit on anything else.

iPod: 20 gig 3rd gen, AKA: WhiteNoise, Mainly used for my 18 gig music collection, Spare space is for emergince transport

128meg Iomega FlashDrive, AKA: BagOfHoldin, Used exclusivly for all Work related files (Repair tools, virus scanner dats, etc).

64meg Noname flash drive, Aka: Nameless, Used for personal files i need to transport, such as papers, etc. soon to be replaced with a 512meg Cruizer Micro when radio shack has them on sale next monday.

CD-Rs: Used as backups for data i barely need any more, or used rarely (Laptop and Desktop OS Backups. etc)

Non-Moveable Storage
Main Computer: AKA: Bluefusion, 200 gig capacity, Used as a game system, Storage space used mostly for fileserver at lan partys, holding of data considered "In Use"

Laptop: AKA: Ub3rNote, A TC1100 HP Tablet PC, Used as my work system, Contains all personal data, schedule, appointmnets, current projects. etc.

Xbox: AKA: BlueX, Modded Xbox, Modded with a 120gig harddrive, Mainly used for storage of my xbox game backups and a media center.

WebServer: AKA: OMGHosting, Personal Webserver, 40 gig RAD 5 array, Used for anything im hosting on my websites.

[amateurrobotguy]

Wow Dude. I have to say, you sure do love you storage ;) Now the question is, how much of that staorage do you actually use :p

Thanks DarkJedi for being on the same page with storage as me :)

[Andrew Y.]

USB drives all the way

i own a 1 gig stick Awsome for projects!

[Rombus]

lol, i figure im using 50ish% all together. I do some DV editing on the side for my team and my job, so that can eat up alot of the 200 gigs on my desktop. A majorty of my data is backups of programs so i dont have to use the CDroms, Backups of my games, A few gigs of digital pictures, Some Anime, and some of my fav tv series. My housemate is more insane, he has a 300 gig hard drive filled with anime, along with a zipper case with about 150-200 DVDs with various anime he has.

Now dont get me wrong, i have a spindle of 100 cd-rs on my desk, and i do burn stuff, but every computer i access usually has a USB port, so thats much more convientent for transfering papers and whatnot.

[DarkJedi613]

Now a related question - what do you guys use to burn stuff on the CDs?

I use Roxio Drag-to-Disc, fits in great with windows so I just drag and drop. Only thing is other computers flip out sometimes while trying to read it. (It has some auto installer on it that allows them to be read, its just annoying).

[Andy A.]

One thing everyone forgot-

Digital cameras!

Actually, for a long while I resisted getting a 'jump' drive. I figured I had a 256mb SD card and a ittybitty usb reader for it. Why buy something that was just the card and reader in one piece? Since I carry my laptop, camera and assorted gadgets with me everywhere, I always had the card and reader ready for use. It worked well, I found I liked browsing the images directly rather then using the bundled camera browser.

Eventually I saw a cheap 256 PNY drive at bestbuy, and picked it up with some birthday money. It's small, fast and insanely useful. I can't imagine how I got along with out it.

Now, when every computer has bluetooth we can just all have wireless flashcards embedded in our shoes and always be ready to go. Now theres portable data!

-Andy A.

[Mike]

Holographic Versatile Disc
Between 10 TB and 1.5 EB of space
EB = Exabyte... $@#$@#$@#$@# straight, an exabyte.

http://p2pnet.net/story/3855
http://p2pnet.net/story/3769

[amateurrobotguy]

Now a related question - what do you guys use to burn stuff on the CDs?

I use Roxio Drag-to-Disc, fits in great with windows so I just drag and drop. Only thing is other computers flip out sometimes while trying to read it. (It has some auto installer on it that allows them to be read, its just annoying).

I use Roxio as well. I am not sure if it has the drag and drop feature though. I just pop-up the app and burn it from there. I think it is version 5. I'm not really willing to spend the money to get 7(or is it 9?).

When would you ever need terabytes or exabytes of information to be stored. If you need that much, you need some serious counseling. This is probably what the nerd would look like(See Pic)

[Rombus]

When would you ever need terabytes or exabytes of information to be stored. If you need that much, you need some serious counseling. This is probably what the nerd would look like(See Pic)

Not necessarily . I remember when I thought installing a game that was 400 megs (Descent III) was completely huge. Now I toss around 400 Meg files like water. A common rule of thumb: If you have the space you will fill it. For example, 1 hour of Digital Video equals about 13 GB.

For some interesting numbers on size of digital audio and digital video: Click Here (http://kbase.communication.utexas.edu/kbase/display_article.php?article_number=52)

What about capturing your fav TV Shows in High Def? or backing up your DVD collection to your hd? You could easily use up a lot of space!

[Jeff Rodriguez]

I use a 128MB '66 Oldsmoblie Toronado. ;)

[gobeavs]

I don't like USB drives.

My most recent affair - I just put my 512MB USB 2.0 drive through the wash, doesn't work at all now.

Then I had a flash drive and Wi-Fi capable combo, which I accidentally went into the ocean with....after thorough washing, it still didnt work properly so I gave it to a fellow team member to fix and I haven't seen it since :D.

So I like gmail....

[tkwetzel]

I use all sorts of media for various purposes. I use floppies, cd-r's, mini cd-r's, cd-rw's, dvd-r's (in multiple formats), flash drive, and my hard drive. My printer also has a 7 in 1 card reader, so I can read most forms of compact media. As for what program I use, it again depends on what I am doing. I use Roxio Easy CD Creator, Nero, HP DVD, and arcsoft ShowBiz 2, among others. Some of them allow for easier editing or burning of certain formats of data than others.

[Wetzel]

I use Roxio as well. I am not sure if it has the drag and drop feature though. I just pop-up the app and burn it from there. I think it is version 5. I'm not really willing to spend the money to get 7(or is it 9?).

When would you ever need terabytes or exabytes of information to be stored. If you need that much, you need some serious counseling. This is probably what the nerd would look like(See Pic)

My first computer of my own had a 40mb harddrive. I couldn't fill it up. The first computer in my house didn't even have a harddrive. Who would ever need a gigabyte of data?

At any rate, with bioinformatics we routinely deal with terabytes of data from diffrent projects. This data glut is going to be the next big challenge in biology. My dad deals with petabytes of information at work, and making that data seamlessly remotely available to a dozen different organizations.


Wetzel

[Mike]

When would you ever need terabytes or exabytes of information to be stored.
The guy thats developing this hardware is the same guy who, years ago, was being criticized by IBM because he was selling 5MB floppy packs and IBM's main argument against him was "Nobody will ever need that much storage."

[Rombus]

hehe, ive washed my 64 meg thumbdrive 2 or 3 times now, still works fine. The case came apart though, so now i got 2 case halfs held together by the cap, when i want to use it i just pull out the circuit board itself.

Here is a usb drive one of my friends made:
http://gozips.uakron.edu/~js58/thumb1.jpg

[amateurrobotguy]

Just to be accurate, here is a chart with all the storage levels:

In terms of gigabytes, which I am sorta using as a 'standard' here is the equilvalents.

1 Terabyte=1024 gigabytes.
1 Petabyte=1048576 gigabytes.
1 Exabyte=1,073,741,824 gigabytes.
(Gets interesting names from here)
1 Zettabyte=1,099,511,627,776 (1 TRILLION+) Gigabytes
1 Yottabyte=1,125,899,906,842,624 (1 quadrillion+)gigabytes. (or over 1 quintillion megabytes)

Now you are REALLY REALLY REALLY a hardcore nerd if you even come close to needing a Yottabyte. You could probably store every movie, music, picture, etc. on the internet with just one or two Yottabytes and maybe have room to spare(I hope everyone can agree on that:D).

Just running it through a calc, you can have over 1 TRILLION hours of movies to just use 1 yottabyte. You would have to live for 100 million +years just to watch it all. Or you could have over 2 trillion hours of music. For that you would have to live for 200 million years.

Even if you did somehow in a freaky way filled up an entire yottabyte, how would you even keep track of how many files that would be.

BTW: I had to google what the name of the digits past a trillion are :) I also appears like they were running short of cool names past a exabyte :D
Here is the american digit system:
thousand
million
billion
trillion
quadrillion
quintillion
sextillion
septillion
octillion
nonillion
decillion

[Conor Ryan]

i like my 20gig ipod USB key. but some of these are pretty neat.
http://img78.exs.cx/img78/4116/sushiusb6zi.jpg

[Ben Lauer]

I use Roxio as well. I am not sure if it has the drag and drop feature though. I just pop-up the app and burn it from there. I think it is version 5. I'm not really willing to spend the money to get 7(or is it 9?).

When would you ever need terabytes or exabytes of information to be stored. If you need that much, you need some serious counseling. This is probably what the nerd would look like(See Pic)

Anyone remember the pic Brandon Martus had with his desk and work area. It was number from 1 to 10+ with things like Listen-To Server, Monitor, 2nd Monitor, Printer....and so on. That picture reminded me of it.

Then of course there is always this one..
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30139