What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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 :)

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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.

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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.

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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.

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

And you can get them with the FIRST logo on them now to.
http://www.logoloc.com/first/13055.html

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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.

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

But is has FIRST logo on it....

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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.

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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 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.

Re: What Storage Media Do You Prefer
 

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.