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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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

[amateurrobotguy]

Originally Posted by Kyle

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]

Originally Posted by amateurrobotguy

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

[Joshua May]

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

[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]

Originally Posted by amateurrobotguy

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

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.

[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.