Re: [Thinkpad] 770 ED: Flash Drives (previously: Zip drive...)

From: David Ross <ross_at_math.hawaii.edu>
Date: Sat May 31 2003 - 18:26:59 EDT

> [flash are] Not
> the quickest media in the world, maybe about the same speed as a 4-8x CDR
> drive for some types, possibly as much as 16x for new ones like xD picture
> cards.

Depends on the interface. Compact flash in a pc-card adapter are reasonably
fast.

> to spend loads of money. Need a special reader if you want to share the
> data with anyone,

$15 or so for a USB reader. The nice thing about CF in a pcmcia reader is
that you can move data effortlessly between laptops, especially laptops
without CD drives. Just last week at a conference a friend's TP crashed and
he lost his browser; I had a Mozilla install/setup file on my machine
(around 11 megs), I transferred it to his with my CF drive.

> Plus, they don't last forever.. after a certain number of writes (1,000?
> 10,000?) and even a certain number of reads (generally 10x higher) the
> holding ability fades away.

Doesn't seem that the limit is significant on a practical level; we've
discussed this here before.

> but they are small, easy to lose,

Especially the latter; one should always use encryption.

- David R.

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Received on Sat May 31 18:31:44 2003

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