Ok the situation in short. I have an OpenBSD box running an SMB Server (think My Network Neighbore hood or w/e) for sharing files between systems. Having to resort to the lowest common denominator for distributed file systems and not finding any thing more fun for my needs.
I might have a few bucks coming in soon... so I was thinking about correcting this.
Ma's Desktop has a Floppy drive and I rarely use it.
My Desktop has a 9-in-1 media card reader
My Laptop has a 4-in-1 media card reader
My 'Server' box has a Floppy drive
The "junked" PC that I have, I'd like to some day fix up - it only has a floppy drive.
I would like to be able to transfer files between them but without having to screw with the distributed file system being tacked on to my command line environment.
Most times the files I transfer would be textural, documents in various formats... usually plain text, program source code, web pages (XHTML/CSS), TeX/LaTeX sources, open document format (office suite), Portable Document Format (PDf's) and PostScript (.ps) files. Some times images, music, and video but I don't really mind having to copy them to the SMB Server for the big stuff.
Option A:
Buy an external 3.5" Floppy, this would really be the LCD since 2 PC's already have them and I love the 3.5" diskettes as I never really got a chance to use them when they were the "norm". The only sucky thing is the speed of I/O (at least for the internally mounted ones lol) and the limited file space. I've got 10 stiffies and a few 'spares' here. I've only used 1 for an OpenBSD boot disk and 1 for storing copies of my CD Keys.
Option B:
Buy a Memory/Flash Card that works in both my Desktop and my Laptops ard readers and use it for file storage. I don't own a Digital Camera or I would already have done this <_<. I think I could get a really good buy if the local stores have prices like what I've seen online and the storage space is great for the prices I've seen.
Option C:
Buy a USB Stick and use that. I had one from Lexar but it got "bent" out of shape and I snapped the ports connector to the PCB when I took it apart to see how it worked (after it stopped working and taking a backup before the failure of course). So I really don't want to go this route again and the local stores are very high priced to get a good sized UFD.
So, what do you guys think?
At the moment I'm thinking Option B if the price is right.
dont know whats the best mate. sounds all good. i think i would take, A
B:
Title fixed... lol I had entered a random string just to set up the poll and forgot to change it
I would say B or C.
I have both, and uses them nearly every day. quite happy with them
But the card is rather small, and can get lost...... B:
Ambu
I would say option D hahaha
Buy an external HDD with USB. So you have a lot of space for transfering and storaging.
Dont spend money for things that limit you or kind of "dying out".
Hey I was still using 5.25" Floppies from the 1980s around 2000
how's that for dying out.
I have a spare 40GB EIDE PATA drive some where so buying an enclosure would probably be affordable (I hope) but I'm not sure if I want to cart it across the house every day ^_^.
I don't think the card can be any easier to lose then the USB Stick I had or my keys or my shoes lol but how does your memory/flash card stand up to punishment Ambu? Have you ever managed to break one?
I'm a little leery of buying another USB Stick because the last one got the port bent out of shape and split the case in half. The laptop was fine but I was lucky to copy the files off the USB Stick while it was still mountable :\. I figure a memory card at least might break the card reader before it'll break the card lol.
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I would say option D hahaha
Buy an external HDD with USB. So you have a lot of space for transfering and storaging.
Dont spend money for things that limit you or kind of "dying out".
Afraid i have to agree with timbo on this one floppy take about 20 mins to format then if you bend them just a tiny bit BOOM there goes ur 1.44 tiny amount of data!
Flash cards dont work on Vista yet and are really a pain in the A**E
USB stick is probably the next best good usb 2.0 speed and upto 10gb i have its handy but still you can beat a good old External HDD
If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault] (1844-1924)
I'd go for option B - mainly for the price and the fact that you already have the readers. I've seen promotional prices at about $1 for 1GB (SD cards are the cheaper).
I'd stay away from floppies (of all sizes)... I still remember the headaches from them.
Buying an external HDD would last longer since flash media have less writes, but it's much cheaper to buy another card. And I don't think you need the sustained speed (or capacity) of it either.
*Edit*
I wouldn't say Vista does not work with flash media... you're probably just having the usual problems
My operational environment consists of Windows NT 5.1.2600 (XP), FreeBSD *-STABLE, OpenBSD 4.x, and occasionally Linux 2.6 Kernel based GNU/Linux Distros. So any shortcommings Vista might have with either option is not so much a problem for me...
Windows Vista will hit my LAN when I can afford a new gaming box with Vista Ultimate, Phenom Quad Core (post TLD bug fix), 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, and a GeForce 9900GT and who knows maybe aim for 64-Bit computing hehe
Now if it wasn't odds are I'd be over 60 years old by then it would be a nice gaming box... haha!
I agree, 10,000 rpm: 16mb cache Sata 3gb/s
Thats the way to go..put all your files on 1 external drive, then just plug it into whatever pc you are running at the time.
Lt_Col WIZ, VC, MiD (Ret)
As always, i backup Timbo
option D for me hehe
You can close your eyes for things you don't want to see, but you can't close your heart for things you don't want to feel