From: TJ@noneofyour.business   
      
   On 12/17/2012 06:45 PM, Adam wrote:   
   > TJ wrote:   
   >   
   >> A thought: If in the future you decide you need the space of the FAT32   
   >> partition for other purposes, an inexpensive, easily-pocketed (also   
   >> easily misplaced or stolen, so don't put anything important on it) usb   
   >> flash memory device can perform that function.   
   >   
   > Good idea!  I already have a few USB flash drives that I use mainly for   
   > transferring data between computers.  They're slower than a HD, but fast   
   > enough to use for playing a video from.  I haven't lost one yet, but I'm   
   > sure I will eventually.  In fact, I prefer the ones that don't have a   
   > separate cap because I know I'll eventually misplace that too.   
   >   
   > This seems as good a point as any to mention the epidemic of "fake   
   > flash" out there -- flash drives that misleadingly report a capacity of   
   > 4G or 16G or whatever, but actually contain much less RAM.  Any data   
   > written beyond that point is gone for good.  Only buy flash drives of   
   > reputable brands from reputable vendors... and even so, run a write/read   
   > test to verify the amount of RAM /actually present/.  Someone has   
   > written "f3write" and "f3read" for Linux which do the job.  At my last   
   > college reunion they gave out flash drives with the college logo and our   
   > yearbook as several PDF files.  That all fit on a 2 GB drive... except   
   > the drives they used, although they reported 2 GB capacity, actually had   
   > less than 1 GB of RAM and therefore had only part of the yearbook.   
   >   
   Well, there's data, and then there's data. Some is vital, Some is merely   
   important, much is neither. Putting vital data on a flash drive that   
   could be lost, stolen, or damaged by "carrying it around" isn't a   
   particularly good idea, but if you must you should of course create   
   multiple backups, no matter how reliable you believe the flash drive to   
   be. Important data should be backed up more than once, too.   
      
   But when you're talking about waiting room entertainment, let's face it   
   - any old flash drive will probably do. And losing a cheap drive you   
   don't really care about isn't as hard on the psyche as one you paid   
   dearly for.   
      
   BTW, had I been the the guy who made the college flash drive, I would   
   have at the very least provided free downloads of the missing data on   
   the alumni/class website, and probably would have offered to ship free   
   replacement drives at my own expense. When I mess up, I try hard to make   
   it so others don't pay the price. But maybe that's just me.   
      
   TJ   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)