Archiving Data

[bruce]

Are the USB Memory sticks as good as a CD for permanently storing data?. Are there other commonly used tech, other then CDs, and Memory Sticks that are good or better for storing data?.

Is there a replacement for USB?, ie is already obsolete?.

On a related note, can a USB with an OS on it, be used to *run* a laptop with a dead hard drive?.

 

[granatl]

Memory sticks are something like the EPROMS in our cars; they're not as "permanent" as a CD, but it would take quite an EMF field to erase one.

Price-wise, there's no replacement. However, I did read an article the other week that Hitachi (I think?) has released a 40GB hard drive for laptops with no moving parts. I wanna say it's like $900+ (OUCH). Since it only uses about 1/2 the power of a standard hard drive, I would think the market trend is to go towards products like this.

If the laptop's BIOS supports booting from USB devices, then yes. In the Linux world, there's a distribution called Knoppix that fits on 1 CD-R and contains most things you'd want from an OS. Then, there's an offshoot of Knoppix that fits on 128MB USB stick. Of course you're getting less features, but probably still getting a web browser, etc.