USB "thumb" drives are good for storing Legacy data, but I also have almost 9GB of scanned photos and documents (wills, census, land records).
The time and expense of research made $100US for an external hard drive acceptable to us, even though we're retired and don't have unlimited funds (How many restaurant meals does it take to reach $100?). Many old documents are available on microfilm, but some microfilm printers can't produce a readable paper copy from the microfilm of a faded original. The only way to get a good copy is with a digital camera, thus your "original" copy is a digital image. I think it prudent to have more than one copy of an "original" digital image, especially if the microfilm is 400 miles away and not available via interlibrary loan. Although I have paper copies of most things, I can't take a filing cabinet with me when doing research away from the house - even if "away" is just the 10 miles to the genealogical section at the county's main library. Thumb drives are relatively inexpensive: 4GB for $20US at geeks.com with free shipping this week. Microcenter's latest flyer has 320GB external hard drives for $95, 500GB for $120. Also watch the office supply houses (Staples, Office Max, etc) for sales. Others have mentioned bad experiences with unrecoverable data on CDs. Since DVDs use similar materials, they are also subject to the same types of failure (not scratches - it's damage to the "label" side that causes most failures). I've also experienced CD failure, so I tend to use hard drives for backups. Short of physical damage such as a head crash while running, I can recover most of the data on an otherwise non-readable hard drive (I was the PC support guy for an international consulting company and their laptops experienced some harsh treatment). John > Steve Ayres wrote: > I agree with what you say but not all can afford an external hard drive. > But I do copy the backup files to a USB stick or to a rewriteable DVD just > in case. > Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
