A few questions, asked by the original "Mr. Computer Challenged." Please assist.?

Question

I received my Bachelor's degree in 1975 but the closest thing to a computer or computer training I had was a typing course I took using a non-electric Smith & Corona typewriter.
1.) I understand that these Flash Drives are useful in holding a relatively large amount of data. If I have a Flash Drive with w/1GB of Hard Drive, how does that equate to the old Floppy Disc's as far as capacity?
2.) Are they a good working tool when I don't have access to "MY" Desk Top or Lap Top? As a personal trainer, I would like to have a back-up copy of my client info and basic admin stuff. Would I risk leaving any information on the system I would plug into? I hope you understand the question.
3.) As both a Certified Personal Trainer and TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), might you suspect that one drive each would be enough to maintain the contents of my basic client base?
4.) Would it be just as well to devout one of my laptops for the express purpose of each business? Thanks

Answer 1

1) Lots ... an "old floppy disc" held a maximum of anywhere between about 350 kilobytes and 1.44 megabytes (once you got the the 3.5" HD disks that were common in the mid-90s). So a 1G flash memory stick would hold the same amount of data as about 700 floppy discs.

2) Yes, they are useful ways of carting data about. You might leave temporary files behind, if this concerns you then I suggest either providing your own system or bringing along an operating system that you can run from disc (such as ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com/ )

3) Probably. I've no idea how much data you need to store. You could fit about 1000 hours of reasonable quality spoken word audio onto a 1G stick.

4) One laptop would probably do the job for both.

Answer 2

(1) The old floppy disc would only hold about 1.44 MB data! One flash drive 1GB should be plenty to hold your whole client base unless that is absolutely huge

(2) Don't quite understand you here! Are you saying that you do not have your own computer or laptop? If not, do you have accesss to one at work or in a library? One disadvantage of flash drives is that they can be easily lost! Therefore, if you are keeping your client data on a flash drive and carrying that around with you it is essential you keep a back-up copy at home. So far as I know, just plugging your flash drive into another computer will not of itself transfer data from the flash drive to that computer. However, you have to be careful not to accidently copy data from the flash drive to the computer you are using. Also, some external computers in libraries prevent the use of flash drives to minimise the risk of virus infections.

(3) It depends on the total number of clients you have and the amount of data you keep about each of them. However, I would guess one flash drive would be sufficient

(4) It looks from this that you do have a laptop! There's no reason why you cannot keep your business data separate from other things you might want to do. The easiest way is to create a separate folder for your business data. Rather more complicated is to partion the hard drive so that a separate section is devoted solely to your business data.

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

1) The old floppy drives were 1.44Mb in size. The 1G flash drive equates to about 800 of them. So its significantly larger.

2) They are great for transporting data, as long as you have a system wherever you are going that can also use the flash drive (almost any with a USB drive can). And, as with the old floppies, if you plug it in and access data from it, unless you save the data to the system itself, the data does not get transferred.

3) The one drive should be more than enough for both uses. The typical doc is only a few k in size, which means you could hold literally thousands of files on that drive, and not have to worry. If you use large presentations, you'll want to watch their sizes, but for the most part, its not an issue.

4) I would personally recommend using the same system for both businesses. You only need to worry about a single installation of any of your software, and you can use the other as a backup for the first anyway. Plus, with the flash drive, if you have to go to a backup, you still have your data, and you dont get stopped dead in your tracks while getting the system back up.