Jim Crank wrote in 060120 MMDigest:

> Today, the most non-volatile storage medium is the flash card.
> Supposedly nothing except a massive EMP will erase them.

Good news.  I see in my latest catalogue from Tiger Direct.com that
you can buy a flash card reader for a modest $35 that will read and
write to 11 different types of cards.  Flash cards are as cheap as $5
for 128 MB up to $50 for 1 GB, and $150 for a 2 GB Flash card.  There
are stand alone USB Flash devices of 256 MB to 4 GB, ranging in price
from $15 to $400.

Many people already have a flash storage device in their possession,
but are not aware of its capabilities: a digital camera.  Okay, here's
a simple cheap backup for anyone who has a digital camera.  Let's say
you have, as I do, an older camera with just a 64 MB card.  It can be
used as a data storage device.  Example:

I simply hook up the camera via USB to my computer, use Windows
Explorer to browse to the camera, which appears as just another drive.
Open a new folder on that drive, name it AOL.  Make a copy of my Norton
Backup of my entire email program (32 MB) and paste it into the AOL
folder on the flash card in the camera.  Open another new folder, rename
it Documents, copy My Documents (15 MB), paste it into the Documents
folder on the flash card in the camera.  Right there I have two of the
most important folders stored on, according to Jim, the most
non-volatile storage medium available today.  Pretty nifty!

I would guess that for the majority of PC users, the amount of super
critical data that would need the added protection of being on flash
media will not exceed 1 GB, so it's certainly an affordable alternative
to CDs for those users.  The other big plus is that it is infinitely
rewritable!

Tom Lear
San Francisco, California