NEED YOUR OPINION: floppies vs. CD's for backup WORD files.

Hi, jadam -

We all have opinions....

I, too, was dismayed when I got my first Mac with no floppy drive included. I proceeded to get an external one, an Imation Superdisk drive which could also handle 1.4MB floppies.

I finally retired it after a couple of years when I realized I rarely-to-never used it - and that as time went by, more and more of my pounds of floppies were no good. The shelf life of a floppy is not good at all.

I ordered the G4/500 (AGP) model I use most of the time now with a DVD-RAM drive, figuring I'd use DVD-RAM disks in the same way I used floppies (you can copy single files onto and delete single files off of those - they act like a giant floppy, slow but convenient). Never did that, either.

I use two modes of backup -

For simple document file archiving and transport, I use Zip disks - each Zip100 disk holds the equivalent of about 70 floppies, with equal ease of use, and seem to have a better shelf life.

For other backup needs I use multiple internal hard drives and external firewire drives, partitioned as needed. Since my G4 is firewire bootable, I also have OS's on every drive and individual partition. I use them for incremental backing up of individual files as well as project folders, and regularly do a full-drive backup of my normal boot drive.

I feel that judicious use of hard drives (internal and external firewire ones) gives me the optimum balance between speed, convenience, and longevity.

Hi

Iomega Zip250; if you look on eBay, you can probably get one for less than $30.

You may want to consider a USB flash drive, instead, since it will be more reliable, and quicker/more easily portable.

Hi, jadam -

Do you have an external Zip drive?

No, an internal one in each of my two G4's - Zip100 drives in each case. One I installed myself using a kit from MacWarehouse, the other was ordered with the G4. Having them internal means they're on one of the ATA buses - decent speed, especially compared to a USB-connected drive.

If you go with an external drive, I'd recommend one that connects via firewire, for speed and stability reasons.

Hussein's recommedation of a Zip250 drive is good - that drive is backwards-compatible with Zip100 disks (in case you need to transfer a file to an older Mac having a Zip100 drive).

Hi Don

The external USB zip250's are speedy enough for most needs; I tried to get FireWire versions several years ago and they had discontinued them.

Even with .PSD, JPEG, TIFF files, the drive was quick enough via USB, word files should be a breeze.

The only issue with using zip100 discs is that the zip250 drive reads/writes @ about 1/2 the speed it reads/writes zip250.

Hi, Hussein -

I'd heard the original Zip250 drives handled the Zip100 disks slowly, but thought it may have been an issue with the OS 9 software rather than a hardware issue with the drive.

Odd they don't have firewire ones available - many devices, including some external hard drives, have dual interfaces (USB and firewire), you'd think Iomega would have incorporated that on at least a few models. On the other hand, the resulting increase in selling price may preclude that.

(personal opinion - I really, really, really do not like USB)

(personal opinion - I really, really, really do not like USB)

Overall, I have to agree. I'm a little ticked off that my new iPod Video only works via USB. I have become used to using USB2.0 with my Canon scanner, and for some things it seems OK.

I would not use it for an external HHD or Optical drive.....

does anyone know why "disc recording not found" blinks when i try to import my playlist to a cd??

Hi

Post in iTunes for Windows....

I would say go with CD-Rs. Most computers these days (at least Macs) do not come with floppy drives anymore. So if you need to transfer the files to another computer, you'll first have to make sure they have a floppy drive. If not, your out of luck.

Depending on how fast your burner is, you can burn a complete 700MB disc in about 2 min. 100MB file in 30 sec. My external usb floppy drive takes longer than that. Especially if I have to delete files to make room. AND using CD-Rs does not constrain you to a mere 1.2MB.

Zip drives are almost a thing of the past as well, I have both an external usb floppy drive from LaCie, and a external Zip drive. And I haven't used them in a very long time. So I retired them. Less clutter on my desk.

With recordable CDs so cheap these days, it would probably be worth your while to use them. So much more convenient, and data lasts much, much longer on a CD than a floppy.

Hope this helps.

G4 AGP 1.2Ghz upgrade, 896MB ram, LaCie DVD RW Mac OS X (10.3.9) StarTech USB 2.0 card, 30GB, 80GB, 120GB HDs

Hey jadam, unfortunately that's correct. Like with most things, there is always that one little drawback with the advantages.

But in my personal opinion, I would rather keep resaving the file(s) (even if it's just one of many) on a reliable media. Then being able to have the convenience of resaving individual files on a media that can go on you anytime.

I've had floppies that worked one day, and the next...caput!

If it's just Word docs that you are saving, a USB flash drive would be your best bet. Better than a floppy or zip, more convenient than a CD.

I've been wondering about that for years. I bought CD-RW a while back thinking that's what you can do. Turns out you can re-write to the disc, but you will need to wipe the whole disc and re-save all the new files as well as the other files.

I'm sure sooner or later they'll come up with something.