Where Else Can I Save Stuff?
Removable Mediums:
To safeguard your documents and conserve your personal space on eGCC, we suggest that you store your data on some form of removable media. Any removable medium is acceptable, but we recommend a USB flash drive for your data storage needs.
Here is a comparison various forms of storage media.
USB Flash Drive (also known as a Jump drive or a Flash drive):
Storage Size: 1 GB-116GB (that's a minimum of 700 floppies or more!)
- Pros: USB drives are extraordinarily durable under normal, reasonable usage. This media is both convenient and affordable, and can be written to and rewritten to indefinitely. It is very fast, since it is strictly electronic and has no moving parts.
- Cons: Some USB Flash Drives come preloaded with encryption software.
As stated on http://www.usbflashdrive.org: "USB flash drives are compact and easy-to-use devices that are similar in use to your computer hard drive. USB flash drives slip into your pocket, conveniently around your neck or on a keychain for ultimate portable storage. USB flash drives finally fulfill the real promise of the digital age: complete freedom and mobility." For more information on the USB flash drive, please look at USB Flash Drive's Overview for a simple explanation!
CD-R/CD-RW or DVD-R/DVD-RW:
Storage Size: CD- 650MB or 700MB for DVD - approx. 4.7 GB.
- Pros: CDs can be rewritten or permanently written, depending on the kind of session you choose to save with.
- Cons: Saving data is not instantaneous. It takes time and a separate step to burn the data to the disk. Scratches on the disk can make the data unreadable.
NOTE: While all student computers at GCC can read and burn CDs, currently at GCC only Macintosh computers have the software to read or burn DVDs.
Email Accounts:
Storage Size: Dependent upon the service provider. Non-eGCC email accounts, are ideal for temporarily storing and transferring and transferring data. Examples: Hotmail, Yahoo, gmail (Google).
- Pros: Most non-eGCC email accounts, are quite large and are ideal for temporarily storing and transferring data. Examples: Hotmail, Yahoo, gmail (Google). Cons: You must have access to the Internet to send and retrieve your data in an email.’
- Cons: You must have access to the Internet to send and retrieve your data in an email.
3.5" Floppy Disk:
Storage Size:1.44MB.
- Pros: Can be written to and rewritten to many times. Cons: The relatively small amount of file storage for the physical size. The mechanical parts of the floppy makes it very slow by today’s standards. They will eventually wear out and make the data stored on the floppy irretrievable.
- Cons: Floppy drives are not available on most eGCC computers.
For your convenience, please use one of the storage media options listed above.