We have a lot of information on our computers: email, photos, genealogy databases, spreadsheets, word documents, and more. All of those items are referred to collectively as "data."

The Three Purposes
We're discussing three uses for removable media today: archiving, backup, and sharing.

Archiving means that you are making a copy that you will not change, that you will keep in that condition for some period of time. You might consider it a "snapshot" of your genealogy database, or of the photos you took at your family reunion. Typically, archiving activities require small amounts of space--under a gigabyte--but might require numerous versions, such as quarterly or annual views of your data.

Backup is protection from complete loss of a hard drive, or accidental loss of current data. There are many approaches to backing up your data, but I suggest that you keep two thoughts in mind. First, it is no longer automatic that you can restore a computer's entire system from a backup. The more frequent outcome is that you restore your data, and reinstall your programs: operating system, genealogy software, Outlook--all of it. That leads us to adopt a backup strategy that only backs up data and downloaded software folders, and to keep good track of the media that our software came in should we need it for restoration some day.

Sharing is when we send, share, or copy our data with others. This purpose presents special considerations--we would not use a removable drive, only removable media.

The Ten Choices
Here are ten types of removable media and removable drives. The cost of each has some combination of a drive cost and a media cost. And they have widely differing capacities. The abbreviations: MB is megabytes (a million characters). GB is gigabytes (a thousand megabytes). The prices are approximate, but have been seen on the web recently.

--- Floppy disk. Each disk holds 1.44MB; the drive costs under $100. There are many brands. These are very convenient for copying small files, but they are no longer included on every computer. These are good for sharing if the files are small and the other person has a floppy drive. The disks are very inexpensive.

--- Tape. Tapes hold 20-40GB, cost $30, and the drive costs $350. Examples: Scorpion, Travan. I think that tape is not competitive in the home market. The tapes cost money, and it's a headache to restore from them. They can't be accessed by a "Drive Letter" as easily as other removable media. My personal opinion is that this was a great idea in the 1980's.

--- Zip Drives. These are floppy drives on steroids. Zip disks hold 250MB ($12) or 750MB ($20), and drives cost $125. These are good for archiving and sharing if the products last long enough, and the other person has a zip drive.

--- Orb Drives. These remind me of the old Syquest Sparq drives. The disks hold up to 5GB, and the drives cost $160 -$250. You may be climbing out on a technological limb with these products--very few others will have one, and five years from now you may find that no new product can read your disks.

--- CD-R, CD-RW. CD Drives have replaced floppy drives as the universal removable media. The disks hold 650MB, and you can buy a CD burner for under $100. There are two kinds of disks to consider: CD-R for writing once, great for sharing and archives, for less than fifty cents each; and CD-RW for backups, because you can write on them over and over, at prices under a dollar each.

--- DVD. Gaining ground--I think they'll replace CD drives eventually. They hold 5.7GB on each disk. The drives cost about $200, the DVD-R media is under a dollar, and DVD/RW media is about a dollar a disk. You can get a combo CD/DVD burner for about $275 and use all of the media for both drive types.

--- Flash storage. Flash memory is widely used in digital cameras and MP3 players. The readers cost about $20. You can buy a 250MB card for $70, or a 1GB card for $350. They also make a "keychain" version of these that has a USB connection on one end. Many people find those convenient, and carry them in their pockets.

--- Microdrive. IBM makes a 1GB microdrive, priced around $175, that will fit into a flash card reader.

--- External drives. Firewire/USB drives, named for the kind of connection they use, range in price from $1.20 to $1.60 per GB. For example, I saw a 200GB, 7200RPM drive for $238. If you really want to buy some land, how about 500GB for $800? Many genealogists will be attracted to a 60GB drive for $130. Connect them to a Firewire or USB 2.0 port and they'll run like a top.

Matching Product to Purpose
This isn't automatic--you'll have to make some choices. In general, my recommendations are that you consider your purpose and whether you already have a drive to use.

--- Purpose: Archive.
--- Have Drive: Use CD-R.
--- No drive: Choose from CD or DVD writer.

--- Purpose: Backup hard drive
--- Have Drive: Consider the price to hassle ratio of using
CD/RW or getting a Firewire drive.
--- No drive: Get a Firewire/USB2 drive.

--- Purpose: Send/share/copy.
--- Have drive: CD-R.
--- No drive: Consider CD-R or Flash media.

For more information about removable media, please see the RootsWorks site at: www.rootsworks.com/removablemedia. If you'd like to discuss the subject, drop by the RootsWorks Forums at: www.rootsworks.com/forums. Registration is free, and I'd be interested to know what kinds of experiences you've had with removable media.

The RootsWorks series of articles focuses on genealogical applications for generic technologies. Beau would like to hear from you. Whether you have something to add or something to ask, please point your browser to www.rootsworks.com/forums and discuss this or any topic related to the use of technology in family history. Tell us about your mapping experiences. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual computer problems. Beau is scheduled to attend FGS in Orlando 4-6 September and goof off at Disney World on the seventh, and to speak on a variety of RootsWorks topics in Des Moines in October. Visit the RootsWorks website (www.rootsworks.com ) for links to previous articles and Beau's lecture schedule.

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