You are correct. I meant 1 gig. Thanks, In a message dated 2/25/2007 11:21:41 A.M. Central Standard Time, cknox@gwi.net writes: A 1 MG (megabyte?) flash- (jump-, thumb-) drive wouldn't have enough capacity for more than your initials (in lower case, size 8). Don't you mean 1 gigabyte? Flemminglinda@aol.com wrote: > Go get a thumb drive instead. It is cheaper, easier & safer. I use a Lexar > JumpDrive 1 MG. There are many brands and memory available, > <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com.

Folks, There could be a LOOOONG thread about what the best choices are for storage types that are best for your backup files. Whether or not they are genealogical in nature (this one HOPES those aren't the ONLY files you're backing up), there are NUMEROUS options out there, are a wide range of prices. There is, of course, the CD disk, or even the DVD disk (holds more data) that are usually sufficient enough to hold the average number of genealogical files. I'd suggest DVDs if you have a lot of graphic files (pictures) in your genealogical database, or WITH it. There are also tape backups (a bit slower than the above), that can be less expensive, but also more prone to damage. There are, as already mentioned, either additional hard drives, or external hard drives. One of the faster options, but suffers (usually) in the "ease of portability" arena. Thumb drives and similar devices are getting faster, cheaper, and holding greater amounts of files these days. For those with two computers or a PC and a laptop, or similar configurations, these sorts of devices offer the greatest flexibility. In MY case, and I'm only sharing my experience, I've found a "new" combination, which uses a Secure Digital (SD) card (4Gb) which fits snuggly into a USB "cradle", that is, itself, portable. This allows me to load my files onto it by either using my SD port, or the USB port, and can easily be loaded onto my laptop, or shared with other computers. It is still not large enough to hold ALL my genealogical files, but I have several databases and about 2Gb of photographic files for just ONE of those. Nice thing is, I can have two or three SD cards and just the one "cradle", which is, itself, quite small... and just label the SD cards with WHICH database it contains. This cradle is about 2 inches long, an inch or a bit more wide, and about 3/8 inch thick. They're becoming more popular, now. Doesn't mean a simple USB Thumb or Jump Drive isn't itself a good option, this "combination" for me, merely provides greater flexibility. I can use the card in my camera, or as a backup drive. Just my six (sick?) cents (sense)... :-) Jared Jared "Jed" Handspicker jedh@jedh.com ------------------------ One Less E-mail To Answer!