By Flash Drives you mean the USB Thumb drives, right? I don't think they are a fad that will go away soon. They are sooooooooo much better than CDs, I can edit right on it, it is fast, it is small, light, easy to carry (I used a lanyard around my neck). I have never had known someone who had a problem With one of them, but I am willing to accept that some People do, but remember a few years ago the horror Stories we heard about the first CDs? I almost never use a 3" disk, or a CD anymore with the Exception of my periodic backups where I send copies Off to my sisters. Alan Jones alanjones10@cox.net Mission Viejo, California, USA -----Original Message----- From: ENC6@aol.com [mailto:ENC6@aol.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 11:23 PM To: PAF-5-USERS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [PAF-5] CD and/or floppy Hi Sherrie, Just a quick comment.... I don't know how long flash drives will last. Perhaps they haven't been around long enough to know for sure. But I have had one for 4 years now and it is still going with no problem. Take care - Emma In a message dated 3/9/2005 11:07:20 PM Central Standard Time, apperson@ix.netcom.com writes: Both methods have drawbacks, but if we're aware of them we can work around and avoid them as much as possible. I sure wish the 3" CD's were more available and less expensive. And I think you have to be careful in depending on the flash drives for long term storage. They're GREAT for transferring data from one place to another, but I've heard that they eventually burn out after a lot of use. Good luck to us all, Sherrie Apperson ==== PAF-5-USERS Mailing List ==== PAF-5-USERS Mailing List http://www.ausbdm.org/p5uindex.php