nueronboy,

Great idea, as you aptly noted, it is not a cure all for everything, but a 256 meg chip is MUCH SMALLER than the same storage space in 3.5" floppies. Not as much data space or as water proof as a CDROM or DVD though, on the other hand, the CD or DVD may be easier or potentially more likely to break.

Like many of our other kit components, this becomes a personal and subjective choice. I just acquired a 512M chip after having borrowed a 256M chip for several weeks. What a neat way of moving files. Just put it into the USB port of most PC's and it is autodetected and drivers are automatically located (some operating systems i.e. W98 will likely require a quick software download from the device manufacturer though).

IRRC there were other threads that discussed what type of files were best to carry. I think that the consensus (if it could be called that) was to have your critical files saved in several formats, i.e. Word file, Excel File and then the same file saved in Adobe *.pdf format.

Another key point that was also raised was regarding file security / encryption and access by whomever may wind up with the data files on whatever format they are stored in/on. This can be a bit of a headscratcher for sure.

Nonetheless, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Happy Holidays,
Comanche7