Are you using USB Flash Drive?
October 26, 2010 6 Comments
USB flash drive is inexpensive. We can get a 8GB driver for less than $20. So a lot of people use USB flash drive to transfer files back and forth between their desktop and laptop; some even carry two USB flash drivers for backup. But that gets awkward and keeping track of versions can be annoying.
I use Windows Live Mesh which can sync virtually unlimited files directly between my PCs and up to 5GB of files between my PC and SkyDrive. So no more flash drive transfers – whether I’m using my desktop or laptop, I have the current version of my files.
Install Live Mesh
Windows Live Mesh comes with the latest version of Windows Live Essentials. Once we install Windows Live Essentials, all we need is a Windows Live ID and Internet access.
Sync a Folder
- Click Windows Live Mesh
- Click Sync a Folder (located next to the icon of your computer).
- Choose from the folders on your computer.
- Click Sync button.
- Select Devices dialogue will appear and we can select which devices we want to sync the folder to.
- Click OK button.
- Once the folder is added, Windows Live Mesh will sync the files with the other machine.
Go to the other PC and make sure Windows Live Mesh is launched. That’s all we need to do. Windows Live Mesh will automatically keep the folder up to date as long as both machines are on and connected to the internet.
We can also sync folders between our PC and SkyDrive, a free online storage from Windows Live. SkyDrive provides 25GB online storage but we can only sync up to 5GB of space on SkyDrive. Once our files are on SkyDrive, then we can access our synched files from any computer that has an Internet connection.
Andrew Chan is the owner and founder of ALG Inc.
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Recently I started using Dropbox – https://www.dropbox.com/
My flashdrive use went down to almost non-existent. I don’t need to carry flash drives around anymore; cloud computing is the way to go.
SkyDrive, Dropbox or even Box.net; they are all better than USB flash drives. It is good for you and your clients because their data is more secured.
Thanks for your helpful and informative post, Andrew! I keep just about all my data in the ‘clouds’ on secure servers so I don’t have to worry …unless Google crashes.
Before I switched to Linux Ubuntu & transfered my data storage “on high”, I was always concerned about my Flash drives getting corrupted. Few seem to know this is common, eh my technical Friend?
Gary, Compare to flash drive, what is the chance that Google crashs? Airplane crash vs. car crash?
USB flash drive is convenient but left vulnerable because of people’s forgetfulness. I have seen, in many occasions, where USBs are left in public places within the company.
And it is not as durable as we hope. It is also a good media to transmit virus unless you have installed antivirus software on it.