Storage Solutions

By Kimi George, RMR

Storing notes, transcripts and sound files can be an enormous task if you don’t have the right hardware.  So this issue we’re going to talk about different storage devices.

The smallest of devices are jump drives, also known as flash drives, and all other sorts of cute names, but they come in a variety of sizes, from 128M ($10) to 2 gig ($100).  If you want to move files from laptop to desktop or vice versa, a 256M ($15) or 512M ($20) should do the job.  Either of these should be large enough to hold your text, steno and sound file.  Sound files are enormous.  So if you want to move text and steno back and forth, a 128 meg would be sufficient.  I also have a jump drive that holds a SD, or secure-digital card, ($75).  I can put any amount of meg that I can find in SD into that little jump drive and make it the size that I want.

Secure-digital cards are those little 1 inch by 1 inch (approximately) cards that fit into a lot of digital cameras, palm devices, etc.  These are the wave of the future.  If you have a desktop computer that has a card reader in it, you can use these to move your files, but most laptops do not have card readers on board, but you can buy an external card reader.

But your best money spent for moving files is probably the jump drives.

Next, let’s talk about mass storage or archiving your files.  There are a few ways that this can be done quite easily.  Personally, I like an external hard drive.  You can hook these up to any computer, laptop or desktop, and since they are separate from your working computer, if your computer fails, heaven forbid, your files are still safe on the external hard drive.  These range from about 80 gig ($50) to 500 gig ($400).   I have an 80 gig, have had it a year or two, and it is nowhere near full.  The prices are really coming down on these devices, and if you like to store other things such as photos or movies, you will need a larger hard drive.  So buy at least a 100 gig ($100) or bigger.

If you own a desktop, you can also buy internal hard drives ranging in the same sizes as above.  They are somewhat cheaper, but probably would require a professional install if you are not a computer nerd.  With internal drives, since they are separate from your main hard drive, you could move files over to the additional hard drive for storage.  Chances of both drives crashing at once is very unlikely.