Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (
More info?)
Normal magnets will not affect memory sticks which are just memory chips in
a different package.
--
Regards,
Richard Urban
aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
"Husky" <cbminfo@toast.net> wrote in message
news:8s59819e5b5bt46u477na6ipbup2abusqv@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 13 May 2005 10:14:25 +0100, "Chrisssssss........."
> <chris@newsgroupinfo.wanadoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>Thanks for the replies. No-one seems to have mentioned 'memory sticks' (or
>>should they be called flash drives). As these are solid-state devices, how
>>long is their shelf life? They are now getting bigger and cheaper and
>>sound
>>a good option to me.
>>Chrisssss.........
>>
>
> The term magnetic media might help to decide. Anything electronic can be
> affected by an external electromagnetic field.
>
> A simple magnet would demonstrate that. Just hold one up to the side of
> your
> monitor.
>
> Picture that happening with your data.
>
> A CD or DVD is only written electronically. I don't think the media on a
> CD or
> DVD can be modified by anything short of a lightning strike. But they can
> break. I'm in the process now of reordering an installation disk. Which
> I'll
> make a backup of after it's 1st use.
> Nice little crack that now extends half way across from the center.
> It's useless.
>
> And another hint. Use the backup to physically verify the data is
> accurate.
> Backing up bad data to a good disk helps no one. For the longest time I
> thought
> I'd bought a bad program because it failed in the same place every time.
> But
> only MY DVD was failing.
> Re-opened the original CD and found a nice little thumb print on it. I'd
> backed
> up whatever was under the thumb. The backup software just blindly grabbed
> what
> it saw with no warnings. That thumb print came from the manufacturer.
>
> With CD's and DVD's [good ones] selling for less than $1.00 a piece now if
> it's
> necessary and worth keeping, there's no reason to NOT make 2 backups when
> you
> make the 1st one.
>
> Why CD's and DVD's ? I can't say I've seen any mention of the next
> generation
> of external mass storage in the news yet. They're just making the current
> devices hold more and more data. ie: I still have a 250 meg HD, but it's
> useless on this ages computers. It was outdated on my P1 less than 7 years
> ago.
> I'm using a 150 gig now, and looking at 500 gig HD's.
>
> Even the CD's and DVD's are being made larger. ie: I have 750 meg CD's,
> but no
> software to read them on the XP OS. I lost a lot of software with that
> upgrade.
> The software that wrote it is incompatible with XP.
> --
> more pix @
http://members.toast.net/cbminfo/index.html