Law Office Management
Oct. 2, 2011
Faster, Cheaper, Better Storage
The best deals in computing keep getting more and more attractive, both in the cloud and on external drives.
If your desktop or laptop computer is running out of storage space, the most straightforward solution is to invest in a good external hard drive. The manufacturers of hard drives include Seagate, Western Digital, Iomega, and Buffalo Technology. For less than $100, you can hook your existing PC or Mac up to an extra terabyte of data storage - enough space to store about 1,000 copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica, more than 250,000 photos, or easily 100 full-length DVD movies. Still not enough? For $10 or $20 more, you can buy an external hard drive with two terabytes of storage. Many external hard drives now come loaded with backup software that will continuously back up your computer files and folders automatically. Most backup software allows you to sync files between your computer and an external hard drive, so that you have the latest files while you're on the go and you can restore previous file versions from your backups. USB Flash Drives
But maybe you just need a little extra storage on your laptop to handle a complex case and don't want to bother with an external hard drive. If that's the case, a USB flash drive is just the thing for you. These thumb-size devices perform the same function that floppy disks did two decades ago. But flash drives have a number of notable advantages over floppy disks - they're smaller, of course, and they store data faster, have thousands of times more capacity, and are generally more durable. And did I mention cheaper? Fact is, it's hard to find any computer accessory that's as inexpensive as a USB flash dive. You can buy one capable of holding 8GB of data for less than $9; even most top-of-the-line 16GB flash drives cost less than $60. Flash drive makers include SanDisk, Kingston, and HP. Flash drives, however, do have a few disadvantages that are worth noting. Manufacturer Kingston estimates that a good flash drive can safely sustain only about 100,000 write-and-erase cycles before breaking down - still providing decades of use under normal conditions. Because of their small size, USB flash drives are also easy to lose. Which is why some manufacturers sell flash drives that come with encryption hardware or software to keep the data secure, a feature that's well worth the additional $10 or so. Cloud Storage
The latest storage solution, and in many cases the cheapest, is to store data in the cloud - that is, on a storage provider's remote Web server. Quite a few cloud storage services have cropped up, including Dropbox, Backblaze, Mozy, and Carbonite. You can use the cloud services to store data that doesn't fit on your hard drive, or to back up data you've already stored. Many cloud storage services let you store a modest amount of data for free, then charge for additional storage. For example, on Dropbox's free plan you can store up to 2GB of data; storing 50GB costs $9.99 per month, and 100GB costs $19.99. For a year of unlimited online backup through Carbonite, you'll pay $59 per computer. Considering the value of all the work stored on your computer, paying ten bucks a month to guard against losing it forever seems worth it. Storage may be one of the digital world's few genuine bargains.
Kari Santos
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