Pocket size media for support staff

By Mike Walton, TechRepublic, 3 May, 2002 18:07

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CDs hold a bunch of information, but depending on your environment, a gem box or CD wallet may be a little more luggage than you need. A business-card-sized CD-R can hold 50 megs of diskette images and utilities. By combining this wallet-sized disc and Jystad's approach to ghosting, Laun would never have to worry about being without the right boot disk. Both the CD-R and floppy would easily fit in Laun's shirt pocket. Wallet-sized CD-R media is available from several vendors, including Imation, Octave, and Ritek. The rectangular discs are compatible with standard burners. Laun could triple the amount of data he can carry in his shirt pocket by moving up to a Mini-CD-R. This media is available from several vendors, including Imation, TEAC, and Memorex. Mini-CDs hold between 185-200 Megabyte of data and are 80 mm (3.2 inches) in diameter, still small enough to fit into a shirt pocket along with a floppy or two.These disks are not expensive. The key disc alternative If you're looking for an alternative shape for your portable storage medium, you might consider a flash memory USB storage device, like DiskOnKey. These devices are about half the length and twice the width of a pen and come in memory sizes from 8 MB to 128 MB (see Figure A). A 256-MB DiskOnKey is expected out sometime this year.

Figure A

The DiskOnKey flash memory device comes in a variety of storage capacities.

DiskOnKey has automatic boot capabilities and is recognised by most BIOS systems, so a tech could load it with boot disk files and drivers and use it as an emergency repair disk (ERD.) On running systems that need a utility to troubleshoot a problem, the DiskOnKey appears as a removable drive. It doesn't need its own drivers installed under Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, MacOS 9.0 or higher, or Linux kernel 2.4.0 or later. In the Us, the price of these devices ranges from $29.99 for the 8 MB DiskOnKey to $149.99 for the 128 MB DiskOnKey. To find a retailer, visit the DiskOnKey buying guide or check the device out on CNET's Shopper.com.< br/>Other flash memory device vendors include JMTek, EasyDisk, and FlashDio. Not all these devices promise functionality as boot disks for crashed systems, so research compatibility with your desktop configurations before buying. Big storage doesn't have to be large Having what you need when you get to a sick workstation doesn't mean carrying stacks of floppy disks anymore. We looked at some of the portable storage options on the market now, and the technology keeps getting handier with each new generation. With a little careful inventory homework, you can easily keep all files you need, up to hundreds of megs of software, ready and with you for whenever you must answer the call.

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