Thanks to all who responded to my request. LM_NET is an outstanding
resource. Here are the responses that I received to my original request. I
hope that it helps others as much as it has helped me. This post is long and
the overall majority highly recommended the flash/jump drive, but I wanted
to make sure that all views were represented.
ORIGINAL POST: I am considering purchasing a USB flash drive to store my
Spectrum backup.
If anyone has experience with this I would appreciate your opinions and>
suggestions. I'm concerned about reliability and speed.
RESPONSES:
I've done it---but I haven't had to restore the back-up, so I am not sure
that it will work the way I want it to work. The only way that I could
check would be to download the circ / cat system on a stand-alone system and
then try to "restore" the materials to the stand-alone so that I could check
for errors or problems. (At least that's what I would try rather than
installing the restore components to the network.)
I have been using a flash drive all year to back up my Follett Circ. It is
extremely quick, convenient, and easy. Of course, I have not yet had the
misfortune of having to restore my files from a backup, but everything seems
to be in perfect order should the need arise.
I have used flash drives ever since they came out and have had no problem
with them.
I use the USB flash drive to back up my Athena. It's great. I can back up
circulation in 45 seconds and my collection in less than 2 minutes.
USB flash drives work really well for a lot of tasks... With the USB 2.0
specification, copying files to/from a flash drive is pretty quick...
you could, I guess use multiple USB flash drives in the same way that we
currently use multiple tapes... one for each day of the week (Tue-Fri) and
four for Mon so we've got at least a month we can get to easily...
we then slap a tape in on a weekend once a month which we archive off- site.
I use an external Hard Drive to back up my circulation system (AMLIB) and it
works well. It was just a little over $100. I wouldn't recommend a flash
drive for this- too unstable and not really designed for that type of back
up
I talked to my tech guy and he agrees.
I am using a flash drive for my Concourse backups, but have not had occasion
to have to use a backup yet, so I HOPE they are reliable!
I use 3 and alternate them so I always have a backup to the backup.
The first one I bought was a 1.0 and the second was a 2.0. To be honest, I
can't really tell a difference in amount of time it takes to backup on them.
I DON'T think they are quite as fast as the zip drive I was previously
using...but I haven't done a timed test to be able to say that with any
great degree of certainty.
Watch your office and computer supply stores for specials and rebate offers.
You shouldn't have to pay full price for one. They range from about $20 on
sale to about $80 or more depending on speed and storage capacity. Mine are
128mb and that's big enough to backup both my Concourse and Accelerated
Reader data.
I don't know about long-term reliability, but speed is great and I have had
not failures with the one I am using now as I did using floppies and zip
drives to back up - even with cds. I am considering a new portable 40 gig
usb drive for about $100 and about the size of a palm pilot. I am mostly
waiting on a sale or rebate on one.
We set up two libraries in Thailand with flash drive backups. They have been
very reliable, and reasonably fast. Faster than physical disk drives at
least. Check to see how big your backup is, first. It may not fit.
I had a flash drive for personal use and one day it just seemed to lose all
its memory. Of course, I was carrying it around in my purse without the
little cover, but still...I'd choose a more permanent way to backup.
I use a USB flash drive to store the backup and to copy/transfer the idx and
dat files to my computer at home which has Spectrum Single User installed
(it's GREAT having the catalog at home!!!)
I have had no problems; it is superquick and reliable. I just bought a
second drive for the backups, though, since I have other things on the one I
have now and take it back and forth from work, and I would like to have one
that I just leave at school.
I back up the Spectrum server to two hard drives on patron computers and to
my laptop. Then I back up from the laptop to a 256 mg Memorex thumb drive.
That drive stays at home.
I have several and I love them. They are very dependable. My husband even
ran one through the laundry and it still works!
I've had a 256 mb Flash drive for about 3 years. It is one of the handiest
gadgets I've ever bought. For example, I was at a education conference
recently and several of the sessions were very interesting. At the end of
each session, I would ask the presenter if I could have a copy of their
Powerpoint presentation. When they said yes, I'd take out my flash drive,
plug it in to the USB port of their computer and in minutes I'd have the
files copied.
In the 3 years that I've had my drive, I've had absolutely no problems. I
carry it with me everywhere, in my pants pocket which is also home for my
car keys, and spare change because you just never know when you'll come
across something worth copying.
What is also nice is most modern operating systems; Windows XP, ME, 2000 and
Mac OSX do not need to have special drivers installed. Just plug in the
flash drive and the computer immediately recognizes it as an external
storage device.
As far as I know, once information is copied to the flash drive, it is there
forever or until deleted.
As a back-up device, it should be fine as long as you get one with enough
capacity.
I use one all the time..actually have several. I backup Follett to one and
"My Docs" on another one. Just think of them as tiny hard drives that you
can carry around with lots of data. They are actually more reliable than
anything else in terms of data storage. I also backup to the sever folder so
I have two backups.
I use a flash drive regularly to store back-ups for my Spectrum.
However, I should say that I use it to store records of my materials and my
patrons -- not the Spectrum program itself. However, using it for data
back-up is extremely easy. I simply plug in my flash drive, and have the
program export a file of the materials, then a file of the patrons. I
actually use this to keep my desktop records up to date. I have a single
user version of Spectrum installed on my laptop, and I will delete all the
materials on the laptop, and then import the downloaded file from the flash
drive. I do this every month or so, and this allows me to keep a reasonably
current copy of my holdings on the laptop, so that I can carry it home and
work from it, to cross check records, etc. Anyway, the technology works
fine. I have approximately 30,000 materials in my library, and the entire
exported materials file, plus the patron file, fits on one 128MB flash
drive.
Kristina Shields
LMS
Stocktrail/Lakeview Elementary
Gillette, WY
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