Got Backup? Get 16 Gig Flash Drive for under $10.00

Do you have important documents and data on your computer — items such as tax returns, home inventories, and your precious reloading logs? Well, if you haven’t backed up these critical files, you should do so right away. Computer hard drives in your computer can fail at any time — often without warning. If you want to back up your most important data files, you can “burn” them to CD, but that can be somewhat time-consuming, and if you have very large files, they may not fit easily on a conventional CD.

Small, Portable, Affordable USB Flash Drives
One quick and easy form of back-up is to use a flash memory stick. These small USB devices, about the size of a pack of gum, are easy to use and cost less than ever. Just plug the drive into a USB port and copy your files to it (drag and drop or copy and paste). A 4 gigabyte flash drive can be purchased for around $5.00 while an 8-gig drive is less than $7. You can get a full 16 gigs of storage for under $10.00 these days.

Above are some good options from Amazon. We’ve selected SanDisk and Transcend flash drives. We have found both these brands to be very reliable. (We use Transcend Flash Cards in all our digital cameras). One word of caution — be sure to test the integrity of your files after you have copied them to a flash drive. Also store the drives in a cool, safe place, away from powerful electrical sources or magnetic fields. It is a good idea to update your backups every month or so, on a regular schedule.