Tuesday, February 12

getting off the universal serial bus



Just under a year ago I experienced a major corruption of my computer files from using a USB key. It was not long before exams, created some anxiety and was a major hassle.

I offer the following as a cautionary tale.

This year, I went on using my iPod shuffle as a USB key this year. It worked fine until this past week. Somewhere along the way, it must not have got ejected properly and bam, the files were corrupted. Thankfully, having learned the hard way last year, I was far more regular about backing up my files, and all in all, it appears I have only lost three files, mainly class notes, that I can get from someone else.

Anyways, I am now swearing off USB keys. This year I was working off the USB key as my primary source of files so that I could change computers only. I was then backing up to both computers. The problem with this system is if you don't realize the files have been corrupted, you just start transferring and backing up corrupted files.

My new system is to directly network my computers with an ethernet cable and ignore the usb key totally. Hopefully this system will be bulletproof and no longer will I have to deal with corrupted files.

1 comment:

Megan said...

I found a blog for you: http://overheardinlawschool.blogspot.com/