Re: Do we really need optical drives any more?

Ohioguy <> wrote:
> I was thinking about my 16GB USB flash drive today, and thinking about
> how it holds almost 4 times what a DVD +R disk holds. Then I thought
> about how it can be erased and rewritten any number of times, and how it
> didn't require me to buy a separate drive to use it.

> If I wanted to buy a DVD burner, I'd pay something like $38-$40 to be
> able to archive 16 GB onto 4 disks. It would take a long time, and there
> would always be the possibility of getting scratches on the disks,
> making them unreadable.

> I got my 16 GB flash drive for about $30. Prices for this size have been
> relatively stable of late, but that is partly due to the weakness of the
> dollar relative to other currencies. (making imports more expensive) It
> is only a matter of time before we see 32 GB flash drives for the same
> price. With USB 3 motherboards now on the market, the flash drives will
> hopefully be even faster than before.

> I see that Blu-Ray disk burner drives are also dropping in price.
> However, the media for this drive is going for about $3 a disk. Plus, it
> still suffers from the possibility of the disks getting scratched, and
> losing all the data. Each disk holds about the same as my 16 GB flash drive.

> I've noticed that some places are even shipping games and such already
> on USB flash drives. Others are just being downloaded directly these
> days. It all makes me wonder if the age of optical media is already
> slipping behind us.

> What about you - are you going to spend $$ on a new optical drive, or
> just thinking of getting a bigger USB flash drive when prices come down
> (or storage goes up)??

> Thanks!

Be careful with USB flash. I have had silent errors in two of
them (putting a web-writeup up soon). Optical media have
reliable error detection, it seems some Flash drives have not.

Arno

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Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email:
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