Memory sticks

[Jen~Ealogy]

Can someone please tell me the best memory stick to buy which is compatible with windows vista. There are so many on the market, it's confusing me.

Thank you.;)

[borobabs]

Jen as far as I know they are all compatible ;;Mine is just normal one bought from aldi and I have vista

[Jen~Ealogy]

Oh many thanks Babs for the reply.

[borobabs]

The bigger you get the more it hold mines a 4 gb Jen

[Jen~Ealogy]

Can you store anything on them Babs e.g, photos, text etc?

[borobabs]

Yes store gedcom ,,photos and I have looked on my external hardrive and there is word documents so yes I would think so

[Guy]

Memory sticks use nand memory to store data and and have a limit of up to 2Tb.
They can be used for all types of storage in the same way as a hard drive or DVD.
However be careful if you wish to use them for long term archiving as the technology depends on isolated electrical charges.

This dependence means that over time the charge will leak and the memory will become erased if the stick is not used.
If used regularly there should be no problems.
Cheers
Guy

[Jen~Ealogy]

Thanks Guy and Babs.

[Margaret N]

Guy,

Does this technology apply to all memory sticks? Oh and how about External Hard Drives as well.

[Jen~Ealogy]

Good question Margaret, I was humming and arring about a stick or an external hard drive.

[borobabs]

Interesting , will be glad to hear Guys advice on that myself

[Guy]

External hard drives are just that hard drives no built in to your computer.
They use magnetic plate(s) that spin at high speed to store data.
As long as they are not subjected to magnetic fields the data will remain on the disks almost indefinitely.

Yes most memory sticks use the same technology.
Memory sticks, or to give them their more accurate name usb flash drives, have no moving parts (they are solid state) but rely on transistor technology to store data.
Transistors are really type of switches or gates which allow electricity to flow or not flow. In flash drives each transistor has two such switches (control gate and floating gate) the control gate connects or disconnects the floating gate.
The important “part” of the transistor in flash drives is the floating gate which is electrically isolated by the rest of the transistor by the control gate. This isolation (insulation) allows the floating gate to retain any electrons placed on it for many years allowing the data to be stored.


For normal use the memory stick will retain the data as long as needed, over years the data will be lost.


No material is totally electrically insulating, there is always some leakage. Think of it as a blown up party balloon. If tied tightly the balloon will not leak air but over time minute leakage occurs and the balloon deflates.
Cheers
Guy

[borobabs]

Thanks for that Guy makes easier uderstanding of them ;;