Backing Up Back to School: Using USB Flash Drives For Education
With everything becoming digitized, it has become more common for students, whether going into high school or college, to be equipped with laptops or other electronic devices to tackle academic requirements. The increase in demand for these devices is also leading to more concern over backing up important data. Many know the frustrated feeling of losing valuable work when a program crashes, and the feeling is even more devastating once applied to a whole collection of data such as a library of music, videos, and photos. A few ways have arisen to prevent this, including external storage devices such as USB flash drives, and online data backup services.
USB vs. Cloud Storage
There are two basic options for saving and maintaining data as a student. The first option, using an external device, usually involves a USB flash drive or an external hard drive; the second, online services like Dropbox and Mozy. Of the two, USB flash drives are the most popular in classrooms and on campus because they are widely accessible, extremely portable, and easy to use. Online services, on the other hand, allow you unparalleled access to data over a number of computers and devices. Unfortunately, online storage gets more expensive once storage capacities get too high. This is where the advances in USB 3.0 and the huge capacities coming available have become useful. Also, cloud storage is difficult when 3G or web access is limited or unavailable.
USB Options
Finding a USB that matches a student’s personality is the fun part of choosing the right flash drive. There are many styles and capacities of USB drives, from 1GB to 32GB and beyond. There are also over 140 colleges who have their schools represented with their colors and logos in the Flashscot line of collegiate USB flash drives.
Other styles of USB drives can have a lanyard so they can be carried around their necks or on their backpacks. Key shape USB drives can go right on a key ring so they are always on hand.
Now that you know two of your best options for backing up your pertinent school files, it’s time to decide which one would better fit your budget requirements. Good luck!
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