Portable Memory Gets Small

What's your portable memory storage device? E-mailing large documents to yourself, so you can access them remotely? Or stashing them on a 1.44MB floppy - and hoping they'll fit?

Welcome to the new age of storage. USB Flash Memory storage devices can pack from 8MB to a gigabyte of data - documents, Powerpoint presentations, MP3 files and the like - onto a drive smaller than your thumb, and weighing less than an ounce.

Consider the alternative. ZIP disks provide hundreds of megabytes of content capacity - but are accessible only on computers with ZIP drives. CD-RW delivered rewritable capacity of up to 650 MB, but not all PCs have a CD burner.

Products, like M-System Inc. DiskOnKey or products from Targus and Trek, are portable storage devices that clip to a key ring. A removable cover protects the USB connector from damage. Pull it from your pocket, plug it into a USB port on a Mac, or a PC operating on Microsoft Windows ME or later, and your data's right there.

Once installed, the external mini-drive is given the first letter available on the system for a storage device (on most systems, for example, the "A" or "B" drive is the floppy drive, the "C" drive is the main hard drive, a "D" drive could be a ZIP or CD-ROM drive). Managing data on the USB drive can be done through Windows Explorer, or with some devices, through a software program that manages the drive itself. The programs also allow for password protection of the data.

The capacity of today's USB memory devices makes them a power tool for the mobile worker who needs access to high-volume storage that can be read on most USB-enabled computers. With capacity topping 700 times the lowly 1.44 MB floppy, that's some seriously portable capacity.

Jeff Zbar, the ChiefHomeOfficer.com, is a speaker, writer and expert on alternative officing. He is the author of Teleworking & Telecommuting: Strategies for Remote Workers and Their Managers (Made E-Z Products, 2002); Safe@Home: Seven Keys to Home Office Security (FirstPublish 2001) and Your Profitable Home Business (on CD-ROM from Made E-Z Products). Visit his Web site to subscribe to Home Office Success Stories, his free electronic magazine on home business and teleworking.