Saving Your Files at the Library

What You Can Use at the Library

All of the library's Internet computers have floppy disk drives, CD-ROM drives, and USB ports (with attached extension cables to make it easier to plug things in). At this time we do not have CD burners. The computers work with most flash memory drives, but for security reasons they will not allow you to run your own software or install drivers.

For Sale at the Library

The library sells flash memory drives and floppy disks at the circulation desk.

What's Best

We recommend flash memory drives because they are more reliable than floppies. USB flash drives are more reliable than floppy disks because they have no moving parts and have a more durable design. Flash drives are also more compact, faster, and hold more data. Floppy disks are highly sensitive to dust, condensation temperature extremes, static electricity, and magnetic fields. Floppy disk drives are also very error-prone and have no bulit-in fault tolerance.

All Your Eggs in One Basket

You should keep important documents in more than once place--don't rely on just one floppy or flash drive. A good way to do this is to e-mail the document to yourself as an attachment and keep it in your e-mail. If you don't have e-mail you can sign up for a free account.

Keep the Cap

Keeping the cap on a flash memory drive when the drive is not in use will reduce the risk of damage due to static electricity.