What other forms of file storage are available to me?

USB Flash Drives

All computers in the Library now have access to their USB ports. USB Flash Drives are a good way to backup all your files. To locate the USB ports on the computers, open the lighter grey flap on the front of the computer.

The USB Flash Drives are small, lightweight, removable and rewritable data storage device. The flash drive is a very fast memory device, that is more reliable than a floppy drive.

USB flash drives are also known as " pen drives ", " chip sticks ", " thumb drives ", " flash drives ", " USB keys ", and a wide variety of other names. They are also sometimes erroneously called memory sticks, which is a Sony trademark describing their proprietary memory card system.

Floppy Disks

Floppy disks can be used to store smaller backup files. Ask I.T. have found that floppy disks have more of a tendency to become corrupt. Therefore care is needed in the handling and transport of floppy disks. The most likely reason you can't access your floppy disk is due to a corrupt or defective part of the disk. This can occur at any time for no apparent reason and completely ruin a file or a whole disk. Should your floppy disk become corrupt you can take it to an Ask I.T. Desk and a Help Desk Officer will try to recover your files using special software.

Ask I.T. Tip: Another important thing to remember is that if you are already editing a file within a Microsoft application (such as Word), you must close all the files on the floppy disk you are currently using before changing or ejecting the floppy disk. If you forget to do this it is likely you will have problems accessing the files on your new floppy disk.

CD Storage

There are 6 computers with CD Burners available in Ezone 2, Building 8, Ipswich Campus. These are available to backup your data. Check with your UQ branch library or faculty about other CD burning options.