Using small MP3 player as portable storage

[trishacupra]

Hi,

I recently got a tiny little MP3 player for my birthday. It has in built memory, and takes multimedia cards too - and by a stroke of luck it takes the memory card of our old digital camera that died last year.

I've found that this MP3 player can also be used as a portable external hard drive on my computer - the player's built-in memory and the card come up as two drives.

Has anyone used this kind of thing to back up or port around files?

I'm looking for ideas on how to best use this. Please tell me how you use it, and I might get a great idea of how to tweak your idea to suit me.

Thanks in advance,

Trisha
http://www.GenesisLifeCoaching.com

 

[Matt J]

I use a portable card reader and an SD card to keep portable files handy in a 3-fold system.

While at my desk, I am able to edit files as needed.
While on the go, I sync necessary files to my Palm in native Microsoft formats (word, excel) via Dataviz's Documents to Go, and can make changes if needed.
While at another computer, I pop the SD card out of my Palm and into the card reader, and can edit away on the other computer.

The result is that no matter where I make changes to the file, it is always reflected in the original copy (on my main computer) via the syncing with Documents to Go.

If you don't use a Palm, then you could set up a similar system making use of the Windows feature of Briefcase folders. If you aren't sure what I mean, search through the windows help files to get a better idea. A briefcase folder is a folder where you place copies of files, and can then synchronize the changes between the original files and the copies. So you could put a briefcase folder on your portable mp3 player, move various files to it, and then every time you're at your computer, sync the changes.

 

[BrianK]

I also recommend using MS Briefcase. I have a USB thumb drive that I carry around. It holds all of my electronic reference material, both work and personal. MS Briefcase is a quick and easy way to make sure you have things up to date.

If you plan on putting anything sensitive or confidential on it, I'd recommend a security program as well. Private Disk and Private Disk Light are pretty easy to use. Gives me peace of mind.

 

[trishacupra]

Thanks for that! I'll definitely have a look at Briefcase.

Trisha

 

[BigStory]

Read an article just the other day, can't remember where, about how the iPod can be used as a portable hard drive. Just drag and drop file. You may not be able to access them with the iPod, but you can transport them.

HTH,
Gordon

 

[freecia]

I got an ipod shuffle because I wanted to store data with an easily accessible USB interface. The shuffle basically looks like a USB thumb drive but has a mode you can enable to partition the data sector from the music sector, then any computer can read the data sector without having iTunes. Just plug it in and it pops up like a regular USB thumb drive

I remember that there is a way to use an ipod as a backup storage device but I'm not sure what kind of software/drivers you need to get it to work that way.