• Making back-up copies of important information
• Transporting data between two computers
• Storing software and information that you don't need to access constantly
• Copying information to give to someone else
• Securing information that you don't want anyone else to access
• Storing all your multimedia files: music, pictures and videos....

What are your options?

Removable storage devices offer an incredible number of options nowadays, with storage capacities ranging from the (now obsolete) 1.44 Megabytes (Mb) of a standard floppy disk, to upwards of 300 Gigabytes (Gb) in some portable hard drives. All of these devices fall into one of three categories:

• Magnetic storage. The most common and enduring form of removable-storage technology is magnetic storage. In most cases, removable magnetic storage uses a drive, which is a mechanical device that connects to the computer. You insert the media, which is the part that actually stores the information, into the drive. The media used in removable magnetic-storage devices is coated with iron oxide. This oxide is a ferromagnetic material, meaning that if you expose it to a magnetic field it is permanently magnetized.  Examples of this kind of storage are floppy disks. zip drives and cartridges, and computer hard drives.

• Optical storage. The optical storage devices that most of us are familiar with are the compact disc (CD) and the digital versatile disc (DVD). A CD can store huge amounts of digital information (640 to 700 MB) on a very small surface that is incredibly inexpensive to manufacture. DVDs can store from 4.7Gb to 17Gb, if they are single or double sided, single or double layer.

• Solid-state storage. A very popular type of removable storage for small devices, such as digital cameras and PDAs, is Flash memory. Flash memory is a type of solid-state technology, which basically means that there are no moving parts. Inside the chip is a grid of columns and rows, with a two-transistor cell at each intersecting point on the grid. The two transistors are separated by a thin oxide layer. One of the transistors is known as the floating gate, and the other one is the control gate. The floating gate's only link to the row, or wordline, is through the control gate. As long as this link is in place, the cell has a value of "1." To change the cell value to a "0" requires a curious process called Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. Tunneling is used to alter the placement of electrons in the floating gate. An electrical charge, usually between 10 and 13 volts, is applied to the floating gate. The charge comes from the column, or bitline, enters the floating gate and flows to a "ground". This charge causes the floating-gate transistor to act like an electron gun. The excited, negatively charged electrons are pushed through and trapped on the other side of the oxide layer, which acquires a negative charge. The electrons act as a barrier between the control gate and the floating gate. A device called a cell sensor monitors the level of the charge passing through the floating gate. If the flow through the gate is greater than fifty percent of the charge, it has a value of "1." If the charge passing through drops below the fifty-percent threshold, the value changes to "0."

The solid state of some cards

A memory card is a critical component in the professional photographer's digital system. Its performance enables you to determine which cards offer the speed your workflow requires. But while speed is important, so is the warranty and tech support.

Memory cards work by writing zeros and ones and store it in memory cells. This kind of memory is similar to computer RAM. There is a key difference, however, between computer RAM and the memory chips used in digital camera cards: these contain non-volatile RAM. That means that photos aren't purged when the card is removed from the camera. Instead, memory cells remember if they contain zeros or ones until told otherwise.

This type of memory is called flash memory. The greater the number of memory chips, and the more densely packed each memory chip, the greater the capacity of the card. Card capacities have been increasing as flash memory manufacturers have devised new ways to shrink memory chips.

Flash-memory storage devices such as CompactFlash or SmartMedia cards are today's most common form of electronic nonvolatile memory. CompactFlash cards were developed by Sandisk in 1994, and they are different from SmartMedia cards in two important ways: They are thicker, and they utilize a controller chip.

CompactFlash consists of a small circuit board with Flash-memory chips and a dedicated controller chip, all encased in a rugged shell that is several times thicker than a SmartMedia card. The increased thickness of the card allows for greater storage capacity.

CompactFlash storage capacities range from 512Mb to an incredible 4Gb. The onboard controller can increase performance, particularly on devices that have slow processors. However, the case and controller chip add size, weight and complexity to the CompactFlash card when compared to the SmartMedia card.

The solid-state floppy-disk card (SSFDC), better known as SmartMedia, was originally developed by Toshiba.

And now.....Patriot Digital Media arrives

This week, we found a very interesting option for your digital media needs: Patriot Memory. First of all, we were amazed with their vast range of memory module products including Extreme Performance (EP), Dual Channel (DC), Signature Lines (SL) and Flash Memory solutions. Second of all, their competitive prices were a real surprise: