| I've come to rely on my portable hard drive. Maybe a | | | | dramatically. However, I wanted to see if there was |
| little bit too much. So, maybe it's just as well that I lost it | | | | any alternative. |
| last week. I had all the data stored on my work and | | | | The first thing I considered was storing the files online. |
| home computers, so I wasn't too worried about that. | | | | There are many companies offering safe and secure |
| What I was worried about was coping without the | | | | storage. I really like the idea, but the first problem was |
| drive. | | | | getting the files online in the first place: to upload |
| In my line of work, I need to have access to hundreds | | | | gigabytes of data would take many hours, or even |
| of files. Some of those files are a few gigabytes in | | | | days. Next, I'd have to pay a monthly fee which would, |
| size. I used to have a case full of DVDs where I kept | | | | over the course of a year, be more than the price of |
| all the files I might need. But DVDs are slow and bulky, | | | | a hard drive. And lastly, I would have to have high |
| plus it was always a pain trying to find the right one. | | | | speed internet access in order to access the files. |
| I was thankful when the price of hard drives starting | | | | I decided that this wasn't a suitable choice for my |
| coming down. Now all I needed to do was to fit a drive | | | | needs. Probably best for keeping a safe backup of |
| into an external usb case and I could have instant | | | | important files. |
| access to all the files I needed on almost any | | | | I didn't want to go back to burn my files onto dvd |
| computer. | | | | again, so that wasn't an option. |
| Since the loss of my drive, I was tempted just to go | | | | The last option was to keep my data on flash drives. |
| out and buy a new one; the prices are cheaper than | | | | Unfortunately, for the capacity I require, the price was |
| before and the capacity of the drives has increased | | | | far too high. |