Leave Laptop At Home - Bring Flash Drive Instead!

Frosty · 01-06-2007, 04:08 PM

Within the last year or two I have been bringing a FLASH DRIVE with me overseas instead of my laptop.

Yes, I do lose the ability of surfing the net at airports and taking advantage of available free wifi. BUT I have stopped worrying about dropping my laptop or having someone steal it from me!

Back home, I have a Mac desktop and a Toshiba laptop. On both computers I have downloaded a free FIREFOX browser. On both computers I have the same favorites, the same toolbar set up and both browsers work almost the same.

I downloaded a Portable Firefox program to a flash drive together with a portable word processing program and take this flash drive with me when I travel out of country. These flash drives don't take up much room at all and are pretty durable. You could probably get by with a 128 or 256 mb for most needs. I have 4 flash drives, one I travel, 1 spare and one drive each for the Mac and the Toshiba where I have backed up files and programs. All of these flash drives were purchased on sale and had good rebates that brought the price down low. One flash drive was free after sending in the rebates that the store offered. Check the Sunday papers for sales near you!

I have duplicated the same Firefox set up that is on my Mac and laptop, the same favorites and the same toolbar layout. When I plug that flash into a computer in an internet shop it's almost like using my home computer! My only worry now is being absent minded and forgetting to take the flash drive with me when I leave.

This works for me and no more worrying about dropping or having my laptop stolen. I am surprised of how much storage these little devices have. Of course there are some instances where businessmen must have their laptops - but for the ordinary leisure travellers a flash drive may be all that you need!

One precaution to take is to run a virus scan on your flash drive before and especially after you return to catch any bugs you might have picked up!

Frosty

Continent · 03-27-2007, 02:18 AM

You can also buy a small device that has a HDD inside it and has various ports for different cards. When you fill up your photo card, you just put it into this device, press a button and it transfers all your photos to it.

Again. Smaller than a laptop, but not as durable as flash (but it can hold much more.)

Continent

Frosty · 05-04-2007, 08:00 PM

Portable Anti - Virus protection is available for Flash Drives.

You can download your own (Free) anti-virus program on to your flash drive and scan your files when you think it is necessary.

The name of the portable anti-virus scan is: Clam Win Portable.
Link:

ClamWin Portable | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB drives

There is no periodic updates, when you start up the program it asks you to replace the data with the latest virus threat definitions and then make your scan with the new data. The new data replaces the "old" data and you are good to go! After a while you get the hand of it.

I still run scans on the FD with my regular anti-virus programs on my main computer at home especially after a trip overseas using internet shops.

Good luck

01-06-2007, 04:08 PM	#1
Frosty Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Rhode Island, USA Posts: 68	Leave Laptop At Home - Bring Flash Drive Instead! Within the last year or two I have been bringing a FLASH DRIVE with me overseas instead of my laptop. Yes, I do lose the ability of surfing the net at airports and taking advantage of available free wifi. BUT I have stopped worrying about dropping my laptop or having someone steal it from me! Back home, I have a Mac desktop and a Toshiba laptop. On both computers I have downloaded a free FIREFOX browser. On both computers I have the same favorites, the same toolbar set up and both browsers work almost the same. I downloaded a Portable Firefox program to a flash drive together with a portable word processing program and take this flash drive with me when I travel out of country. These flash drives don't take up much room at all and are pretty durable. You could probably get by with a 128 or 256 mb for most needs. I have 4 flash drives, one I travel, 1 spare and one drive each for the Mac and the Toshiba where I have backed up files and programs. All of these flash drives were purchased on sale and had good rebates that brought the price down low. One flash drive was free after sending in the rebates that the store offered. Check the Sunday papers for sales near you! I have duplicated the same Firefox set up that is on my Mac and laptop, the same favorites and the same toolbar layout. When I plug that flash into a computer in an internet shop it's almost like using my home computer! My only worry now is being absent minded and forgetting to take the flash drive with me when I leave. This works for me and no more worrying about dropping or having my laptop stolen. I am surprised of how much storage these little devices have. Of course there are some instances where businessmen must have their laptops - but for the ordinary leisure travellers a flash drive may be all that you need! One precaution to take is to run a virus scan on your flash drive before and especially after you return to catch any bugs you might have picked up! Frosty __________________

03-27-2007, 02:18 AM	#2
Continent Member ITYT Cabin Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 42	You can also buy a small device that has a HDD inside it and has various ports for different cards. When you fill up your photo card, you just put it into this device, press a button and it transfers all your photos to it. Again. Smaller than a laptop, but not as durable as flash (but it can hold much more.) Continent __________________

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05-04-2007, 08:00 PM	#3
Frosty Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Rhode Island, USA Posts: 68	Portable Anti - Virus protection is available for Flash Drives. You can download your own (Free) anti-virus program on to your flash drive and scan your files when you think it is necessary. The name of the portable anti-virus scan is: Clam Win Portable. Link: ClamWin Portable \| PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB drives There is no periodic updates, when you start up the program it asks you to replace the data with the latest virus threat definitions and then make your scan with the new data. The new data replaces the "old" data and you are good to go! After a while you get the hand of it. I still run scans on the FD with my regular anti-virus programs on my main computer at home especially after a trip overseas using internet shops. Good luck