>We currently use an optical disk drive to store all our flow data. I >understand that this drive is out of date now and we would like to get >another method. > > I think the 3 choices are: > >1] zip drive >2]jazz drive >3]writeable CD > >I would appreciate advice/opinions as to which is best for long term >reliability, ease of access, cost, transport of data to another computer, >etc. Or is there any other type of data storage that I'm overlooking? > >Thanks, >Tom > >-------------------------------------------------------- >Thomas W. Mc Closkey, Ph. D. >Director, Flow Cytometry >North Shore University Hospital >Biomedical Research Center >350 Community Drive >Manhasset, Long Island, New York 11030 >ph: 516-562-4844 [office]; 516-562-1135/4641 [lab] >3/11/97 2:19:15 PM >E-mail: thomasm@nshs.edu >-------------------------------------------------------- I have found CD-recordable (or CD-R) to be the most cost effective, secure, and flexible way to go. Disks are about $7 as piece and store 640 MB. And no one can screw up and erase the data. Plus you can put researcher's data on these disks and they can read them on any CD-ROM drive. I'd say at a research center, this is a BIG selling point, as most computers have CD-ROM drives (i.e. these researchers could easily use the disks you create), but you would have to buy Zip or Jazz drives for everyone to make those disks available. The down side of CD-R right now is that DVD looms on the horiizon. DVD's (Digital Video Disk) holds about 2 gigs of data (If you can wait 6 to 12 months, you could just buy one of these..). DVD drives use a smaller wavelength laser (looks like a 488, actually) to put more data on less space. Within 2 or three years, the "experts" predict CD-R will be obsolete. The good thing is they are reverse compatible (If they have two lasers, as most will) with CD-R disks, so all that data will still be accessible. Of course, it may bother you to have more lasers on your storage drive than on your cytometer...:-) happy shopping. kb -- Keith Bahjat Northwestern University Medical School Comprehensive AIDS Center Flow Cytometry Laboratory Chicago, IL Kbahjat@nwu.edu
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