Saving Your Files at the Library
What Media You Can Use at the Library
All of the library's Internet computers have floppy disk drives, CD-ROM drives, and USB ports. At this time we do not have CD burners, so you won't be able to save anything to a CD-ROM. The computers work with many flash memory drives, but for security reasons they will not allow you to run your own software or install drivers, which some flash drives require, so some flash memory drives won't work on library computers.
For Sale at the Library
The library sells flash memory drives and floppy disks at the circulation desk.
What's Best
We recommend flash memory drives because they are more reliable than floppies. USB flash drives are more reliable than floppy disks because they have no moving parts and have a more durable design. Flash drives are also more compact, faster, and hold more data. Floppy disks are highly sensitive to dust, condensation temperature extremes, static electricity, and magnetic fields. Floppy disk drives are also very error-prone and have no bulit-in fault tolerance.
How to Make your USB Drive Work at the Library
If your USB flash memory drive doesn't work on library computers, try this: Hold down the Shift key on the keyboard while inserting the USB drive, and continue holding it down for about 30 seconds. Some USB drives want to install and/or run their own software, which doesn't work on library computers, but holding down the shift key prevents this software from trying to load. You'll find this U3 software on Sandisk Cruzer, Kingston U3 DataTraveler, Verbatim Store 'n' Go U3 Smart Drive, Intuix Smart Drive, Memorex Mini TravelDrive, and GeekSquad Flash Drives, among others.
Save Early - Save Often
When should you save your document? All the time! As soon as you open Word, Powerpoint, or whatever program you're using, save the document, even if it's blank at that point. Then, save regularly while you're working on the document, maybe every 15 minutes.
All Your Eggs in One Basket
You should keep important documents in more than once place--don't rely on just one floppy or flash drive. A good way to do this is to e-mail the document to yourself as an attachment and keep it in your e-mail. If you don't have e-mail you can sign up for a free account.
Copying Your Files from Floppy to Flash Drive
Because floppy disks are unreliable, we recommend that you use USB flash memory drives instead. Here are instructions for copying your files from floppy to flash drive on the library's computers.