Hi Anne:

There are several external hard drives that connect through a simple USB cable that can give you 250 gig of storage  space for less than $200.  Alternatively you can buy a memory stick with 2 gig for less than $30.  They are extremely portable being about the size of a pack of gum.  Some people may tell you they are unreliable but I've never had a problem with them, even so they are cheap enough that I bought a couple of them and backup important files to two and keep them in separate locations.  Even the 250 gig external drive I have is about the size of a computer speaker.  You can get those in a variety of memory sizes as well in case you wish to spend less.

Good luck.

T Kurt Knoerl
Managing Director
The Museum of Underwater Archaeology
http://www.uri.edu/mua

>  -------Original Message-------
>  From: Anne Lane <[log in to unmask]>
>  Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Digital Storage Media
>  Sent: 23 May '07 17:56
>  
>  Good afternoon - We use Past Perfect as our collections database,  and
>  periodically I have been backing it up to CDs. If I include all the image
>  files, I'm up to 4 discs per backup. This gets a little clumsy after a
>  while, as  well as costly. I am nervous using the cheap office-supply,
>  100-per-spindle CDs  for our precious data, but we can't afford to chomp
>  our way through spindle  after spindle of the better quality CDs. Our
>  office computers don't have  DVD burners. Is there some reliable,
>  large-dapacity storage medium that I could  use for these backups,
>  something I could take home with me, preferably something  I could re-use
>  rather than having to use it once and then discard  it?
>  
>  Thanks,
>  
>  
>  Anne  T. Lane
>  
>  Anne T.  Lane, Collections Manager
>  The  Charlotte Museum of History
>  3500  Shamrock Drive
>  Charlotte  NC 28215
>  704-568-1774,  ext 110
>  [log in to unmask]
>  
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