USB jump drives

[rise]

i asked this in the other forum, where threads go to die, otherwise known as peripherals, but i was hoping for an answer before i went out shopping. i can't drive so i like to get everything i can when i'm out.

anyhow, usb jump drives:

is this a viable alternative to a floppy drive if my mobo supports it? i need a flash drive for bios updates and i don't really want to get a floppy. i know my mobo can boot from a usb device, not sure how exactly but i remember seeing it in the manual.

would there be any format issues? for instance, if i got a 512 i could only format it as DOS for bios? or can you use 2 partitions, one DOS and one windows and use that for , well any apps or something? or should i just get a smaller 1 for bios and drivers and a 512 for apps/music, etc.
?

sorry if these are dumb questions, it just seems like a perfect little device if it can do what i think it can and save me from buying a damn floopy.

thanks

 

[Blain]

I love USB drives. I haven't exactly replaced my floppy with them yet. But for moving files back and forth, they are great!
:laugh:

 

[housecat]

i got a 1gig from officemax for $50 the other week.. should stil be there. search their site for 1gb quickidrive or seomthing.

 

[rise]

ahh, thanks for the quick response.

you've never used it for flashing then. do you know if you can set 2 different partitions? i'm not sure how that would work. and i'm thinking of the lexmark from reviews, i think the santa cruz or something.

 

[rise]

thats a good price on a gig, i'll check it out

 

[Gunbuster]

Just burn a bootable CD to flash the BIOS, or use the windows flash program that most boards have now

 

[Blain]

The best I've ever used is a Verbatim USB 2.0 drive. I now have a 1GB Cruzer. But it acts odd from time to time.
It's just one big GB storage for me.

 

[rise]

i should have been more clear on the flashing part. what i want to do is to save my current vid card bios in a flashable format. the author of the new bios says the current bios would need to be saved to floppy, not a cd for some reason. maybe i can use the asus update to save it to disc, well maybe winflash if its the vid card bios. hmmm, sorry just trying to think it thru.

i'd ideally like to have all my bios saved on the usb drive and use the remainder for other files and such. or short of that use a smaller drive for bios and drivers and another for files etc.

 

[rise]

i heard good things of the verbatim too, someone told me to stay away from the pny's for some reason.

if the gig is still on sale at office max i'm all over that, the store is in the same mall i gotta go to.

 

[corkyg]

I guess the thread has changed from Jump drives to flash memory drives in general. Jump drives are Lexar's brand - copyrighted. And, they are excellent. Generically, all are flash memory devices.