There are pros and cons to getting an SSD drive over a traditional hard 
drive. The biggest is that traditional hard drives are a lot cheaper, 
although the cost of SSD storage is coming down.

SSD drives used to have very short life spans, and furthermore, they 
failed catastrophically with no warning. The fact that they have no 
moving parts is irrelevant in this discussion. SSD controllers have 
improved, so if you get a modern SSD drive, the life expectancy should 
be close to that of a traditional hard drive.

For more things to consider when deciding to get an SSD drive or a 
traditional hard drive, check out an article like 
http://www.storagereview.com/ssd_vs_hdd

On 07/12/2015 01:04 AM, Harry Brown wrote:
> Do that digitizing, you'll be glad you did.
> By Harry Brown
>
> I just spent 4 hours, doing something I am so glad I did, even though it
> was a lot of work!
> I continued what I have been doing for some time now, and that is,
> digitizing my personal files, things like:
> 1. All my CDs.
> 2. All my casette tapes
> 3. All my braille, stuff in notebooks that I've written over the years,
> both personal, and work related.
> 4. All kinds of file folders with personal braille papers
> 5. print books, which I have to scan and save.
> As you can see, I have a lot of things to digitize. I don't do it every
> night, but when I have a nite available, I'm doing it, and I cannot tell
> you the joy I feel knowing, that if there is a fire or flood, I won't
> lose all the stuff that I would never, ever, be able to get back if
> those things happened.
> I say all that to say this, is all your personal stuff digitized? Things
> like:
> 1. All your music, like tapes, records, CDs?
> 2. Any stuff on DVDs?
> 3. All your braille, or print papers, stuff that you would never want to
> have to rewrite again, whether notebooks, letters, personal files in
> envelopes or file folders?
> 4. Family pictures, or personal pictures?
> 5. Any VHS tapes?
> The reason I mentioned CDs, DVDs, casette tapes, and VHS video tapes is,
> after a while, they can oxidize, and become totally useless to play. I
> found this out with a CD set I had, which I left in a bedroom closet.
> Even though it was away from the sunshine, it just oxidized, and they
> were useless to play, (and I tryed them on a CD player, and on 2 CD
> drives on 2 computers).
> That really got my attention! Thankfully, I was able to contact the
> ministry that gave me the same files that were on those CDs, via the
> internet.
> So, I say all that to say this, if you haven't digitized the above
> things, get started on it, no matter how long it takes, just do it,
> you'll be glad you did.
> The question you might be asking is, "How do I digitize all this stuff?
> Let's take them one at a time:
> 1. For CDs, use Windows media player to do it, and it does a great job.
> If you don't know how to rip from CD to your computer, just ask!
> 2. For DVDs, I would think it is the same way, but I don't have any DVDs
> that I need to digitize, so, ask around, on email lists, or ask techies
> where you live, about how to do that.
> 3. For casette tapes, I use studio recorder, which is great for this!
> There is also Gold Wave, and, there is Audacity, as well!
> You connect your computer to a tape recorder or player, using a patch cord.
> 4. For braille, you'll have to set up Windows speech recognition, or,
> use Dragon Naturally Speaking, and if you're a jaws user, get J-dictate,
> which works with jaws and dragon naturally speaking. Then, just read all
> your braille into a microphone, and then, you'll have it all on your
> computer.
> If you want to know about that part of the process, let me know.
> 5. For print books, if you're blind or are disabled so you cannot turn
> pages, they are available through NLS, or, through book share, then
> you've got them that way. However, if not, you'll have to use something
> like Open Book, or, Docu scan plus, made by the folks at Serotek, which
> lets you scan any print material, and it will convert it to text, or, to
> an MP3 audio file! For print papers, you'll have to scan those in, or,
> read them, or, have someone read them, on to the computer using Dragon
> Naturally speaking.
> 6. for records, you can connect a record player to your computer with a
> patch cord, using Studio Recorder, Audacity, or Gold Wave.
> 7. for pictures, you can use that same scanner that you use for print
> materials, to scan and save any pictures.
> 8. For VHS tapes, you can put those on your computer as well. Now I have
> no VHS tapes, so, ask around on email lists, or, where you live, because
> there are folks who can tell you what kind of cable to connect between
> your VCR, and your computer.
> The next question is, "where do I save it all to?
> Save it all in 2 places:
> 1. On your hard drive, and I would get a SSD, (stands for solid state
> drive)! Right now, I'm using a regular hard drive, one that spins
> around, but this or next week, I will be getting an SSD drive. These
> drives are great because they have no moving parts! They last much,
> longer than traditional hard drives.
> What drive to get? Get the Kingston Hyper x Savage!
> I say that because it is the fastest SSD on the market, I've looked at
> them all. And very important, after you get that drive installed on your
> computer, make sure to turn off disc defrag. If you don't, defrag can
> ruin your solid state drive. SSDs do not need to be defragged, like
> traditional hard drives do.
> So, that's one place to put all this stuff.
> 2. Also, be sure to put it on another external SSD, whether one of those
> 2 and a half inch external drives, which fit nicely into a pocket, or,
> into a hand bag or purse.
> Or, put it all on a thumb drive, (also called flash drive). These drives
> are very nice as well. I have my thumb drive in an iPod case I got at
> Wall-Mart, and it's on my key ring, and it goes everywhere I go!
> If you choose a thumb drive, be sure you get one that is water proof,
> (they do make them), and, it has to be made out of metal or steel. Why,
> because plastic ones break, that's right, you read that right. They,
> literally, split right in half.
> I've heard stories of that happening, and a friend, showed me one, split
> right down the middle.
> The next question is, "how big does the drive half to be in storage
> space? I started with a 4 gig, then filled that one, then, moved to an 8
> gig, and filled that, then, moved up to a 16 gig, and filled that, then,
> up to a 32 gig, and filled that, and now, I'm using a 64 gig thumb
> drive, and when I fill that up, I'll move up to a 128 gig thumb drive!
> Now when I filled each one of those, I bought the bigger one, and copied
> all the stuff from the smaller drive, to the bigger one that I bought.
> Those are the 2 places I have all my stuff on.
> 3. There is a third place, and that is, the cloud! That's right, the
> cloud, and I'm not talking about the one in the sky either. I'm talking
> about the internet. For folks reading this, who don't know what this is,
> the internet is called the cloud, by many techies. Now you can store a
> lot there, however, if you've got a lot to store, there would be a
> charge to store it all on the internet, but it is only so much a year.
> There's dropbox, google docs, one drive, and probably more that I have
> forgotten to mention!
> So, those are the 4 places where you can store stuff at.
> conclusion. My heart was burdened tonight, after I got some more stuff
> digitized, so, I put something in our local newspaper, and on our local
> area radio station, about this topic.
> My heart breaks when I hear of fires and floods, and people lost
> everything, and all those above things I mentioned, will never be
> recovered.
> So, for your sake, do that digitizing, because you will feel so glad
> that you did it. I am doing it myself, and I'm so glad that I am!
>
>
>     VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
> Archived on the World Wide Web at
>     http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html
>     Signoff: [log in to unmask]
>     Subscribe: [log in to unmask]

-- 
Christopher (CJ)
chaltain at Gmail


    VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
Archived on the World Wide Web at
    http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html
    Signoff: [log in to unmask]
    Subscribe: [log in to unmask]