Portability - Part 1

Over the years, my personal computer use has grown from one computer to three…one at home, one at my studio, and a laptop for use when I am on the road, which is very often over the course of a year. The dilemma I face, and that of every other person who uses more than one computer is which one stores the main files that you use?

For instance, which e-mail account do I use on one or the other? You can use one, but then you have your e-mail spread across two machines. For a while, I handled that by having three e-mail accounts…a solution that worked most of the time, but not always.

What about spreadsheets and word-processing documents? I always need access to them on all three machines, so what do I do when I have written a document on one machine, say my laptop, and I want to print it from my home computer. And what about my schedules…which of my three machines do I use for those?

Of course, I can make copies and have them on all three machines, but if I make a new entry on one, how to I get it to the other? My schedules have to match at all times if I am to be efficient and not miss a wedding or an art show.

So that is what this blog (and the next two) is about. I use the word “portability” here to describe the methodology whereby all my important work is available to me at all times on all three machines…and they are all current. No easy task…but it can be done and it is much easier than it use to be.

To achieve this portability, you need two basic things…the proper hardware and the proper software. No surprise here. So, in Part 1, I will focus on hardware, and then in Part 2, I will concentrate on software. Part 3 will cover more portable software that you can take with you anywhere.

Now, if you have only one computer then you don’t have to worry much about portability. But, stick around anyway because you just might find some neat tricks you will find useful now and in the future. But let’s take a look at two important pieces of hardware that lay at the heart of portability.

USB Memory

This is one of the slickest devices ever made to help you achieve portability. A USB memory device is sometimes called a memory stick, or a thumb drive, or a flash memory drive. They are very small, usually 1”-2” in length and feature a connector on one end that plugs into your computer’s USB port. They can hold anywhere from 256 MB all the way up to 8 GB of data. They are like a small portable hard drive, except there are no moving parts.

The downside is that they are actually slower than a hard drive, but none-the-less just as useful…and you can carry them in your pocket. Best of all, the prices have come down so low that anyone can afford one. I recently saw an 8 GB stick on sale for $28!

Primarily, they were used to copy or store one or more files so different computers can share them. But now, they can also hold so-called portable applications that can run all by themselves when plugged into your computers so you can carry not only your data but the programs that create and use the data. More on that in the next blog.

Portable External Hard Drives

These have been around for some time…except there is now a new breed of small hard drive that is extremely smaller than older drives and useful, especially in regards to portability. The best example of this new drive is the Western Digital Passport Drive. The drive is very small, measuring 5”x 3”x ½” in size. They run anywhere in drive capacity from 80GB up to 320GB and use a USB connector to plug into your computer. Prices? I paid $89 for my 160GB drive some months ago, and I saw just the other day that Costco had the 250GB drive for $129.

Besides being very small, the best part about these drives is you don’t need a separate power plug. The USB cable supplies enough power from the computer to allow the drive to work just fine. So one small cable provides both the power and data connection. Very handy, to say the least! (Be aware that some older computers cannot supply enough power to run these drives, but you can get a powered USB hub that will run them just fine).

If there is a drawback to these drives is that they only spin at 5400 RPM, while most standard hard drives run at 7200 RPM. But, quite frankly, I cannot see the difference in actual use. My large photo files seem to load just as fast off the portable drive as they do off my regular drive.

Now, many of you won’t need this extra external hard drive, but as a photographer, I found it most useful, especially when using Adobe Lightroom. This photo software works by keeping enhancements to a photo in a database rather than on the picture itself. I can now transport my photos (and their accompanying database) to any of my three computers without losing the changes made on a different computer. You can also use it to transport all your data, make backups, and even programs from computer to computer.

In part 2 of this series, I will explore some of the great software available to give you extended portability with your most important data.