8GB EXTREME III SD card as back up storage?

I currently have only 64GB of SSD space, so I'm looking for an external storage (I have 250GB external HD but I will not be taking them around).

I noticed that Amazon has 8GB Extreme III SD cards for $40 including shipping.

Is that a good deal?

I was thinking of buying a USB Flash drive, but it sticks out, so I don't think it's a good idea.

I can also use SD card for my camera too.

 

If you need an SD card, then yeah, that's a really good deal. They list for $100. I would consider getting one, but they aren't durable enough for travel.

 

what the question ? my 8gb sd is 24/7 attached, fast and cool.
and as you say have the added value as camera card.

works great

mine came with a usb dongle making it even more versatile

 

You can also mount that SD card as a fixed drive by using modified Hitachi micro drivers - which let's you format NTFS and treat it like a normal drive.

 

under vista it can be formatted as ntfs and can be set to "optimized for performance" however it is still treated as removable and swap file canot be stored there.

further more, if it is formatted as ntfs most cameras wont recognize it.

 

I have 5-1 internal reader, so SD card would be always in the reader.

Is SD card fast/reliable compared to external hard drives?

 

does it get heated it when left in the card slot? it did on my old laptop. so did the usb thumb drive. both are at the same place, next to each other. that side of the laptop incidentally is where i feel all the heat... so i suspect it's just that laptop.

also, does leaving SD card in the slot suck up battery juice?

 

What laptop do you have?
You will need a laptop media card reader which supports SDHC cards. If your media card reader does not support SDHC than buying the 8Gb sdhc card will be a waste of money. A SDHC card will not work in a sd slot which does not support it.

SD cards do get hot after extended use, but not hot enough to physically cause damage. They also draw a very low amount of power. I am not sure the power requirements but it is much less than 1 watt.

K-TRON

 

I have Lenovo ThinkPad X200 with 64GB SSD. After all, it has shared spaces for recovery partition as well, so I only have 30-40GB of space.

I think it should support SDHC cards. The internal reader is located below the right side of the palm rest.

X200 rarely gets heat as you might've read from various reviews. With/without cooling fan, I've never really had heating problem.

 

I think you can go in with Partition Magic or G-Part, and shrink the recovery partition size, so that you gain more usable free space.
that would be a better option than buying an Sd card to back everything up on.

Your laptop is relativeley new, so it should support sdhc, unless lenovo cheaped out on the media card reader.

K-TRON

 

Isn't Partition Magic only for XP?

Anyway what are some good partition program for Vista? I need something that will work without needing to format or restore?

 

does using SDHC card use less power than using hard disk?

 

Using an SD card does use less power than a harddrive, but if you want to use a sd card to get better battery life, its not the way to go. The sd card will use about 0.75watts of power. A harddrive idling uses about 0.8 watts so you may only notice 5-10 more minutes of battery life by going to sd cards. Its not worth it.

strangesweet, look at this link:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-gparted-to-resize-your-windows-vista-partition/

I hope that helps,

K-TRON

 

but is SD card faster than hdd? can i boot from the SD? let's say linux, instead of setting up hdd to dualboot, i just insert a SD card on those times i want to play with linux?

 

oh another question is, does it draw any power at all if i am not using it (idle). one of the reasons why i may want to stick a card in all the time is to flush out the hole. i reckon if i stick a sd card inside all the time, dust won't get in...

 

Battery life is not a problem because X200 runs for about 6 hours on maximum setting and I've seen it goes up to 11 hours+ on Energy Star setting.

Since I only have so much of internal drive space, I was thinking of getting extra space without taking up space. USB Flash drive sticks out, so it's not really an efficient option. As for external HD, I won't be able to travel with it. So SD card seem like a good option since it sticks right in the reader and it's hardly noticeable when sticked in. The reader is built-in right below the right side of palm rest and ThinkPad is all black, so one can't really tell whether SD card is plugged in or not.

But $40 (including shipping) for 8GB Extreme III seems like a good deal? Or does anybody know where I could get one for cheap?

I'm currently using Ultra II 1GB as extra storage for school documents and some music though.

I have Extreme III 2GB for camera at the moment.

 

Extreme III 30MB/s edition came out recently if that interests you. You can buy one for around $90 (including shipping) at Amazon as opposed to regular Extreme III 8GB for around $40.