I think there's two issues at work with your comment mikie. The first, which many historians have spoken about, is that the lost habits of letter and diary writing mean that much less material will be available for historical analysis in the future. Email archives aren't as common as boxes stuffed with old letters, and email archives typically have much more worthless stuff in them. The second thing, the changes in storage media over time, I think isn't so much of a problem. There used to be lots of stuff stored on 8 and 5.25 inch floppy disks. They're not lost to the future, that worth keeping was migrated to later generations of storage media. Places like the Library of Congress and National Archives are digitizing many parts of their collections to protect the availability of their contents for the future. All that stuff gets rolled forward as technology changes.

each thumb flash drive will say what it holds for example it might hold 4 gig or 8 gig or less or more. It depends on what type files you will be storing, picture and video files are very large so will take up much more room than just text or document files. go to the folder of the files you want to backup to the thumb drive and right click on it and choose properties it will tell you exactly how much is contained in that folder so you would know you need a flash drive that is big enough to hold that much at least. I think 4 gig is a nice size and they are fairly inexpensive. I buy 4 gig Kingston drives at Big Lots all the time for $12. You can buy them at walmart, best buy, or any stores that sell electronics and computer stuff. I stick with the name brand ones like Kingston, San disk, corsair etc. Here is the link to some over at buy.com Results Within Our Stores general guide for using one Overview of How to use a USB Flash Drive

Hi DA, On the back of the package it says this. Interface: USB 2.0 (Also compatable with USB 1.1 Ports) Operating System: Windows Vista, XP, 2000 Macintosh 9x and higher Linux kernel 2.6 x and higher Additional Functions: Password Security ( Supported on Windows operating systems only) Doesn't that Verbatim come with a U3 application already installed. I don't see it anywhere on the package. it should put an icon on your System Tray/Notification Area. Yes it does put an icon on my System Tray/Notification Area. When finished just double click on the U3 icon and a small window will appear in the lower right quadrant. Select Eject. When I double click on the Icon a box pops up and says this. Select the device that you want to unplug or eject, and then click Stop. When Windows notifies you that it is safe to do so unplug the device from your computer. Under Hardware Devices: USB Mass Storage Device I highlight USB Mass Storage Device and then click Stop and another box pops up and says,Confirm devices to be stopped. Choose OK to continue. Windows will attemp to stop the following devices, after the devices are stopped they may be removed safely. I highlight Verbatim Store'n'Go and click on OK. I hear a little pop noise and everything in that box including the one that I highlighted (Verbatim) disappears and so does the icon. That's when I know to pull out the USB Drive. That pop noise as I call it is a normal windows sound not a problem with the computer. Kind of like when I turn my printer on Windows makes a noise to let me know it has connected. That's about it, I hope that I explained it well enough for you to understand. Have a great day. "Smiles" thirdfrt!!!

If you have access to a design engineering office, see if they have anyone who works with 'strain gages'. Strain gage technicians and engineeres routinely solder tiny conections, sometimes under a low power microscope. A special soldering gun is used. Make sure that the soldering gun is electrically isolated and grounded to preclude imparting a damaging charge to the pins. (I am trained to apply strain gages.) The next source is an engineering college that offers strain gage application courses. There will be experts among the staff. A third source is a solid state chip design group. They may have access to specialized equipment. However, at this writing, I have little hope that you can recover the data. It all depends on the damage and where the breaks are. The damage can extend into the packaging. If I understand thumb drives, I think there is an internal, very small 'keep alive' battery that maintains the state of the memory junctions. If this battery is damaged or the connections to it interrupted, then all data is lost. If the 'die' (chip) has been cracked or over strained, then it is lost. This damage can not be seen as it will under the potting compound. If the leads have been broken flush with the packaging (potting) material, then there is little hope in making a solder connection. Before you give up, examine the thumb drive under a low power (10 to 20x) inspection microscope. Look at the leads. Hopefully, these are not broken, but misshapen.