I love my flash drives. I just don't edit Word documents directly from
removable media. ;-) I do edit other file types off removable media and I'll
open and print a document directly from removable media, but I refrain from
editing them.
I can't say I disagree with the need to provide an explanation regarding the
risks of editing Word documents directly from removable media. I say "risk"
because there are so many different variables regarding the temp file
creation (and issues with Fast Saves in older versions of Word - a general
cause of corruption but more so on removable media and one of the reasons
why it was removed from the application) one may or may not encounter an
issue. I think it's best to advise on the risk rather than create a hard and
fast rule. I usually try to take this route but I know there have been times
I haven't when traffic is high. You raise a good point and in the future
I'll make sure I elaborate more.
As for this thread becoming a bit off-topic, I can't say that's a bad thing.
After all, it's possible some of those who help out in the newsgroups know
the risks about removable media and Word documents but never really knew the
details surrounding the advice and all they really know are all of those
posts we see from those asking how to recover a corrupt document stored on
removable media.
~Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
"Scott M." wrote in message
...
I could give a similar anecdote about losing a bunch of important photos a
few years back when my hard drive failed. It doesn't mean we stop working
with hard drives.
This thread has really gotten away from my simple initial point, which is
to say "don't access a file from a flash drive" without any explanantion
of why or what *could* happen is irresponsible. And, believe it or not,
I'm not advocating the practice. What I'm saying is that, in and of
itself, the practice is not dangerous and that Graham's comments were
incomplete as well as his later explanation innacurate. As with ALL
computer files, having a backup copy is the best bet 100% of the time.
I just find it troubling that more and more in the NG's I'm hearing MVP's
doling out, what sounds like absolute edicts without any explanation,
which leaves a newbie (the vast majority of NG readers) believing what
they are hearing without understanding what they've been told.
Graham hasn't helped his cause with irrational statements like saying the
software will not help you open a password protected Word document, only
time will (almost verbaitim what he said). Using that logic, you could
say that nothing in the universe happens, but for the passage of time
(extostential for sure, but practical and true for day to day living - -
hardly true at all).
-Scott
"Beth Melton" wrote in message
...
"Scott M." wrote in message
...
There is no evidence that flash memory is any more volitile than HDD
memory. The fact that many people encounter corruption with flash drives
is not an indicator that there is a problem with flash drives per se.
It is more likely that the people reporting problems are not using them
properly (pulling the drive while it's still being read from/written
to). In a NG, you'll most likely hear from the folks that don't know how
to do something correctly. Rather than make a statement like "DON'T
access then from the flash memory", which has no basis for being a
technicological problem, Graham should have said something like "If you
use a flash drive to transfer the files, be careful to only pull the
drive out after you've successfully completed the save operation to the
drive.". But, to somehow imply that documents on flash drives shouldn't
be opened directly is absurd.
I used to feel this way as well but that was before I lost an important
document after editing it directly on a flash drive. I know how to safely
remove a flash drive and I also exited Word prior to ejecting it. I even
had the Word option for "Copy remotely stored files onto your computer,
and update the remote file when saving" enabled. My personal experience
is enough evidence for me to now advise others to copy files to their
local drive and after exiting Word to copy them back to their flash
drive. Even though it may sound absurd I don't want to be the one to
advocate working directly off a flash drive and have someone lose an
important document because of my advice. FWIW, the only reason I was
working on documents directly off a flash drive was to prove this advice
wrong. LOL
Also note if someone removes their flash drive after saving you risk
corruption due to how Word manages temp files. When you save a file that
doesn't mean all of the content in the Word document is finalized. Some
finalization occurs when you close the file and Word may also perform
some clean-up activities when you exit the application. This includes
clean-up on the flash drive since Word saves some temp files in the same
location as the saved document and depending on what was done while the
document was open, such copying images and multiple sections in the
document, temp files and links to the document are maintained. For more
on how Word uses temp files take a look at this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/211632
~Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP