One piece of hardware that has become popular in the past year or two has several names: USB drives, jump drives, thumb drives, or similar names. Each of these devices contains a bit of computer memory and supporting circuitry. The jump drives are designed to be plugged into your computer's USB port. Once plugged in, these devices act like tiny disk drives. You can copy files to and from jump drives in the same manner as between any other disk drives. Storage capacities vary from 16 megabytes to 4 gigabytes or more.

Best of all, these devices save their contents when unplugged. You can copy most any data to these portable devices and then take that data with you. Many people store backup copies of critical information on jump drives and then easily take them to another location for storage.

I keep a jump drive in my pocket at all times as I find these devices useful for copying data from my desktop PC to a laptop computer, from the office computer to my home computer, or to and from a friend's computer when I am visiting. I even have an MP3 radio in my pickup truck that plays MP3 files that I have stored on a jump drive. The next time I visit my extended family, I can bring an entire digital scrapbook or slideshow on my jump drive to share with them, often using my relative's computer to show the results. I find these jump drives to be more useful than a Swiss Army Knife; at least, I seem to use them more often.

While most of these devices are small, the one I obtained this week is amazingly tiny. Indeed, the name, "thumb drive," suits it well: two of them would fit on my thumb without stacking! In fact, one of them barely covers my thumbnail. These things weigh 1.5 grams. In other words, twenty of them add up to one ounce.

The ctual product name for the thumb drive I purchased is Sony Micro Vault.
Would you believe this thing stores one gigabyte of data? Sony also makes several models that vary in storage from 256 megabytes to 2 gigabytes. All models are the same physical size.

In addition, some retailers are now taking orders for a 4-gigabyte version for about $150.00 or so. The 4-gigabyte model is not yet available but apparently will be released soon.

Individual retailers may offer slightly different prices.

While the storage capability of the minuscule Sony Micro Vault is impressive by itself, Sony also includes "Virtual Expander" software already preloaded on the devices that adds file compression. Text information and databases often can be compressed significantly. Sony reports that up to 3 gigabytes of data can sometimes be stored on their one-gigabyte USB drive. The upcoming 4-gigabyte version should be able to hold up to 12 gigabytes of compressible data. However, if storing ZIP files, JPG images, MP3 music, or other file formats that are already highly compressed, the savings will be much less or perhaps even negligible. I would suggest that you always plan on the capacity that is printed on the front of the device.

These devices are perfect for backing up your genealogy data and scanned family photographs. Of course, they can also be used for a myriad of other purposes as well.

The biggest problem of these new Sony Micro Vaults is the risk of losing the tiny device! It would be easy for it to slip out of sight. In fact, Sony includes a small plastic carrying pouch and lanyard with each device. This simplifies their attachment to keychains or other more "permanent" objects. I don't use the carrying pouch, however. I keep my Sony Micro Vault in the change pocket of my wallet. It is safely protected there by a zipper that prevents the device from falling out.

Now you can store your genealogy data in less space than ever before.

You can find more information about the Sony Micro Vault Tiny at http://www.sony.net/Products/Media/Microvault/usm-h.html.