Which is better? My Dad's friend is starting Uni soon, so he wants to know.

I'd like to know;

Capacity of CD;
How long it takes to save to a CD;
Anything else you think is worth knowning.

Oh, and what capacity flashdrive, if I chose a flashdrive, should I get?

Your typical cd is about 800 mbs I believe, I honestly dont remember it, but in all honesty it would be better to get a flash drive in todays world, you can get 2gigs of space for like 10 dollars or so and speeds on transferring files off and on it really depend on the computer but since its just for university, I'm assuming its gonna be for word documents and reports so it should be just all around easier for a flashdrive

That's what I told my dad, but he thought it was the other way around. Thanks for confirming

They'd both really work the same. It doesn't take all that long to burn word documents and the like onto a CD and it takes even less to put them on a flash drive but not a big difference.

A flash drive you could just stick in your pocket and be off though so that's the major plus. I'd suggest you get it just for the portability.

It's also harder to break a flashdrive, but you can get CDs cheap in bulk.

it defiantly is alot faster to use a flash drive then burn a cd. and yea, 2gig flash drives are pretty cheap nowadays. I keep one on my key chain

CDs are slow, breakable and not-very-portable. A flash drive is resilient and cheap (Corsair Survivor 4gb is £15 from Microdirect). Also from Microdirect I found a 2gb one for <£5.

Flash Drive. That's my only way to transfer files. It's much faster to copy to a flash drive than a CD. A flash drive can also be easily rewritten over and over again.

I have a 16GB one that I got for $50 CDN. It holds everything that I need it to.

~Bcloutier~

I don't know how much you need for uni and such, but personally, even though you did not list it as an option I would get an external hard drive. Unless you cannot spare the extra money they're certainly worth the cost. You can now get decent 500GB ones for around $90-100 AUD which is overkill for university, plus that is for 3.5". However for a standard laptop external you could probably get around 120GB for the same price, im not exactly sure as I have not looked at them, preferring to sacrifice portability for efficiency. But really it depends on what he needs to take to and from Uni and whether or not his going to be staying on-campus there at a dorm or appartment, and if he has a laptop an external hard drives are essential if you do anything more than just work on them as they generally have rather small hard drives already.

Sorry for the little spur off the topic, however if he cannot spare the money or does not want to, a USB flashdrive is by far the best, and Kingston's come really cheap now as the others have said.

For me, a USB flash drive is the clear answer. Smaller, quick, resilient and cheap. Flash drives are really cheap now, and much bigger than a CD. I use a flash drive all the time and CDs would be so impractical.

Using a external harddrive will use ALOT of space, you need the cables and their big.
I have a Flash drive, i only use it for school, but its very handy.
Just stick it in, and your on your documents.
CDs needs to transfer and may be slow.
And one thing that is not easy detected:
A CD may get rips, and they only get discovered if you browse the content on that track of the CD.
Another one, they dont last as many years as a Flashdrive, cds wont survive magnets.
Everyone here suggests a flashdrive, so its a good advice from many people.

2.5" External HDD's only need one cable, the USB cable - which is small. If you need more than 32GB of space, an external hard drive would be good.

External Hard Drives aren't hard to transport. A 2.5" USB-Powered one will be easy - just the drive and a USB cable.

A 3.5" drive is cheaper, however and should be used as a backup drive or for transferring large files (20GB+). A 2.5" can be tossed in a backpack and carried around relatively easily. A tip: If you're looking for fast speed, try getting a Firewire enabled External HDD. It has a more consistent speed than USB.

~Bcloutier~

Well i carry my 3.5" around in my backpack, and it isn't a problem for me, however unless you want to unload a few hundred gigabytes of movies and/or games/programs onto it you really don't need a 3.5" and a laptop one is the way to go, I would still recommend this above a USB flashdrive, of course if externals are completely out of the question don't even consider a CD-ROM over a flashdrive.

And just to add the External drives require both a power and usb connection whereas laptop externals just require USB (at least most new ones should).

Flash drives are extremely portable and easy to use. I saw a 2GB flash drive at Future Shop on sale for literally about $8 here in Canada. Unbelievably cheap and compact. They even have flash drives up to 16 or 32GB nowadays, and it's only a matter of time before they hit 50+.

Wouldn't you also have better chances of getting a computer with a USB drive than a computer with a CD burner (and necessary programs)?

Everyone basically said what needs to be said, get a USB flashdrive. You don't need a USB 3.0 for small tasks, a 2.0 works fine. You can get them really cheap in Real Canadian Superstore.