I have to ask and try to not sound like a condescending smartazz, but why thumbdrives? What fails (eventually) on thumbdrives is the contacts from all the inserting and removing. Put an SSD in the case (or have it done) and learn how to network them together and share them over a network instead of physically copying with "Sneakernet" (An old term referring to wearing sneakers so you can run back and forth from computer to computer all around a big office building physically copying things).

As far as redundancy, well, there you have a point. Unless you have two exactly identically equipped computers, you will always have a slight hole in your game. Meaning if you put an SSD in one computer, put one in the other too so both computers are exactly the same.

Depending on computer power, and if you have old Thinkpads this could be a concern, I would just use 2 external monitors on one laptop. Run your tracks on one screen and your lyrics on the other. Why do I suggest that? Let's say for sake of saying that Thinkpad left goes dead due to a power glitch in the venue's circuitry. If both laptops are running, it's likely both would get hit with the same spike or dropout, you may lose both at the same time and the show is over. If you are using one with 2 monitors, and the second is not even plugged in, you save one of them. Just swing some cables over to Thinkpad right. And a couple of 27" monitors will help your eyes that are slightly older than mine. If I did lyrics on a screen it would have to be at least 32 point type. I mean, I have 27" monitors for a reason.



And the part that sounds snarky, without intending it to be, comes now. You said
Quote:
"My stage ThinkPad computers are old, one is XP and the other is Win7. They are a bit slow, but work fine."


You have cars, right? Why? Won't covered wagons WORK just as well? If the prime concern is just that it works rather than it working WELL...

You intimate often (if not outright say) how well off you are financially, with your international month long vacations, cruises, all the gear, over 200 gigs per year, etc. Maybe it's time to dig up one of those coffee cans from the sand in your yard and invest some of that 200+ gig per year money on good, new laptops? For under $2000 (What is that, 3 or 4-ish gigs pay?) this concern can all be a memory. Fly me down for a weekend and I'll teach you ALL about peer to peer networking that will allow you to share files without thumb drives directly on to SSDs. I'll even supply a Linksys router! (Just do it in March when it isn't 2000 degrees in the shade.) New laptops are tools for your job so it is investing, not frivolous spending. Vacations (in my mind) are frivolous spending.

My definition of frivolous spending is right here. Some nostalgia band tour came through here. Tickets were $225. Someone asked me if I wanted to go. My reply was "$225 is half of a mortgage payment. I'd rather make that half a mortgage payment than spend that money on 3 hours of what will be such a passing memory that will be over as soon as the car ride home. And when I make that payment I won't have to have a bunch of drunken morons who don't know how to behave in public all around me. I'll pass." I may or may not have included "The only band I would pay $225 to see is a Beatles reunion, and even that, only if it included the 2 dead ones."

But to answer your original question about running from a thumb drive all night, not an issue at all. Just "why".

Last edited by eddie1261; 10/17/22 12:48 PM.