My jumpdrive took a bath

KGhaleon

Yeah...uh...I accidently washed my USB thumbdrive(128MB) in the washer and dryer earlier. It was still in my shirt pocket after coming home from work, so I guess I had forgotten about it. It washed for 20 minutes and dried for 45 minutes...so I'm impressed that it still works.

I copied my data off of it and I haven't had any problems so far. Maybe I'll wash my Nintendo DS next!

KG

Olajuwon

There shouldn't be any problem. I have washed my keyboard, CD, DVDs, in my dishwasher before.

Danman32

As long as you can get it dry quickly before contacts and solder joints have time to corrode, it should be fine.

I accidently swam with a previous pager, was able to take it apart and dry all the components within hours. Once it was COMPLETELY dry, it started working. Another time I left it attached to a friend's shorts I borrowed when I slept over, and it ended up in their wash. It was days later before I could get it back. It never worked after that.

Flash drives have much less contact surfaces than many other electronics though, and many are well sealed that water won't get in anyway. It's not like you have to insert batteries or anything. Only 4 leads have to exit to the USB connector.

Trailerisf

Mine got washed last week... didnt work afterwards

TheShadow

I have washed 5 or 6 of them. People are always giving them to me anyway, got several from Microsoft. The only one that failed had bleach in the wash. Perhaps the clorine is not a good item, removes spots and bits.

Megadeth4168

I just did the same thing about a month back! I was surprised that it still worked as well.

wizarddeath

TheShadow wrote:

I have washed 5 or 6 of them. People are always giving them to me anyway, got several from Microsoft. The only one that failed had bleach in the wash. Perhaps the clorine is not a good item, removes spots and bits.

Grrr wish I hadnt missed the free offer from MS, only have 1 need a few more for travel and such =/

sprkymrk

My wife dropped her cell phone while we were walking on the beach in the surf. I grabbed it within 2 seconds and immediately proceeded to dry it off, remove the battery, etc. But it was toasted, it quit working and the verizon guys were not able to clean the contacts when we took it in the next day. It was a month old. Doh!

Danman32

I just realized last night that I lost my 512MB flashdrive. Fortunately I had recently obtained a 1 GB flashdrive and transferred everything to it. But I had a few personal things in the other one as I hadn't erased it yet 'just in case'. Hopefully it fell out of my pocket somewhere at home or car.

jpeezy55

I, too, lost a flashdrive...Had some study material for certs on it and my resume!!! Of course I had it saved elsewhere...I think the guy I work with found it and is using it, but without any ID on it, I can't say for sure if it is mine or not...You would think if he saw the data one it (which I know he would've looked before formatting it) and seeing my resume with my name right there that he would return it, but that's the kind of people I work with...maybe seeing the resume let him know I am looking elsewhere already...Anyway, I too just got a new 1GB drive and have my name plastered all over it! Oh well, stuff happens, right?

Megadeth4168

jpeezy55 wrote:

I, too, lost a flashdrive...Had some study material for certs on it and my resume!!! Of course I had it saved elsewhere...I think the guy I work with found it and is using it, but without any ID on it, I can't say for sure if it is mine or not...You would think if he saw the data one it (which I know he would've looked before formatting it) and seeing my resume with my name right there that he would return it, but that's the kind of people I work with...maybe seeing the resume let him know I am looking elsewhere already...Anyway, I too just got a new 1GB drive and have my name plastered all over it! Oh well, stuff happens, right?

Wow... That sucks! Unless someone of high importance found it and wanted to hire you because they saw your resume.

Maybe I should encrypt the data on mine incase something like that happens...

Danman32

FOUND IT! It was still in one of my pockets of one of my pants destined for the washer in a few days.

That's not the first time I missed transferring the flashdrive to the clean pair of pants, but fortunately I have caught it before dumping the clothes in the wash. This one has a write protect switch, so it isn't well sealed.

But that is the topic of discussion after all, is it not?

JDMurray

I have a 1GB Kingston DataTraveler II+ USB flashdrive with an AES-encrypted partition. If it's lost the finder will have heck of a time cracking the password I used. I do fear accidentally washing it, but it's good to hear that they can survive even the dryer.

The newer cell phones have a white plastic sticker behind the battery which shows pink stripes if the cell phone is exposed to liquid. Pink stripes equals a voided warranty, so don't have your cell in your shirt pocket when you lean over to flush!

Danman32

If you get one of those with U3, you can get a program to remove the U3 read-only partition.

JDMurray

Danman32 wrote:

If you get one of those with U3, you can get a program to remove the U3 read-only partition.

Is U3 catching on with anybody? The idea of being able to run apps installed on a USB flashdrive is really cool, but I haven't noticed much marketing for the standard or technology.

Danman32

I found it annoying at best. I suppose if the console came up more silently, it might catch on. I also suspect it will be a flash drive hog. The point is so that you can carry your software with you, not just your data. Software isn't that small these days.

Now I COULD see having your profile carry around.

qsub

A lot of USB drives nowadays are actually water proof. I have a Kingmax drive I can fit easily in my wallet

sprkymrk

jdmurray wrote:

Danman32 wrote:

If you get one of those with U3, you can get a program to remove the U3 read-only partition.

Is U3 catching on with anybody? The idea of being able to run apps installed on a USB flashdrive is really cool, but I haven't noticed much marketing for the standard or technology.

Have you seen this?

http://portableapps.com/suite

A portable apps suite you carry on a 256MB memory stick. Although it fits much better on a 512MB. In addition to the apps on this suite, you can also install AV and other stuff. I have so many memory sticks I decided to try this on one of my 1GB sticks. I really like it a lot.

mikey_b

I really like that portable apps suite! I'd like to find some other tools and system utilities that would come in handy in the field, my field techs have been wanting something for a while. Some reg cleaner and spyware remover and uninstaller and maybe a few other tools would be great!!!

jpeezy55

While we are on the subject and since I lost one drive already, what is a good way to encrypt the data on flashdrive to ensure that if it is lost, nobody can see what is on it?

I've been looking around, but haven't found one that seems to be simple enough (free is good too! ) to just even password enable the drive, but encryption along with the password would be better.

sprkymrk

Many jump drives you purchase come with there own encryption application. When you first plug them in they ask you something to the effect of "How much space do want to use for private/encrypted data vs. public/clear data. You are then prompted to create a password.

jpeezy55

sprkymrk wrote:

Many jump drives you purchase come with there own encryption application. When you first plug them in they ask you something to the effect of "How much space do want to use for private/encrypted data vs. public/clear data. You are then prompted to create a password.

Of course, mine didn't do anything like that...

Danman32

My new 1GB had a U3 security software, but It got wiped when I removed the U3 support. I think it was trialware though.

TheShadow

I have seen it three different ways as far as encryption software. A mini-disk in between the cardboard wrapping also containing win98 drivers, a file on the drive itself; fine print to go to www.whatever.com and download it. That normally goes for win98 drivers also but since win98 officially died Monday, that will probably stop. MS will probably start shooting anyone that even mentions it anymore.

Danman32

I was hoping that since the drive was 1GB, that it would allow being formatted as NTFS as then I could enable encryption. No such luck.
Encryption though is not a great idea on a removable drive that will go from system/network to unrelated system/network, as you need the keys to unencrypt NTFS based encryption.