Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with flashdrive

Automated backup for USB flash drives?

modernnomad — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:59:12 -0800

Is there a way to automatically back up certain folders on my hard drive to a USB key every time a plug in that key? I'm on Mac OS X 10.5 and have an 8GB flash drive. I'm wondering if there is any automated process out there that will, every time I plug it in, copy over any changed files in (for example) my documents folder. I am not looking for proprietary archiving; I want the files to then be accessible on any other computer I plug the USB key into -- I just want to automate the copying process.

Recommendation for tiny flash drive for ReadyBoost?

arathorn — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:52:06 -0800

What's a good, *tiny* flash drive for use as a dedicated ReadyBoost drive with my laptop? Tiny, as in similar to, say the Logitech VX Nano receiver

Scanner with no computer

mjcon — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:29:40 -0800

My office is looking for a scanner that doesn't need to be connected to a computer What we are looking for is a scanner for 8.5x11 documents that could save documents on a flash drive and doesn't require a computer. I'm not sure whether or not this exists, but would love to know for sure.

Password safe exchange?

y6y6y6 — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:51:20 -0800

I want to build a flashdrive based password safe that my whole family can use. I have a good start I think, but I'd like some ideas for making it actually work. The overview -

I'm growing concerned that I'm wandering around with too mauch information that would be extremely hard to recover if anything happened to me - Passwords for everything from my on-line banking to my domain hosting, contact lists, various email accounts, billing information, etc. And I know my family is running around with their own ocean of sensitive information. I know there are third party services that can manage all of this, but I'd prefer to not host it somewhere that a) may go belly up at any time, and b) is a stranger that now has all my family's most secure data.

My plan is to hand out USB flashdrives to everyone. These drives will have KeePass for storing passwords, TrueCrypt to provide an encrypted space, and AxCrypt to encrypt files if things need to be emailed. KeePass would be the main application here.

KeePass allows seperate password databases to be password protected and passed around with each file being self-contained (though you still need KeePass to open them). So each family member could create there own password safe, put their own password on it, then mail the file to everyone else who would store it on their flashdrive. Updates would be just as easy. Everyone's password file would still be secure, since you'd still need their personal password to open their database.

So, in a nutshell, I would have a flashdrive that had several password safes. But I'd only be able to get into mine. Some mechanism would need to be established so I or other family members could get access to the other files.

Here is the tricky part, and my question - How do we secure everyone's personal password? We'd need to recover it in the case of a tragedy, but it should still be secure until then. I'd like to find a solution that was somewhat portable, like the flashdrive. And I'd rather not pay some third party such as an attorney.

Why won't my PC read my SD card?

reenum — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:47:55 -0800

My PC can't read my SD card. What gives? I have a 4 GB SD card in my digital camera. Last night, I tried to download the pics from the card using one of those 9-in-1 card readers.

My PC had trouble reading the card and when I finally double clicked to try and access the drive assigned to the SD card, it said that it was inaccessible due to an I/O error. This same error occurred on my laptop and work computer as well. All these computers run XP.

Any ideas on how I fix this and get at my pics?

Looking for suggestions for a good flash drive holder.

4ster — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:32:53 -0800

Help me find a good way to carry my flash (thumb) drive on my key chain. I am using the Sandisk Cruzer, and I would like to attach it to my key chain, using something that is both secure and as small as possible. The Cruzers come with a keychain loop already attached, but in my experience, it is flimsy and will stretch out and break over time.

If you have a solution that is working for you, I'd love to hear it. Thanks.

Help Me Secure my USB Drive

Irontom — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:20:49 -0800

I have a shiny new 4 GB USB drive, and I want to secure the information on it (bank info, passwords, etc). What's the best (free) way to do this? rushmc asked this question 4 years ago, but that was a very long time ago. I need for the solution to be limited to the usb stick only - I will be using it in multiple environments where I do not have admin rights to the machines I am using.

I love Vista, hate the way it handles flash drives. Obi-Wan, Help Me!

damiano99 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:51:06 -0800

I love Vista, hate the way it handles flash drives. Obi-Wan, Help Me! I use a Vista laptop and an XP desktop for work. When I copy anything from the XP machine on my flash drive and use it on my Vista Laptop, it won't let me delete or re-save it after editing, saying the file is Read-Only. Even if I copy something to it from the Vista machine it always asks to confirm things. I know UAC is a pain in the neck but is there anyway around it's behaviour on flashdrives?

Like a key broken off in an ignition ...

coffeefilter — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:04:10 -0800

What happens if a USB flash drive gets hit, really hard from the side, while it's plugged in? (Dumb question of the day.) Will it break? Will it still be usable if it breaks? What happens to the port? I just see them sticking out of computers all the time, and think, That's an Accident Waiting to Happen - whack!

I thought I'd ask before I learn the hard way.

[Related web page at www.larsen-b.com/Article/288.html ]

Tinyxp on tiny media

saysthis — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:09:36 -0800

I want Tinyxp Rev09 to to boot and install to a system's hard drive from a USB key, no CD's involved. How? My googling turned up lots of linux knowledge about this, and I imagine I could make it work if I were installing a Linux distribution, but it seems like there's comparatively little out there for xp.

There is BartsPE, but that seems to want a CD to go with it. Am I wrong? And the USB key version of tinyxp that's floating around the torrent networks is a live environment and doesn't have the repair utilities that the tinyxp CD comes with (which are the clincher for me).

This particular machine can boot from USB if I set it up to emulate a floppy (which from my googling just indicates you have to format the drive with FAT16 before you throw on the boot sector). I might be wrong about this too, but USB boot options are listed in my Award 6.00Pg BIOS. I know the laptop without an optical drive I'm planning to use this on can. But I'd like to turn this into a universal solution for my installs, rather than digging out my DVD's every time something goes wrong, so the more backward compatibility I can pull out of it the better.

Is my flash drive dead?

IndigoRain — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 02:59:25 -0800

Has my flash drive kicked the can? Windows Vista can't read it. I have a 1GB PNY USB drive with many files on it (I have backups, no worries there.) The entire drive is NOT encrypted, but there is a container file on it which is encrypted with TrueCrypt, and the default auto-run option is set to TrueCrypt. It's been running fine up until today.

When I insert my flash drive, Vista (Home Basic) tells me I need to format it. I tried a program called TestDisk and it found nothing on my drive. Right-clicking the drive in My Computer says it's completely full (it's not). I decided to try to format the drive since I have backups - I tried a quick format and Vista says it was unable to complete the format almost instantly. Then I tried a regular (i.e. not quick) and got the same message.

I've never had a flash drive die before, although I am aware they do eventually expire. Is mine dead or is this some problem with Windows?

Suggestions for making a Linux boot flashdrive

coolguy#1 — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:29:58 -0800

(Paging All Linux Masters) Suggestions for making a Linux boot flashdrive Hey everyone,

I've wanted to try out Linux for awhile so I'm finally going to, and I want to make make a flashdrive that can boot linux off of it and maintain a persistent OS environment, i.e. I can plug the flashdrive in to different computers and have my changes and settings saved from the last time I configured it. My question is: What version of Linux would you suggest for a long time Windows user who feels confident with most computer stuff, AND what flashdrive do you think would be best for this sort of thing?

I am currently thinking Ubuntu for the version of Linux and one of these two flash drives: Corsair 8gb OR Kingston 8gb

What do you guys think?

Self-powering a bus-powered USB device?

britain — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:58:59 -0800

Anyone ever managed to power a USB flash drive independent of the bus-power? I am examining it for a friend of a friend. Their usual IT support channels threw up hands and pronounced it dead. I am the last-ditch measure they passed on to because I see this sort of thing as part challenge and part playground.

When connected to known good USB ports, the LED does not light and the device does not appear on the USB bus at all.

It was pried out of its rubber casing when I received it; I have examined the circuit board and see none of the black craters I usually associate with power issues on circuit boards. I was thinking about hooking up a +5V DC power source to the power pin past the USB connector, probably with an alligator clip or small wire, to see if I can eliminate the connector itself as the source of the problem.

I would, of course, block the pin on the USB connector to prevent it from damaging that part of the USB. I figure I'd use a cheap USB male-female extension cord, cut the power wire, then toss or "repurpose" when I'm done with this.

Am I totally off base here? I'd love a better idea that I hadn't thought of, preferably not requiring too many specialized parts.

Seeking a tiny, tiny flash drive.

tomble — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 19:59:07 -0800

The search for tiny, tiny flash drives. Does anyone manufacture one with a mini-b plug or similar? Remember the days when a USB plug seemed incredibly tiny?

I am looking for the very smallest (in dimensions) flash drive I can get. It seems ridiculous to me that the plug is now bigger than the memory, yet I can't find any mini plug units. So, what is the smallest flash drive, including plug, on the
market (and yes, I've seen the fold out ones).

Thanks!

A portable option for transferring files from an audio recorder

doctorcurly — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 07:35:10 -0800

I have an Olympus WS-100 Digital Recorder. I am looking for an alternative to lugging around a laptop just to transfer files off the recorder in order to make space for new recordings. Any suggestions? My partner is a Folklore student working on her dissertation. She'll often go on extended research trips, and has to lug around a laptop just to be able to transfer the recordings off of the recorder in order to make space for new ones. Is there a small, more portable (and inexpensive) gadget that she could use to plug her recorder into which would transfer the sound files? For example, something with USB connectivity that grabs any files on a flash drive connected to it would do the trick.

What's on your Flash Drive?

jozxyqk — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 11:17:05 -0800

What should I put on a USB Flash Drive? As an early present this year, I got a USB Flash Drive (512MB).
And I'm not sure what to do with it.

I already have a Linux machine which is theoretically accessible from 90% of the places I'll have access to a computer, so.. what are some good general-utility things to keep on such a drive?

Right now, I only have 2 files on it:
1) putty.exe , for the obvious "ssh to home" uses when I leave home.

2) A text file, containing the WPA password for my wireless network -- so while home, I can just pop it in to any visitor's wireless laptop and allow them to copy/paste it.

What else do you recommend I put on this drive?

Why can't I see my flash drive?

univac — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 22:24:52 -0800

Why won't my USB flash drive show up? I am using a PC in a public place (hotel), so some capabilities may be disabled. I would like to access my USB flash drive, but it is not displayed as a drive under My Computer. When I look in the device manager, it seems that the flash drive is working properly, and is assigned the letter F. Typing F:\ in the Windows Explorer address bar doesn't work.

how to open files without a trace?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 20:53:28 -0800

Does windows xp create a log of attached usb drives and files opened on them? If so, can I subvert it? I want to be able to open some files on a windows computer that isn't mine. I don't want the administrator of the computer to see that I plugged in a flash drive or opened up files from it. I'm not trying to steal anything or infect the computer or anything, I just want to look at some stuff low-key. The admin is unlikely to have any special programs running, I just want to know if there is anything that usually records and logs this type of activity and, if there is, how I might turn it off or get around it. I'm a lifetime mac user so, while I have some idea how to use a pc, I don't know all the little ins and outs.

Is there a way to back up the songs on my iPod to a USB flash drive?

zembla3 — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:19:20 -0800

Is there a way to back up the songs on my iPod to a USB flash drive?

Lost my thumb drive cap.

DevilsAdvocate — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 09:19:16 -0800

I've lost the cap to my thumb drive. a) Does it matter? b) If so, where do I get a replacement? Specifically, it's a SanDisk Cruzer Micro 512MB drive.

If I just carry it around on my keychain in my pocket without a cap, is it likely to get damaged--either physically, or the data stored on it?

If I do need to replace it, where? Google and Froogle searches on thumb drive cap or flash drive cap don't find much, save for this one at a .au site I'm not familiar with. (Perhaps I'm not searching the right term? Is it called something else?) I haven't tried brick-and-mortar stores--does a store like Fry's or Best Buy have caps alone for sale?

Memory gone in a flash?

ClanvidHorse — Thu, 25 May 2006 12:39:43 -0800

My better half's MP3 flash drive says its full even though there's nothing on it. Please help. She hopes to have some tunes for a flight/train journey tomorrow. Any ideas? Its a Creative MP3 USB flash drive player, Muvo V200. Nothing flash if you'll pardon the pun but it would be handy tomorrow. The memory is 128MB. It does not have any data on it (doubles as a memory stick), nor any recordings/MP3s on it. To me it looks like a blank slate yet it says that there is approx 20MB free space, which is room for about 6/7 low quality rip songs.

We have a Mac although the player itself it has always been used on WINXP in the past. My Windows laptop is at work so I can't check it against that. It says it is MS-DOS FAT (I didnt think this mattered with a flash drive).

I am not the most computer literate. So, does it matter that it is MS DOS (I've used other flash drives between Windows and Mac with no problems), is it something to do with the driver software? Does anyone have any ideas to get back the memory? Any suggestions?

I would be much obliged.

Automatic backup of my flash drive?

goatdog — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 11:21:44 -0800

Can I set it up so that my flash drive automatically backs itself up onto my home computer when I plug it in? I have a flash drive (thumb drive, memory stick, whatever you want to call it) that I use a lot because I'm seldom on the same computer at work. I envision this magic process checking the flash drive for any new or modified files and updating only those files without my having to do anything.

I'm running Windows XP at home.

usb flashdrive thingie naked

signal — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 16:45:18 -0800

My spiffy little USB flashdrive thingy is coming apart, coming loose from its plastic casing. The metal parallelepiped inside is easier to slip into my wallet and looks cooler, IMO, but I'm wondering what sort of damage all the plastic protected it from. Question:¿will it harm my USB flashdrive thingy to go about naked in the world?

How can I make a flash drive more secure?

tomble — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 00:02:28 -0800

How do I make a flash drive more secure? My father recently bought himself a flash drive, and now uses it for transferring all sorts of work documents to and from home. He asked me if there was any way of putting a password on it, or securing it somehow to stop someone reading all his work documents in the event it was lost / stolen.

I had to admit I was stumped.

So the question is, is there some way of making a generic flash drive more secure? I would like something fairly simple, maybe something where you pop the flash drive into the USB port and it prompts you for a password. I don't even know if this is really possible.

I did a bit of googling but never managed to find quite what I was looking for.

Offline Reader Software

syscom — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 18:26:48 -0800

Having had any chance of a steady internet connection from home lost for the time being, is there a kind of 2005-style offline reader software available that can download mail to a single file on a usb key, to load up and reply to at home outside of the time and money limits of a dingy internet cafe? Something that has versions in Windows (for the cafe) and Linux (for home) would definitely make things easier, but I'm happy and anxious to hear any ideas.