What to Do with Old USB Flash Drives?
Do Not Throw Your Flash Drives Away!
Don't Throw It Out, Repurpose! This is something we as consumers have done ourselves — I am sure you all have a drawer full of old USB pen drives. They are tiny, easy to carry around, and used to be the cutting edge of storage technology before. With all-over-the-place cloud storage and hardy smartphone built-in file systems, some of these little drives can easily end up being forgotten. Instead of just throwing them away, why not upcycle them?
Here are more than a few practical, innovative ways to put your old USB flash drives to use.
- Create a Recovery Drive
Don't let a PC crash ruin your day. You can now use an old USB flash drive to create a recovery drive and safeguard your important files. It's a quick, easy process that could save you hours of frustration later. - Turn Your Flash Drive into an On-the-Go Gaming Unit
Retro gaming enthusiasts can fill a flash drive with old games and use it to run those games on a device like a Raspberry Pi, Android TV box, or PC. Remember to be mindful of the copyright laws. - Build an OS (Linux OS)
A bootable flash drive can be a savior if your computer has crashed or is infected with malware. Thus, you can use a portable operating system (i.e., Linux) that you can boot from the flash drive and then use to diagnose issues with your computer and repair if required. - Documents and Photos Storage
If you are using another place to store most of your files, a flash drive can be useful as a backup for documents and photos. The data will never be lost as long You keep regular backup. - Donate Your Flash Drive to a Charity
Think about donating it to a charity that could make use of the flash drive, if you no longer need your plastic thing. You can offer your flash drives as donations to many organizations that take electronics.
Additional Tips:
- Maintain your flash drive: Format your flash drive regularly to keep data corruption at bay and perform faster.
- Use clearly labeled flash drives to avoid confusion.
- Downloading files from suspicious sources may lead to Malware infection.
Utilize these tips, to keep your old flash drives working! Follow these tips to help reduce electronic waste and save money.
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