What's the best place to store my usb flash drives?
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What's the best place to store my usb flash drives?
I've got a bunch of usb flash drives. Most of them have caps so I just have those in a drawer. But my Sandisk ones don't have caps and so to keep the dust etc. out I put them in a plastic zip lock baggie.
My engineer friend said that was a bad idea because of the risk of electrostatic discharge. He said put them in a metal box like from Altoid's mints or Sucrets, but I don't have any metal boxes like that.
I know there are purchase cases but I don't feel like spending the money. What are some practical safe ways to store them?
yes, i sometimes wonder myself.
fwiw, i don't store them in any special way, other than some standard rules that apply to all electronics.
with or without caps, they're just all over the place, on my table, in a pencil mug, in my wallet...
sometimes i blow into the slit to get excess dust out.
the only thing that failed me so far are usb sockets, not the sticks.
There are... For lack of a better word, I'll call them USB wallets. Small cases with elastic straps to secure the individual drives. From what I've seen, they're inexpensive.
I have a lot of Altoids boxes. It takes me longer than a day or two to empty one, but I've been doing it for a long time. Not for the breath, but because oil of peppermint increases alertness and wakes me up. They're great for quick pick-me-ups when driving or flying. I used to carry them in my flight bag all the time. The tins work for holding all sorts of things, from deep-well sockets to small electronic parts. The hard part is remembering what is in which tin. I could label them, but that's more work than I'm willing to go to. I don't think it makes much difference how you store flash drives. They're pretty bullet-proof. SD cards have been read after having nails pounded through them. I don't worry about it much.
+3 metal box;
with a dessicant packet in the box would be for humid climates, I would say, for the best place.
Most of the time i carry them in the watch pocket of jeans, however.
Sometimes on a thread of sinew or the like around my neck.
You should never use a metal box for electronics. If you insist you can use one of the metalized plastic bags that are both ESD safe and ESD shield.
This is from a major electronic company's studies by the way. They used to use metal thinking it was better.
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I'm not sure I understand the concern about static with using a plastic bag? I would have thought that the voltage required for static to jump onto one of the data pins of a USB stick card it would have to be higher than likely to be made by keeping one in a bag? The outside metal will, surely, be more than capable of taking a decent wattage of electricity as it has to interface with the "earth" of the computer which, in some circumstances, could be at a non-negligible voltage above zero.
Re: metal box -- a favorite seen is a small padded jewelry box made of pewter, for desktop storage of fragile non-shielded USB sticks.
@ondoho-- wrapping dessicant packets good with plastc wrap should work; yeh, I may be a walking contradiction (or an anachronism) but sinew works good for awhile when I want my 64GB Mushkin Atom handy and secure!
Now I'm confused. Metal boxes. No, not metal boxes. Foil bags--don't have any foil bags. Pewter jewelry boxes? Are you kidding? Well, maybe the plastic baggie is okay, after all. Come on, guys. This one should be easy.
Maybe I should be asking: Where do you store your retractable usb flash drives?
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I have one in the second coin section of my leather wallet as "an off-site backup" and the ones I do keep at home are in a multi-vitamin bottle -- we don't suffer from high humidity (if you don;'t count rain) here in the UK.
I am not an electrical engineer and don't know for certain but I honestly can't think of any reason why a USB drive would be susceptible to static by being stored in a plastic bag?
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