5 helpful issues I will by no means delete from my trusty USB stick

Again earlier than the times of cloud-based storage suppliers and miniature exterior SSDs, I, like most others round me, relied on the standard USB stick to hold my digital knowledge backward and forward.

Whereas USB flash drives proceed to be obtainable in the marketplace in 2025, their heyday has lengthy since receded into the annals of tech historical past. With this in thoughts, family and friends are perplexed that I proceed to hold round a singular USB stick in my backpack to this very day.

The explanation for this quirky, enigmatic conduct of mine? Because it seems, USB sticks are the right antidote to as we speak’s always-connected world of digital dopamine and big-tech over-dependency. Thumb drives are compact, reasonably priced, offline-friendly, and extremely malleable.

Listed here are 5 sudden issues I all the time carry round with me on a devoted USB stick, and that I do not plan on eradicating from my day by day carry anytime quickly.

Retro ROM recordsdata

Nostalgic leisure that hardly takes up any house

The fantastic thing about old-school video video games is that they hardly take up any house. The common Atari 2600 ROM file, for instance, ranges anyplace from 4KB to 64KB, which is to say that hundreds of those retro games will be packed right into a drive with out making a dent in obtainable storage capability. The identical goes for arcade ROMs, and even residence online game consoles by way of till roughly the fifth or sixth technology of {hardware} platforms.

I discover most trendy mobile games to be distracting, with their ads, their pay-to-play monetization schemes, their reliance on an energetic web connection, and their concentrate on exploitative gameplay loops. To bypass this, whereas additionally making certain I obtain a gradual provide of nostalgia within the course of, I all the time carry a library of retro gaming ROMs on my USB stick (in addition to a couple of backups of PC and Android emulator program installers for good measure).

A survival information

For if and when the web goes down

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In as we speak’s internet-powered data age, we take it with no consideration that we are able to inquire for particulars and how-tos on absolutely anything and every part underneath the solar with out lifting a finger. This democratization of data is simply accelerating with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and huge language fashions (LLMs), nevertheless it has an Achilles’ Heal: its wholehearted reliance on the World Large Internet.

Whereas extraordinarily unlikely, it is all the time a risk that web connectivity might be misplaced because of pure disasters, malicious actors, geopolitical disputes, and even complete warfare. As such, I’ve taken the precaution of downloading a compilation of survival information PDF recordsdata onto my private USB flash drive, to align with the sensible mantra of “count on the most effective and put together for the worst.”

A First Assist information

A possible lifesaver when in a pinch

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Offline survival guides aren’t the one factor I insist on carrying round with me: in the identical vein, I’ve additionally gone forward and stashed my USB thumb drive with a group of First Assist guides and sources. Whereas unlikely to ever be wanted, I can sleep soundly at night time figuring out that I carry with me archival data of the way to deal with wounds, the sorts of medicines that work together poorly with others, and extra.

Moreover, my USB stick carries with it a devoted medical data doc with specifics by myself well being standing. Medical ID is a characteristic built into modern mobile operating systems like iOS, iPadOS, and Android, however having a secondary backup obtainable on a flash drive provides that little little bit of further reassurance that I am notably keen on.

A bootable OS installer

An remoted atmosphere to work from

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Talking of working techniques, USB thumb drives are the best medium for carrying round bootable set up media. Microsoft offers its own Home windows 11 installer within the type of a Media Creation Instrument executable, however I are inclined to want the third-party Tiny11 for its smaller, bloat-free construct of the desktop OS. Alternatively, varied Linux distributions (distros) provide free and open-source computing environments that may be loaded up through a bootable USB drive, together with well-liked choices like Ubuntu, Mint, and Debian.

There are a number of the reason why somebody would possibly need to carry round a bootable USB drive. For me personally, as a lover of all issues expertise and software program, I merely wish to mess around with new Linux distros and other OS images for the enjoyable of it with out having to leap by way of the hoops of dual-booting my PC.

Do not depend on server-side providers

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Lastly, positioned domestically on my private USB stick is an emergency contacts doc, saved as a textual content file (.txt) for optimum compatibility throughout varied working techniques and platforms. Apart from customary emergency providers numbers, my doc consists of contact telephone numbers of shut relations, in addition to some further sources like native taxi firms, locksmiths, and varied important service suppliers.

The very fact of the matter is that, because of our modern-day reliance on smartphones, most of us hardly bear in mind telephone numbers by coronary heart anymore. The issue is that the majority of us save our contacts through the cloud, which results in privateness considerations, safety vulnerabilities, and the opportunity of by accident being locked out of an account and dropping entry outright. Having telephone numbers archived on my USB stick may appear superfluous on the floor, nevertheless it simply would possibly come in useful at some point, and I would somewhat be protected than sorry.