this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2025
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Ive got some ideas to try with a flashdrive ive picked up but i want to know what others would do with such a device? I was thinking i could use it for retro gaming or something like important files.

What would you do?

I know its not alot of room but i got it for cheap.

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[–] Peasley@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I dont think it's about housing/shielding, just the lack of being powered on over many years.

Many of my drives are also nearly 20 years old

[–] OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 days ago

I've had a live linux USB drive that I literally have never used since creating it 15 years ago and it still runs the live ISO just fine. Again slow as hell as it's like USB 2.0 or something but still works.

If a live ISO still works then I'd be willing to bet most other stuff will too, given it didn't sit at the bottom of the ocean.

It's been in my pocket for years having never seen actual use. No USB cap either. Dirty and the housing is only covering half the USB. Remind me and I'll post a photo. It's wild to see. The housing is loose nearly off entirely and hanging on by a thread but it's last through time like a tank, change and tools in my pockets daily. I only keep the old fucker at this point for seeing how long it'll last still spinning up the live iso Linux spin I wrote on it.