We’ve all got flash drives. They’re awesome. They’re great. They are awesometastic with awesomesauce on top. But I’m curious, what do you keep on them?
I’m a big fan of bootable USB drives. In fact, although he hasn’t updated it in a while (hint hint), I think Bill Childers‘ Linux distribution “Billix” is handy to have in your pocket. But there must be other things that are perfect for a USB drive. What are some of your favorites? I’m really curious.
#1 by bpx on December 18, 2009 - 2:01 pm
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Backtrack 3, Billix, Knoppix and the Ubuntu NBR installer for netbook converts. Plus a pocket 250g for various apps, movies, music and stuff.
#2 by Tom on December 18, 2009 - 2:01 pm
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Mostly I have pictures on my flash drive. It’s a USB key-chain, so it’s always with me. My Sony camera uses a memory card that only my Sony laptop can read, so pics first go there. Then they’re transferred to the USB drive so I can put them on any (or all) of the 3 computers at home, or take them to work. Sometimes I have time at work, and shrinking and croping gets done then. Plus, if I ever want to share them with someone else, if there’s a computer available, I can just copy them to their computer. I don’t have anything bootable, though.
#3 by Shawn Powers on December 18, 2009 - 2:02 pm
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bpx: Do you have them all bootable? If so, with a custom menu?
#4 by Holzster on December 18, 2009 - 2:03 pm
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USB #1 – 16 GB empty to Bu clients files
USB #2 – 16 GB common files (AV software, updates, etc…)
USB #3 – 4 GB Linux Mint bootable
USB #4 – 4 GB Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
Yep i carry 4 everyday
#5 by Holzster on December 18, 2009 - 2:06 pm
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Sean – try LinuxLive USB Creator (unfort. Window$ only)
one step bootable creator – with the persistent option!!!
#6 by bpx on December 18, 2009 - 2:06 pm
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Type your comment here
#7 by Topher on December 18, 2009 - 2:19 pm
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I don’t use mine much. Maybe a couple times a year. Right now it has Linux Mint on it, loaned to a windows friend.
#8 by Konstantin on December 18, 2009 - 2:52 pm
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All sorts of digiart related stuff, 3d projects, photoshop fonts and brushes, and school work.
#9 by Jimmy the Geek on December 18, 2009 - 3:03 pm
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I’ve got a 1GB with a Unetbootin-installed Xubuntu on it, another 1GB with PING (Parted Is Not Ghost) on it for imaging & backups, and probably another one laying around with who-knows-what on it.
#10 by highfructose327 on December 18, 2009 - 3:13 pm
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First USB: my windows “tool kit” and Open Source *.exe’s I install frequently for others. Keepassx, text files, and other random files that change.
Second USB: will be what ever live distro I am trying out at any given time.
#11 by Vince on December 18, 2009 - 6:35 pm
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Tools I need for working on client computers that have problems, including CCleaner Portable, Malwarebytes Portable, Revo Uninstaller Portable, Windows Sysinternals, AVG Free, Spybot Search & Destroy, etc.
#12 by WendyB_09 on December 19, 2009 - 1:35 am
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Mine lives in my daily commuting bag and is a backup of my harddrive plus the files I need from work for the home projects. So mostly a bunch of legal research and reference materials. It will get cleaned out the first of the year.
#13 by MWT on December 19, 2009 - 2:50 am
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Mine’s pretty boring. I use it to transfer files between computers that won’t
talk to each other any other way. At the moment it’s probably filled with personal files I ported from my work computer to home.
#14 by Bill Childers on December 19, 2009 - 4:48 am
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Yeah, I need to update Billix badly. I got totally sidetracked with work and other things, but I do PLAN on getting an update out.
#15 by Adrian on December 20, 2009 - 4:47 pm
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I currently have the Ubuntu Netbook Remix image on my USB drive, but I’ve been meaning to set up GRUB2 with a variety of ISOs on it including Knoppix, BT3, etc.
#16 by Steve Buchheit on December 21, 2009 - 4:06 pm
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Writing backup, including current iterations of what I’m working. In case I have a few minutes waiting at work and can crank out a few lines. Also the sneakernet files (both local and to home).
#17 by gamerchick02 on December 24, 2009 - 6:49 pm
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I have a copy of Ubuntu on my 1 gb drive. On my 4 gb, I have lots of portable apps to show people the virtues of free and open-source software.
I have a smaller one (64 mb) that I use for quick file transfers. Mostly, I prefer dropbox for file sharing.
Amy
#18 by vL on January 10, 2010 - 10:28 pm
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#1 Backtrack 4 pre on a 2GB
#2 Apps from portableapps.com on a 512MB
#3 Multiple live Linux distros on a 16GB as described by hak5.org
#4 SystemRescue CD on another 512MB
Bob
#19 by Ryder Step on January 12, 2010 - 1:04 pm
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Whatever I need at the moment. They get formatted in between uses every time.
#20 by Joe the Wizard on January 18, 2010 - 12:26 pm
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My Avid and Final Cut settings, power, magic, lunch.