Blog Cool Things You Can Do With a USB Flash Drive

These days, USB flash drives are as ubiquitous as cell phones. As the prices come down and the sizes become smaller and smaller, more and more people are using them to store files and to copy/transfer files from one computer to another.

Additionally, they pack lots of storage powers! But their uses are not limited to just copying and transferring files. USB flash drives have a lot of other uses that you may not know about.

Here is a list of 10 cool things you can do with USB flash drives:

If you load the data you want on to a flash drive and put it away in a room temperature environment, your drive will still function properly and your data will still be intact up to 10 years later. To to be on the safe side, it is recommended that you make duplicate copies of the files in 2 separate USB drives in case one of them fails unexpectedly.

Using branded promotional flash drives is a creative and cost effective method to promote your business. By giving out free USB flash drives imprinted with your logo and business information at trade shows, conferences, or events, your business gets great brand exposure each time your customers or prospects use the USB flash drives. Since USB flash drives have lots of practical uses, people use them a lot!

Just make sure the flash drives have both your logo, company tag line or slogan, and website url imprinted on them. If your company is not well known, your logo is not enough to convey exactly what your company does. Having a tagline helps to remind people what your company does and what is special about your company.

Additionally, you can even preload your marketing presentations and messages and have them run automatically when users insert the USB drives into the computers.

If you are a graphic designer, website designer, musician, artist, or any other professionals wanting to showcase your skills, why not load your portfolios on to your USB drive? When the opportunity arised, you can instantly impress your potential clients by showing off your finest work samples.

Schools and universities waste a lot of papers to distribute class notes and syllabus to students. Why not store all the notes and syllabuses on flash drives and give them to the students?

Launching a new product bring lots of excitement to a company. To generate buzz and get your customers excited to learn about your new product, you can send them free samples of your new products along with a USB flash drives stored with data sheet, marketing presentatations, and application notes.

Do you know that you can run a standalone applications directly from your USB flash drive without requiring any installations? These programs include emails, games, anti-virus programs, calendars, Window utilities, and many others. Check out Portableapps.com, PenDriveApps.com, and Snapfiles.com for list of free USB programs you can use for your USB drives.

If you’re running Windows Vista or Window 7, you can enable Windows ReadyBoost with your USB flashdrive to speed up your system. When enabled, the storage space on your USB Flash drive acts as an extra memory cache.

Since flash devices have higher random read/write speed than hard disks, ReadyBoost can give your system a big boost in performance. To learn how to set up your USB flash drive for Windows ReadyBoost, refer to the article, “What is Windows ReadyBoost.”

Instead of securing your computer with a password, you can use your USB flash device and the Predator application (http://www.montpellier-informatique.com/predator/en/index.php ) to lock/unlock your computer. Predator locks up your computer when you are away. And when you return, just plug the USB flash drive into the USB port of your computer and your computer will be unlocked.

I know some couple struggle with ideas for wedding favors. I have received my share of wedding favors that usually end up in the trash bins after I took them home (Don’t tell that to my married friends!). Some of these can be quite tacky too.

If you want to be creative and give your guests something that is useful, why not give your guests USB flash drives with your names and your wedding date on them? Additionally, you can preload the USB flash drives with your favorite wedding photos and your own collection of romantic songs. You will surely delight your guests with this unique and useful wedding favor gift!

As you can see, USB flash drives have many uses! There are probably lots of other uses of USB flash drives that I did not list here. Do you have any that you want to add? Let me know in the comments below.