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Oops...
01-26-2013, 10:15 PM
I forgot to take a USB memory drive out of my pocket before washing that pair of jeans... Is it safe to plug the device in (once it finishes drying), or should I just hit it with a hammer now?
(Luckily, most of what was on it was backed up.)
--
Rob Kelk
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Once dry, and at room temperature, it has been my experience that USB sticks generally work again.
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If you have some isopropyl alcohol I would give it a quick dunk in that.
My worry is that there is some residue left over from the wash, and that can cause a short.
But I may just be paranoid.
At least check the plug, and see if you notice any buildup. A damp q-tip can save you some grief.
-Terry
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All washed up
01-26-2013, 11:11 PM
sorry had to say it.
To pay for saying that I'll add some more suggestions.
I'd recommend plugging a USB hub into the computer's USB port and then plug the memory drive into that. It's unlikely the memory will damage the USB port, but it is much cheaper to replace a external USB hub than fix a computer's USB port.
The isopropyl alcohol bath and dry is very good advice, the alcohol mixes with water and evaporates quickly helping to pull any trapped water from inside and it can reduce/remove deposits and corrosion left from the water.
However the soap worries me, the memory is likely to work, but download everything off of the memory as quickly as possible and don't trust it in the future, the contacts where it plugs in are likely to tarnish and/or corrode and at 5 volts it's going to start having problems reading or writing new data.
If it isn't recognized or you have problems getting uncorrupted data go back to the Q-tip in alcohol mentioned above and use that to clean the contacts .
hmelton
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So, pick up a cheap hub tomorrow (when I'm going by the computer store anyway).
It was my only 16GB USB drive, too... Well, this gives me a reason to move some stuff into archive storage, rather than continuing to carry it around.
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Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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A friend washed his iPod shuffle, and it stopped working as an iPod after that. It was still a reliable 512MB memory stick after that, however, and it's been used for several years as such since. He gave it to me at one point. It's sitting on my desk, now.
That said, I don't put critical stuff on it. And since the USB front end has a habit of popping off these days, I prefer to use a USB extension of some kind rather than plugging it straight in. Trying to pry it out of the computer by the tiny plastic end piece can be a chore when it pops off.
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I washed a flash drive at one point by accident, and it's worked just fine since then. I just let it air dry for a day or so before trying to plug it in to my computer.
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I had the same situation as Jorlem. Let it dry for two or three days and then plug it in. It should be fine. I actually did it twice to the same drive, and it survived with data intact. The adhesive that held the outer sheath onto the drive gave way, which means that it's no longer safe to carry around (since dust and lint and such can get into the insides), but the drive itself still works. (I ended up buying a new one, just because the portability is why I bought the thing in the first place.)
Ebony the Black Dragon
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Status report: Data successfully removed from the washed USB drive, and put on a new USB dongle.
Now to take the old one to the parents' place - they already own a sledgehammer.
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Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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Don't know if i'd hammer it
01-29-2013, 07:43 AM
Don't know if I'd take a hammer to it, but it definitely isn't something I'd trust with any type of data I wanted to keep.
I'm a tech, so I'd just clearly mark it with a couple of red dots (Cheap Fingernail polish) and drop it in my "for experimentation box".
Unless the info it contained would be considered a security threat I'd suggest permanently marking it as a bad or a "Washed up" drive and turning it into a dubious time capsule by filling it with several hours of clearly dated TV news and tossing it into the back of a drawer. I've never done that with a USB drive, but I've got a small collection of worn out half readable VCR cassettes and now a few DVD+RW's that's last mission is to more or less hold a several hours of randomly recorded news from the day we decided it wasn't safe to continue to record on it.
hmelton
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