Managing Your USB Thumb Drives

I have seven USB Thumb Drives. Some were free and others were deals too good to pass up. I was having a real problem finding a file that I knew was on the USB Thumb Drive, but I couldn't figure out which one. I also had a real fear of misplacing or losing a Thumb Drive that had a file I hadn't backed up.

My first pass at a solution was documenting what was on each drive by displaying a directory listing of each drive on a computer and then printing out the directory listing. Each listing was labeled something descriptive like silver USB Drive.

This solution would be quickly out of date the minute I added or deleted a file from the USB Drive. Also, I had to look at each printout to find a file and then I had to find the USB Drive.

My better solution was to use Drop Box. Drop Box is a cloud storage solution that makes all cloud storage available to all my computers (Mac or PC), tablets (iPad and Android) and my iPhone. It also has the added advantage of when I modify the contents of an USB Drive, that change is reflected automatically in the cloud storage.

So, if I am out of my lab and need a file, I can log into my Drop Box account and download the file I need. I can also use the computer, tablet or iPhone search function to find the file I need without looking at a hard copy listing of the USB Drive contents.

This better solution will work with any cloud storage solution such as Drop Box, SkyDrive, iCloud, etc. The only thing you need to do the first time is to insert your USB Thumb Drive into the USB Port of a computer that has access to your cloud storage and then copy the contents of your USB Thumb Drive and paste it into your cloud storage device.

Carl Thorne

Expert Computer Consulting 

voice: 404.229.0839 email: carlthorne@hthcatlanta.com
web: hthcatlanta.com blog: hthcatlanta.blogspot.com