5 helpful issues I am going to by no means delete from my trusty USB stick

Again earlier than the times of cloud-based storage suppliers and miniature exterior SSDs, I, like most others round me, relied on the standard USB stick to hold my digital knowledge from side to side.

Whereas USB flash drives proceed to be accessible in the marketplace in 2025, their heyday has lengthy since receded into the annals of tech historical past. With this in thoughts, family and friends are perplexed that I proceed to hold round a singular USB stick in my backpack to this very day.

The explanation for this quirky, enigmatic conduct of mine? Because it seems, USB sticks are the proper antidote to at the moment’s always-connected world of digital dopamine and big-tech over-dependency. Thumb drives are compact, inexpensive, offline-friendly, and extremely malleable.

Listed here are 5 surprising issues I at all times carry round with me on a devoted USB stick, and that I do not plan on eradicating from my every day carry anytime quickly.

Retro ROM recordsdata

Nostalgic leisure that hardly takes up any area

The great thing about old-school video video games is that they hardly take up any area. The typical Atari 2600 ROM file, for instance, ranges anyplace from 4KB to 64KB, which is to say that hundreds of those retro games might be packed right into a drive with out making a dent in accessible storage capability. The identical goes for arcade ROMs, and even residence online game consoles by way of till roughly the fifth or sixth technology of {hardware} platforms.

I discover most trendy mobile games to be distracting, with their ads, their pay-to-play monetization schemes, their reliance on an lively web connection, and their give attention to exploitative gameplay loops. To bypass this, whereas additionally guaranteeing I obtain a gradual provide of nostalgia within the course of, I at all times carry a library of retro gaming ROMs on my USB stick (in addition to a couple of backups of PC and Android emulator program installers for good measure).

A survival information

For if and when the web goes down

Credit score: Pocket-lint / Canva

In at the moment’s internet-powered info age, we take it as a right that we are able to inquire for particulars and how-tos on absolutely anything and all the things beneath the solar with out lifting a finger. This democratization of data is simply accelerating with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and huge language fashions (LLMs), however it has an Achilles’ Heal: its wholehearted reliance on the World Huge Net.

Whereas extraordinarily unlikely, it is at all times a risk that web connectivity may very well be misplaced as a consequence of pure disasters, malicious actors, geopolitical disputes, and even whole warfare. As such, I’ve taken the precaution of downloading a compilation of survival information PDF recordsdata onto my private USB flash drive, to align with the clever mantra of “anticipate the very best and put together for the worst.”

A First Help information

A possible lifesaver when in a pinch

Credit score: Pocket-lint / Canva

Offline survival guides aren’t the one factor I insist on carrying round with me: in the identical vein, I’ve additionally gone forward and stashed my USB thumb drive with a group of First Help guides and assets. Whereas unlikely to ever be wanted, I can sleep soundly at evening realizing that I carry with me archival information of how you can deal with wounds, the sorts of medicines that work together poorly with others, and extra.

Moreover, my USB stick carries with it a devoted medical info doc with specifics by myself well being standing. Medical ID is a characteristic built into modern mobile operating systems like iOS, iPadOS, and Android, however having a secondary backup accessible on a flash drive provides that little little bit of extra reassurance that I am significantly keen on.

A bootable OS installer

An remoted surroundings to work from

Credit score: Pocket-lint / Canva

Talking of working techniques, USB thumb drives are the best medium for carrying round bootable set up media. Microsoft offers its own Home windows 11 installer within the type of a Media Creation Instrument executable, however I are likely to favor the third-party Tiny11 for its smaller, bloat-free construct of the desktop OS. Alternatively, varied Linux distributions (distros) provide free and open-source computing environments that may be loaded up through a bootable USB drive, together with common choices like Ubuntu, Mint, and Debian.

There are a number of explanation why somebody would possibly wish to carry round a bootable USB drive. For me personally, as a lover of all issues expertise and software program, I merely wish to mess around with new Linux distros and other OS images for the enjoyable of it with out having to leap by way of the hoops of dual-booting my PC.

Do not depend on server-side companies

Credit score: Pocket-lint / Canva

Lastly, positioned regionally on my private USB stick is an emergency contacts doc, saved as a textual content file (.txt) for max compatibility throughout varied working techniques and platforms. Except for customary emergency companies numbers, my doc contains contact cellphone numbers of shut members of the family, in addition to some extra assets like native taxi corporations, locksmiths, and varied important service suppliers.

The very fact of the matter is that, as a consequence of our modern-day reliance on smartphones, most of us hardly keep in mind cellphone numbers by coronary heart anymore. The issue is that almost all of us save our contacts through the cloud, which ends up in privateness issues, safety vulnerabilities, and the potential of by chance being locked out of an account and shedding entry outright. Having cellphone numbers archived on my USB stick may appear superfluous on the floor, however it simply would possibly turn out to be useful at some point, and I would somewhat be secure than sorry.