I’ll by no means delete these...

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 back and forth.

Whereas USB flash drives proceed to be obtainable 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 this time’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 sudden 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 information

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 wherever from 4KB to 64KB, which is to say that hundreds of those retro games may be packed right into a drive with out making a dent in obtainable storage capability. The identical goes for arcade ROMs, and even dwelling online game consoles by means of till roughly the fifth or sixth technology of {hardware} platforms.

I discover most fashionable mobile games to be distracting, with their ads, their pay-to-play monetization schemes, their reliance on an energetic web connection, and their concentrate on exploitative gameplay loops. To avoid this, whereas additionally making certain 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 this time’s internet-powered data age, we take it with no consideration that we will inquire for particulars and how-tos on absolutely anything and all the things beneath the solar with out lifting a finger. This democratization of knowledge is simply accelerating with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and huge language fashions (LLMs), but it surely has an Achilles’ Heal: its wholehearted reliance on the World Vast Internet.

Whereas extraordinarily unlikely, it is at all times a risk that web connectivity might be misplaced on account of pure disasters, malicious actors, geopolitical disputes, and even complete warfare. As such, I’ve taken the precaution of downloading a compilation of survival information PDF information onto my private USB flash drive, to align with the smart mantra of “anticipate the perfect 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 set of First Help guides and assets. Whereas unlikely to ever be wanted, I can sleep soundly at night time understanding that I carry with me archival information of how one 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 data doc with specifics alone well being standing. Medical ID is a function built into modern mobile operating systems like iOS, iPadOS, and Android, however having a secondary backup obtainable on a flash drive provides that little little bit of extra reassurance that I am significantly keen on.

A bootable OS installer

An remoted setting 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 Device executable, however I are likely to desire 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 by way of a bootable USB drive, together with in style choices like Ubuntu, Mint, and Debian.

There are a selection of the reason why somebody would possibly need to carry round a bootable USB drive. For me personally, as a lover of all issues expertise and software program, I merely prefer to mess around with new Linux distros and other OS images for the enjoyable of it with out having to leap by means 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. Apart from commonplace emergency companies numbers, my doc consists of contact telephone numbers of shut relations, in addition to some extra assets like native taxi corporations, locksmiths, and varied important service suppliers.

The very fact of the matter is that, on account of our modern-day reliance on smartphones, most of us hardly keep in mind telephone numbers by coronary heart anymore. The issue is that almost all of us save our contacts by way of the cloud, which ends up in privateness considerations, safety vulnerabilities, and the potential for by chance being locked out of an account and dropping entry outright. Having telephone numbers archived on my USB stick might sound superfluous on the floor, but it surely simply would possibly turn out to be useful at some point, and I would moderately be protected than sorry.