Was thinking recently about the hurricane season starting, and in addition to the paper copies of my documents, I want to EDC a flash drive, 16GB. I have about 8GB of pics from digital sources, and scanned copies of photos from way back. I want to EDC a sturdy flash drive, and wondered if anyone does this already, and what make it is. I am ROUGH on my EDC stuff, but figure I'll put a ranger band around it to help keep it protected from the keys and such. Any help would be great. I'm also planning on putting a digital copy of Blasts Emergency binder on there as well, again as a backup to the printed version. Thanks in advance for any advice.

How rough is rough? Survivor tough enough? Or is a Corsair Voyager good enough?

Mine advise would be not to take those super thin drives, without the metal guide around it. (brakes off the plastic thingy in the gate)

USB 3.0 is very nice if you transfer lots of data. Much quicker, but your computer need USB 3.0 to get those speeds.

Don't get models with separate caps, you loose them...

I don't EDC a flash drive, but have one stored in a plastic vial in my auto, and one in the possession of my personal representative ... who has copies of my will, living will, surrogate of health care, and power of attorney

I use a Corsair Padlock 2 to carry around confidential date such as banking passcodes etc, not to mention passwords for client sites etc.

You've got to remember that the information is no more secure than the systems you plug it into. But for me it's a good way to carry sensitive information with worrying the information is easily read by someone finds it dropped or lost somewhere.

Corsair's Padlock 2 web page



PS. There is a battery inside that powers the button logic. It charges whenever the Padlock 2 and if the battery completely runs down you have to plug it for a few minutes to recharge but there is no data loss.

I have been using this 32 GB flash drive without problems for over a year:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006M6D3XC/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It disappears on my key ring. Go with the most storage you can afford. I recommend making an encrypted folder with TrueCrypt. I have a 16GB encrypted folder and leave the remaining 16 GB unencrypted. I store non-critical files on the unencrypted portion. Stuff I would not want others to see goes in the encrypted folder.

Another note, I consider ALL files on my flash drive as being temporary. Please don't be one of these risk takers who uses a flash drive as permanent storage with no backup of what's on your flash drive. If your flash drive suddenly vanishes or goes scuba diving, you should not be hard pressed to replace the data that's on it.

By the way, I had not previously heard of these fancy flash drives that others have posted here. Cool stuff, I might go that route if my flash drive ever fails me.

This is what i carry: http://www.verbatim.com/prod/usb-drives/everyday-usb-drives/tuff-n-tiny-sku-97465/

16Gb version been riding in my pocket on my keychain for two years, still works fine.

I have several old rubber armored flashdrives made by some no-name company "A-Data" (or something like that). I don't remember HOW long I've had them, but they are 256Mb and that was considered large at the time I bought them. That holds all the emergency personal info I need. I encrypt the data with TrueCrypt and have the executabel for that stored on the thumbdrive as well. Some of them have gone through the wash and dryer a couple of times, with no ill effects. I wish A-Data still made them. No-name or not, they have been 100% reliable and bulletproof

For non-armored thumbdrives, I use 8Gb SanDisk Cruzers.

Also - Take advantage of free online backup services