USB flash drive Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Is it safe to use a USB flash drive as a backup drive?

Posted on March 9, 2025

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Question from Alan: Hi, Rick. I have a question for you.

I have a desktop PC that I use only for writing blog posts in Microsoft Word before uploading them to my WordPress blogs..

I plan to turn my blog posts into a series of books some day so I want to keep the posts stored on my hard drive in MS Word format.

Right now the 7 folders containing the posts and their associated images add up to a grand total of a little over 22 Gigabytes.

My question is do you see anything wrong with using a 64 GB USB thumb drive to hold backup copies of these 7 folders? [Read more…]

Q&A: Why won’t my PC open this JPEG file?

Posted on December 7, 2023

Question from Aaron: I received a USB thumb drive in the mail. It was addressed to me but there was no return address.

Inside the envelope with the drive was a note saying the drive had a picture of my girlfriend with another guy.

I want to know who the guy is but I can’t open the JPEG file. When I click on it the screen just goes blank and I have to unplug the computer and restart it.

What am I doing wrong? [Read more…]

Q&A: Can you use the same USB thumb drive with both Windows PCs and Macs?

Posted on July 8, 2023

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Question from Kerrie: I have a MacBook Pro and don’t own a Windows computer.

If I copy files from my MacBook Pro onto a thumb drive will my sisters be able to copy those files from that same thumb drive onto their Windows PCs?

[Read more…]

Q&A: Is it really dangerous to store files on thumb drives?

Posted on July 4, 2023

Question from Colette: My daughter emailed me a really cute picture of my grandson while I was at work.

I saved the picture to my computer’s hard drive and then copied it onto a thumb drive.

I verified that the picture was on the thumb drive and then I deleted it from the computer (we’re not allowed to keep personal files on our work computers). [Read more…]

Q&A: Am I wrong to call a USB flash drive a ‘thumb drive’?

Posted on April 22, 2023

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Question from Craig: My friend and I got into a minor argument about the way you’re supposed to refer to a USB flash drive.

I call it a “thumb drive” and he says that’s incorrect.

I told him “thumb drive” is what lots of people call them and he told me they are wrong to call them that.

So in your opinion, which one of us it right? [Read more…]