If we talk about pen drives. We use them to transfer data from one system to another. We can transfer almost everything like photos, videos, music, movies, software or any other file type. However, do you know there are many things a pen drive can do other than just storing data? Yes, these mini USB flash drives can do much more beyond storing and transferring files from one system to another. Here are the top 10 use of a USB flash drive:
#1 Install A Linux Distro
This might be known to many. However, this is one of the most useful things you can do with your USB flash drive. You can boot either Windows or Linux from a USB flash drive. You just need to download the software for your distro and then choose the option to burn the image to your flash drive. You can read our post How to Create A Linux Bootable USB/Pendrive to install Linux distro through USB flash drive.
#2 Run Portable Apps
Apart from storing and transferring data, you can also run portable applications from a USB Flash drive. Portableapps.com is a website that allows Windows users to run any app from your USB drive itself. Users just need to carry a suite of all applications like Chrome, VLC, Firefox etc all on the drive to run it on any remote computer.
#3 Use It As A Rescue Drive
Today there are heaps of viruses, malware, key-loggers & Trojans etc, enters into Windows PC either from the internet or from data sharing with infected computers. So, at that time you use Antivirus to remove all the virus, but what if your Windows is not accessible due to infected viruses. At that time, you can use the rescue disk to clean up your computer from viruses. You can visit our article How To Remove All Viruses From PC Using Rescue USB Drive to remove viruses from computer using Rescue USB Disk
#4 Use It As A RAM
RAM plays an important role in every users’ computer as the more RAM means more speed and faster your system’s speed. You can use your USB/Pendrive as a RAM in Windows 7, 8 and 10. You can visit our article How To Increase RAM Using USB/Pendrive In Windows 8, 10 to know how to use your USB/Pendrive as a RAM in Windows computer
#5 Lock and Unlock Your Computer
Well, we usually log into the computer by using our passwords and pins. However, do you know you can use your USB Pendrive to lock and unlock your computer? There is a software like Predator which let users lock their PC using the USB Pendrive. You can visit our article How To Lock And Unlock Your PC Using USB Pendrive to lock and unlock your computer using USB Pendrive.
#6 Partition Hard Drives
There are software available on the web which lets you easily repartition your computer’s hard drive. One of the popular software is Parted Magic, this app minimizes the risk of corrupting the hard drive during partition because you are booting from a flash drive.
#7 Run Dropbox or Google Drive
Nowadays, most of us choose to store our data in cloud platforms. If you are in hurry and need to access the files stored on your Dropbox or Google drive then you can use your Pendrive. Portable Dropbox and Google Drive is available in PortableApps suite.
#8 Computer Troubleshooting
If you are unable to boot into the computer. You can use USB flash drive to fix, maintain or troubleshoot a computer in need. You can have Trend Micro’s Housecall or Glary Utilities which can be used to perform a registry clean, removal of temporary files, manage startup programs.
#9 Password Protect Your USB Pendrive
Today in this computer environment, everything is based on data alteration that you functions within the compact memory storage device that is the memory card, pen drives, and Hard drive etc. But sometimes certain media storage device contains some sensitive data that we might not aspire to share with anyone so at such point, we have to hold our data protected in these manageable drives. So, the best option to preserve your USB Pendrive is with protection like the password to keep your data safe. You can visit our article How To Protect Your USB Pendrive With Password (3 Methods) to password protect your USB Pendrive.
#10 Run a Website
This is the most interesting thing you can do with your USB drive. If you are a web developer, you can run a Webserver that supports Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Perl right from a USB flash drive. You just need to use Server2Go right from the box without the need to install. It runs on every version of Windows and supports common browsers. So, these are the ten best things you can do with your USB flash drive. If you want something to add to the list, drop a comment in the comment section below.
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