this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
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Just picked up a 128GB USB A/C stick that can go on my keyring. What are some things I should put on it to have access to at all times?

I already have self hosted services accessible over my VPN, so this would be for when I can't access that.

I'm thinking at least Ventoy and some common ISOs, then I'm not sure what else.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (6 children)

Well I carry it anyway for impromptu file transfers. I've just added 1gig of survival PDFs. Probably never need them but who knows

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You'll carry it until the plastic cracks and it falls off your keyring.

So don't put anything too private on there.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I'll encrypt anything vaguely private. Honestly its a useful way of me not losing it around the house too, I must have 3 or 4 USB sticks in the house but when I need to install an ISO I can never find any

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Oh, then stick ventoy on it, and just shrink the partition and give yourself some permanent storage space too. Alternatively, just do the same for a live Linux iso of your choice.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Do you have a link to the survival PDFs? I'm curious

I have a few apps like that installed, such as first aid for example. Might as well get some useful guides on my USB in case my phone is dead.

Also my recommendation

  • portable programs. Pick some that might be useful and add those. I have never had to use one, but I keep them anyways

  • Some media to pass the time. This has come in handy once or twice

  • extra space for large file transfers

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Survival/comments/732c79/ive_collected_a_bunch_of_free_survival_pdf_links/

Original Zip link is dead but someone in the comments recreated it. No idea if they're any good, hopefully I'll never look at them

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

You ought to read them and practice their use otherwise you'll never know if they're unintelligible when/if you need them.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago

No idea if they're any good, hopefully I'll never look at them

Well, better to be prepared. When you are starving and freezing from cold in a forest, lost and about to be mauled by a black bear, it's nice to have that stick around so you can quickly grab it and shove it sideways up in the arse of the bear.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Not OP, but this instantly made me think of the worst-case scenario PDFs I stumbled upon on Lemmy recently.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Thank you I'll take a look :)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

How would you access it in a survival situation?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

My phone that has no connection, or any USB A / C device that's around? Not saying its likely

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Wouldn't it just be easier to store stuff on the phone...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Why not both? I'm not lacking in storage on either the USB or the phone.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

You could get a very very old ebook reader from a yard sale. You get something functional and a lot of them act like a USB drive.

Plus a very small solar panel can charge it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

With no phone/tablet/laptop how are you going to look at them?
Print them out and/or memorise (as much as you can) them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Isn't it just far easier to transfer documents using one of the thousands of cloud apps though? Since Dropbox and such became a thing I've not had a use for USBs. If it's privacy that concerns you then you already mentioned self hosted services and I'm sure there's a few Dropbox clones among them.

There's not much point in survival PDFs unless you're also carrying a laptop to view them on.

If you really do want to go full apocalypse prepper then track down an archive of Wikipedia and various how-to websites.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

i honestly prefer using usbs over cloud stuff because of the speed and it being less hassle, unless it's a situation where I can just just syncthing or kde connect

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Sure, for devices that already are logged in then yes. But to log into my Proton Drive I have to enter my password and authenticate with my Yubikey and it might not be a trusted computer, or the internet connection might be slow. And my self hosted services including my Seafile are behind a VPN so I'd have to log into my VPN on that PC to access them. I definitely transfer files by USB on occasion.

I guess I can put a VPN config file on my USB in the encrypted folder so I can connect to it from any trusted PC

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Another common use case is for when I need to give someone else a file when we're in the same room. It's not worth the hassle of trying to transfer it over a network or wirelessly, especially if they are large files or we are on a different OS/ecosystem.

The USB stick just works.