# It's alive!!!!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-alive/484384
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 4, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-alive/484384 "2009-02-04T06:18:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-alive/484384/1 "2009-02-04T06:18:53Z")
I just pulled my flash drive out of the washing machine :o :smack:. I plugged it in to my computer, and it seems to be working just fine 🆒.
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### Author:  [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-alive/484384/2 "2009-02-04T14:08:57Z")
You had better luck than I had. A few years ago when I retired I copied a bunch of personal files from my work computer onto a flash drive. Before I could transfer them to my home computer a friend’s puppy managed to find the flash drive and chewed on it, breaking the plastic case open. When I plugged the remains into my computer, it wasn’t able to read the drive…wouldn’t even acknowledge that it was plugged in.
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### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-alive/484384/3 "2009-02-04T14:21:12Z")
Ouch, sorry to hear that. This is my second flash drive I bought, because I lost my first, and yeah, I do feel pretty lucky.
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-alive/484384/4 "2009-02-04T14:42:17Z")
I’ve washed more than one - as far as I can recall I haven’t ruined any yet. (I’ve lost quite a few though.)
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### Author:  [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-alive/484384/5 "2009-02-04T15:25:25Z")
I did the same thing, and I have a ton of photos and work that I was transferring over to my computer to back up. Put it in the wash and was mad. I was so glad it works fine.
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### Author:  [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-alive/484384/6 "2009-02-04T15:43:57Z")
I did the same thing about 5 years ago. Quite a surprise it made it through. I only found after about 10 seconds of being in the dryer and was like OH shit!.. that’s all my school work… I’m doomed! Luckily everything was intact perfectly since the little cap was pretty secure.
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### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-alive/484384/7 "2009-02-04T22:58:32Z")
Mine doesn’t have a cap, so that means I was extra lucky. I’m not sure if it would have survived the dryer or not.
I’ve been contemplating buying a Ready-Boost flash to see how much faster it would be, and ruining my current flash drive would give me the perfect excuse, but at the same time, a little more speed wouldn’t have made up for all the lost files.
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### Author:  [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-alive/484384/8 "2009-02-04T23:06:22Z")
I’ve washed my flash drives a few times and they’ve come out OK.
I just wish that I could find the 1GB one that walked away.
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### Author:  [@Jaglavak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaglavak)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2009, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-alive/484384/9 "2009-02-05T06:38:32Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#):
>
> I just wish that I could find the 1GB one that walked away.
You might want to encrypt your new one with [PGP Disk](http://www.pgpi.org/products/pgpdisk/) from the granddaddy of data privacy advocates, Phil Zimmerman. Or at least the company that bought him out. But it’s still free and it still rocks. That way when you lose the next one, at least nobody can dig through all your stuff. I’ve been test driving it on several different WinXP boxes for a year and it’s been reliable as dirt.