[slackline]

Probably not the wisest of things to have done but I left my SanDisk 4Gb Cruzer in a pocket and only found it again after the economy cycle had finished.

Anyone ever been stupid enough to do the same?

Did it ever work again afterwards?

Nothing of any importance on it (bought it to install a live Linux distro on for booting computers on the fly), but it would be a shame to have wasted £10.  My intuition tells me not to expect much.

Obviously I'm leaving it for a good few days in a warm, dry place before seeing if I've hosed the thing. 

slack

[unclesomebody]

Call me an optimist, but I think you'll be pleasantly if you wait a few days and then try it. I've seen some miracles in this department before. My brother recovered a top of the line Sony digital camera after dropping it in the toilet (it really isn't as dodgy as it sounds)! It was saturated. Good luck!

One thing though, if it does come back to life, I wouldn't store mission critical data on it ever again!

[underground]

Call me an optimist, but I think you'll be pleasantly if you wait a few days and then try it. I've seen some miracles in this department before. My brother recovered a top of the line Sony digital camera after dropping it in the toilet (it really isn't as dodgy as it sounds)! It was saturated. Good luck!

One thing though, if it does come back to life, I wouldn't store mission critical data on it ever again!

I did read of someone doing this 4 times and still having no problems once dried. Good luck!

[slackline]

Cheers Uncle.

Just been doing some  and it appears that PCB's and many components are washed in soapy-water during production, and that they tend to be able to withstand up to 100 centigrade.

Guess I'll stick in a mildly warm oven, cross my fingers and see what happens.

[slackline]

I did read of someone doing this 4 times and still having no problems once dried. Good luck!

  Once is excusable (just) as a mistake, but four times is just inept.

What exactly are people photographing with their cameras in the toilet though? 

[Oli]

Sticking it in an airing cupboard maybe a better plan than the oven...

[Jim]

or just finish the job properly and stick it on tumble dry 
I've got a corsair stick and know that they cn be washed and still work afterwards, not from personal experience tho

[Lemming]

Probably not the wisest of things to have done but I left my SanDisk 4Gb Cruzer in a pocket and only found it again after the economy cycle had finished.

Anyone ever been stupid enough to do the same?

  aye, that would be me. Worked fine after a spell in the airing cupboard. 

[erm]

Since it wasn't powered it shouldn't have fried any circuits. Put it in water to try and get any soap out. Wait for it to dry, to the point were you have waited to long and now it is dry. Then it should work fine, I have seen it done with a mobile phone (which was switched off when it went in)!

[Vitamin K]

My Easy Disk stick just loved the 40 degree cycle and came out working fine - just give it time to dry out and I'm guessing it will be as good as new, but just that little fresher.

[andy popp]

I washed my sons USB pen (containing all his school coursework!!) and it too worked fine after drying out. Seems you should be OK.

[GCW]

As long as you don't plug it in whilst it's wet, I'd bet it'll be fine.
Why no Anasazi option on the poll?

[slackline]

Why no Anasazi option on the poll?

Sorry, a momentary lapse in concentration.

[Zods Beard]

I'd advise against putting it in the oven, just let it dry naturally.

[SA Chris]

Was going to say the same oven is a bad idea - airing cupboard or somewhere warm and ventilated, like a sunny windowsill.

[slackline]

Well against all good advice ('cause I'm a little impatient) I opted for a 20 minute stint in the oven as it warmed up (to the minimum temp of 60 celsius), then a full 24 hours sat on top of the wireless router which pumps out a fair bit of warm air (no point in sticking it in the airing cupboard since we've not had the central heating on for three months and its no warmer than the rest of the house).

Stuck it into the computer just now and.......no fire works, its just mounted and everything appears to be fine and dandy 

Thanks for all the advice  .  A pleasant surprise to find that somethings made far more robustly than I expected, still probably best avoided in the long run though 

[unclesomebody]

Good news! However, in order to err on the side of caution I suggest you get a replacement, and Amazon are currently selling Kingston 8Gb sticks for £11. Just add something else you might need to get to £15 and you'll get free postage. Or you could order 2 of them!

[slackline]

Nice, had given up on Amazon for computer components a long time ago as usually found better deals elsewhere, but thats not too bad a price really (although I prefer the Flash Memory one as I have in the past found the lid and drive aren't always happy co-existing).

[butters]

That Flash Memory is a nice design - I really don't need yet another flash drive but the design of that is seducing me somewhat.

While on the subject of flash drives does anyone else run Portable Apps? Been running it for a while now and quite impressed with it.

bluebrad

[slackline]

While on the subject of flash drives does anyone else run Portable Apps? Been running it for a while now and quite impressed with it.

No, but I intend to do something similar with the flash drive.  Before washing I'd installed Gentoo (my preferred GNU/Linux distribution) onto it, but will probably change that to either Knoppix (the best live GNU/linux distribution in terms of hardware support) or Slax (an excellent modularised, small-footprint GNU/Linux distro) then I'll have my favourite OS setup to use on the go.

slack

[Paul B]

That Flash Memory is a nice design - I really don't need yet another flash drive but the design of that is seducing me somewhat.

While on the subject of flash drives does anyone else run Portable Apps? Been running it for a while now and quite impressed with it.

bluebrad

yup set this up for the other half as at work the way they rectify any I.T. issues is to use remote access and they have a fit when they see firefox or any non-approved pieces of software, even if it does speed up their infernal intraweb document thingy 

[Zods Beard]

Well against all good advice ('cause I'm a little impatient) I opted for a 20 minute stint in the oven as it warmed up (to the minimum temp of 60 celsius), then a full 24 hours sat on top of the wireless router which pumps out a fair bit of warm air (no point in sticking it in the airing cupboard since we've not had the central heating on for three months and its no warmer than the rest of the house).

Stuck it into the computer just now and.......no fire works, its just mounted and everything appears to be fine and dandy 

Thanks for all the advice  .  A pleasant surprise to find that somethings made far more robustly than I expected, still probably best avoided in the long run though 

Go for the full set and stick it in the fridge.

[slackline]

Go for the full set and stick it in the fridge.

 


Things might not be quite as rosy as expected as a quick fsck.msdos reveals differences between the boot sector and its backup...

# fsck.msdos /dev/sdb1
dosfsck 2.11, 12 Mar 2005, FAT32, LFN
There are differences between boot sector and its backup.
Differences: (offset:original/backup)
  1:48/58, 62:03/00, 63:02/00, 64:81/00, 66:00/29, 67:80/38, 68:53/a5
  , 69:c4/b7, 70:01/48, 71:00/20, 72:00/20, 73:08/20, 74:fa/20, 75:90/20
  , 76:90/20, 77:f6/20, 78:c2/20, 79:80/20, 80:75/20, 81:02/20, 82:b2/46
  , 83:80/41, 84:ea/54, 85:59/33, 86:7c/32, 87:00/20, 88:00/20, 89:31/20
  , 90:c0/0e, 91:8e/1f, 92:d8/be, 93:8e/77, 94:d0/7c, 95:bc/ac, 96:00/22
  , 97:20/c0, 98:fb/74, 99:a0/0b, 100:40/56, 101:7c/b4, 102:3c/0e, 103:ff/bb
  , 104:74/07, 105:02/00, 106:88/cd, 107:c2/10, 108:52/5e, 109:be/eb
  , 110:7f/f0, 111:7d/32, 112:e8/e4, 113:34/cd, 114:01/16, 115:f6/cd
  , 116:c2/19, 117:80/eb, 118:74/fe, 120:b4/68, 121:41/69, 122:bb/73
  , 123:aa/20, 124:55/69, 125:cd/73, 126:13/20, 127:5a/6e, 128:52/6f
  , 129:72/74, 130:49/20, 131:81/61, 132:fb/20, 133:55/62, 134:aa/6f
  , 135:75/6f, 136:43/74, 137:a0/61, 138:41/62, 139:7c/6c, 140:84/65
  , 141:c0/20, 142:75/64, 143:05/69, 144:83/73, 145:e1/6b, 146:01/2e
  , 147:74/20, 148:37/20, 149:66/50, 150:8b/6c, 151:4c/65, 152:10/61
  , 153:be/73, 154:05/65, 155:7c/20, 156:c6/69, 157:44/6e, 158:ff/73
  , 159:01/65, 160:66/72, 161:8b/74, 162:1e/20, 163:44/61, 164:7c/20
  , 165:c7/62, 166:04/6f, 167:10/6f, 168:00/74, 169:c7/61, 170:44/62
  , 171:02/6c, 172:01/65, 173:00/20, 175:89/6c, 176:5c/6f, 177:08/70
  , 178:c7/70, 179:44/79, 180:06/20, 181:00/61, 182:70/6e, 183:66/64
  , 184:31/0d, 185:c0/0a, 186:89/70, 187:44/72, 188:04/65, 189:66/73
  , 190:89/73, 191:44/20, 192:0c/61, 193:b4/6e, 194:42/79, 195:cd/20
  , 196:13/6b, 197:72/65, 198:05/79, 199:bb/20, 200:00/74, 201:70/6f
  , 202:eb/20, 203:7d/74, 204:b4/72, 205:08/79, 206:cd/20, 207:13/61
  , 208:73/67, 209:0a/61, 210:f6/69, 211:c2/6e, 212:80/20, 213:0f/2e
  , 214:84/2e, 215:ea/2e, 216:00/20, 217:e9/0d, 218:8d/0a, 220:be/00
  , 221:05/00, 222:7c/00, 223:c6/00, 224:44/00, 225:ff/00, 227:66/00
  , 228:31/00, 229:c0/00, 230:88/00, 231:f0/00, 232:40/00, 233:66/00
  , 234:89/00, 235:44/00, 236:04/00, 237:31/00, 238:d2/00, 239:88/00
  , 240:ca/00, 241:c1/00, 242:e2/00, 243:02/00, 244:88/00, 245:e8/00
  , 246:88/00, 247:f4/00, 248:40/00, 249:89/00, 250:44/00, 251:08/00
  , 252:31/00, 253:c0/00, 254:88/00, 255:d0/00, 256:c0/00, 257:e8/00
  , 258:02/00, 259:66/00, 260:89/00, 261:04/00, 262:66/00, 263:a1/00
  , 264:44/00, 265:7c/00, 266:66/00, 267:31/00, 268:d2/00, 269:66/00
  , 270:f7/00, 271:34/00, 272:88/00, 273:54/00, 274:0a/00, 275:66/00
  , 276:31/00, 277:d2/00, 278:66/00, 279:f7/00, 280:74/00, 281:04/00
  , 282:88/00, 283:54/00, 284:0b/00, 285:89/00, 286:44/00, 287:0c/00
  , 288:3b/00, 289:44/00, 290:08/00, 291:7d/00, 292:3c/00, 293:8a/00
  , 294:54/00, 295:0d/00, 296:c0/00, 297:e2/00, 298:06/00, 299:8a/00
  , 300:4c/00, 301:0a/00, 302:fe/00, 303:c1/00, 304:08/00, 305:d1/00
  , 306:8a/00, 307:6c/00, 308:0c/00, 309:5a/00, 310:8a/00, 311:74/00
  , 312:0b/00, 313:bb/00, 315:70/00, 316:8e/00, 317:c3/00, 318:31/00
  , 319:db/00, 320:b8/00, 321:01/00, 322:02/00, 323:cd/00, 324:13/00
  , 325:72/00, 326:2a/00, 327:8c/00, 328:c3/00, 329:8e/00, 330:06/00
  , 331:48/00, 332:7c/00, 333:60/00, 334:1e/00, 335:b9/00, 337:01/00
  , 338:8e/00, 339:db/00, 340:31/00, 341:f6/00, 342:31/00, 343:ff/00
  , 344:fc/00, 345:f3/00, 346:a5/00, 347:1f/00, 348:61/00, 349:ff/00
  , 350:26/00, 351:42/00, 352:7c/00, 353:be/00, 354:85/00, 355:7d/00
  , 356:e8/00, 357:40/00, 359:eb/00, 360:0e/00, 361:be/00, 362:8a/00
  , 363:7d/00, 364:e8/00, 365:38/00, 367:eb/00, 368:06/00, 369:be/00
  , 370:94/00, 371:7d/00, 372:e8/00, 373:30/00, 375:be/00, 376:99/00
  , 377:7d/00, 378:e8/00, 379:2a/00, 381:eb/00, 382:fe/00, 383:47/00
  , 384:52/00, 385:55/00, 386:42/00, 387:20/00, 389:47/00, 390:65/00
  , 391:6f/00, 392:6d/00, 394:48/00, 395:61/00, 396:72/00, 397:64/00
  , 398:20/00, 399:44/00, 400:69/00, 401:73/00, 402:6b/00, 404:52/00
  , 405:65/00, 406:61/00, 407:64/00, 409:20/00, 410:45/00, 411:72/00
  , 412:72/00, 413:6f/00, 414:72/00, 416:bb/00, 417:01/00, 419:b4/00
  , 420:0e/00, 421:cd/00, 422:10/00, 423:ac/00, 424:3c/00, 426:75/00
  , 427:f4/00, 428:c3/00
1) Copy original to backup
2) Copy backup to original
3) No action
? 3
/dev/sdb1: 68 files, 176203/978046 clusters


This could be down to residual stuff from U3 or it could be down to the fact that I made the disk bootable when installing Gentoo, and that differs from the backup.    Doesn't matter anyway, I'm going to wipe it shortly and install Knoppix 

[slackline]

Quick heads up for anyone looking for USB, memory or anything else they sell at http://www.memorybits.co.uk/

They're having a discount of 15% until midnight Wednesday.  Buy what you want and use the promo code 4815 to get you money off.

[unclesomebody]

Even with 15% off their prices are still a rip off. For reference, I just bought an 8gb kingston memory stick for £12.90 from scan.

[slackline]

Even with 15% off their prices are still a rip off. For reference, I just bought an 8gb kingston memory stick for £12.90 from scan.

Good knowledge, hadn't come across Scan before.  Useful to have another computer sight to check for components.

I discovered Memorybits when looking for an 8Gb micro-SD card.  Opted for SanDisk as its a well known, reliable brand and they're £10 cheaper than Scan (before 15% discount).  Other normal SD cards are more comparable between the two sites. 

Guess its just swings and roundabouts as to where you can find the cheapest gear.

[Bubba]

Scan rock - i've used them for years. Fast delivery, good returns policy and cheap as chips.