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What's on your "Everyday Carry" USB stick?

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.

BigMikeInAustin ,

Sorry about the negativity from so many people.

You do what works for you.

rotopenguin ,
@rotopenguin@infosec.pub avatar

I have a Debian 12 install on a 5GB partition (btrfs compression is magic), and the rest is exfat. It has rEFInd as the bootloader, should be pretty good at detecting and running other OSes with bootloader problems.

Ooops , (edited )
@Ooops@feddit.org avatar

Ventoy and…

Clonezilla, (custom) ArchISO, Tails

the stuff you might need to safe other people’s PCs sigh …

HBCD_PE, Windows 11

If I hadn’t included those in my ArchISO already I would probably add…

one of the usual Rescue ISOs, GParted Live.

Bonus points for Ventoy’s ISO partiiton doubling as simple storage.

PS: Thanks for the reminder to update some of them again.

MonkderDritte ,

Two partitions for a live linux, the second for home and other data. It can come in handy, if you’re on linux.

solidgrue ,
@solidgrue@lemmy.world avatar

I do this. A Debian Live image and an encrypted LVM for home. Came in handy a few times for the odd system rescue

Magister ,
@Magister@lemmy.world avatar

Of course Ventoy and multiples ISO, but also a full copy of SDIO, it’s maybe 30-40GB, but absolutely essential for Windows

CapillaryUpgrade ,
@CapillaryUpgrade@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Lots of people have already mentioned Ventoy.

MediCat is Ventoy with a ton of images and a config file. It seems great, although I chose to roll my own as MediCat had a lot of Windows-centric images i have no need for.

gencha ,

Before Google Drive and Syncthing I relied on such a USB device. Today, no matter what I put on the stick, it’s outdated or entirely not what I need when I need something.

Having any stick on hand, and being able to flash an image from your phone, that’s nice

fratermus ,
@fratermus@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

What’s on your “Everyday Carry” USB stick?

  • scans of my DL and other licenses
  • scan of my DD214
  • system rescue ISO
  • a TEMP dir with random things I need in the short term
  • portable apps versions of putty, WinSCP, etc.
JoeKrogan ,
@JoeKrogan@lemmy.world avatar

Tails and another for storing random stuff, like a copy of documents when travelling.

c0smokram3r ,
@c0smokram3r@midwest.social avatar

Kingston DataTraveler Micro 3.1 128GB USB 3.0. I leave it on my keyring to trade movies/tv shows/music w friends 🏴‍☠️

just_another_person , (edited )

The only solid reason I can think carry anything on a USB stick is if you’re going to be in an area without Internet. If you’re in an IT role where you’re interacting with end-user machines all the time, then the answer would obviously be some sort of live environment to troubleshoot or fix issues. In that case, load a Ventoy partition with a few different images, and and be done with it I guess.

If you’re thinking like a Prepper or whatever, keep a copy of Wikipedia, and some survival books maybe? Maps? That’s all I can think of. If you’re going this far, better carry a backpack with portable solar panels, a large battery, and a lifejacket. None of this matters when you don’t have food and water though, so…

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ce915395-fd73-4401-8801-72d1aff87db2.png

delirious_owl ,
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

Kali

smeeps OP ,

Cheers, currently grabbed Ubuntu, Fedora, GParted, and Kali.

narc0tic_bird ,

Well if you don’t have an actual use case for it, don’t try to artificially find one.

The only thing I use USB sticks for nowadays is for OS installs.

For everything else their write speeds are slow (even the more expensive USB sticks slow down to a crawl after what feels like not even one complete overwrite) and they are unreliable.

Sure, if you want to carry around random OS installers and live environments, go for it. I personally don’t have a use case for it.

danielquinn ,
@danielquinn@lemmy.ca avatar

Mine is a durable, metal 128GB stick. It lives on my keyring and has a relatively recent copy of Arch on it. It’s handy for fixing broken laptops and rescuing data. A friend has a more advanced one, with multiple distros on it for different diagnosis options.

The rest of the disk space is just xfat.

rand_alpha19 ,

I don't really carry one anymore, but the one I have at my desk has Ventoy and LMDE on it for when I need to mess with something requiring my system to be down or modify my OS partition. I don't really do much on other PCs except when I have to help my wife with something.

When I was working at my last job I carried 2-3 with a ton of database backups and proprietary software and firmware files for clients' automation systems. Kinda don't miss it at all, but it sure made me feel important, lol.

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