Question Getting USB thumb drive wet

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
1,662
5
81
Have a friend (no it really is not me) who sucked his USB thumb drive (which had his backups on it) into his wet VAC.

I gave him a replacement thumb drive and redid this backup.

It has been about a month since his drive went in the soup, any possibility that after drying out, it might still work ?

Would it possibly hurt anything if I tried the thumb drive on my old laptop ?

Thanks.
 

razel

Platinum Member
May 14, 2002
2,337
90
101
1 month? It would have dried up by now, however it's the junk inside that would concern me. Wet vacs especially the one in my garage is full of tiny metallic debris from cars. If it's possible, I would take it apart and spray electrical contact cleaner all over the PCB.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,352
10,050
126
put into a rubber-maid container with a sealed lid, covered in isopropyl alcohol, and let it sit for a few hours, maybe shake it up a bit with the cover on the container, and then remove and let air-dry for a few days, it's probably fine.
 

killster1

Banned
Mar 15, 2007
6,208
475
126
Have a friend (no it really is not me) who sucked his USB thumb drive (which had his backups on it) into his wet VAC.

I gave him a replacement thumb drive and redid this backup.

It has been about a month since his drive went in the soup, any possibility that after drying out, it might still work ?

Would it possibly hurt anything if I tried the thumb drive on my old laptop ?

Thanks.
might need to sand off the rust get some fresh contact points.
 

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
1,662
5
81
Tried it in my old desktop and it worked just fine. The way it is made, it would have had to have been in the water for a fairly long period of time for the water to get into the interior of it. Probably pretty much waterproof at least for a short period of time. Thanks.
 

pcgeek11

Lifer
Jun 12, 2005
21,321
4,440
136
Tried it in my old desktop and it worked just fine. The way it is made, it would have had to have been in the water for a fairly long period of time for the water to get into the interior of it. Probably pretty much waterproof at least for a short period of time. Thanks.


Some of mine have been through a washer and dryer in the pocket of my jeans. They have always worked after a few days of drying out for safety in a cup of dry rice.