When You First Notice It’s Missing
The first thing to do when you realize your flash drive is missing is try to remember the last place you recall having it. Retrace your steps and visually check any areas where you may have set it down. Carefully look through any bags, purses, backpacks, briefcases, or jackets you carried that day. Common places flash drives can fall include pockets, car seats, couches, desks, nightstands, etc. Mentally walk through everywhere you went that day and anywhere you may have plugged it in or taken it out.
According to a study by Comparitech, around 68% of lost USB drives are eventually recovered by retracing steps, so don’t lose hope if it doesn’t immediately turn up. Keep looking in all the places you think it may be. Also ask any friends or family members that were with you if they remember seeing you with it or setting it down. Narrow down where you last remember having it to help zero in on where it might be.
Search Your Home
The vast majority of lost items are somewhere within your own home, so begin your search there. Start by thoroughly looking in any area you frequent or remember having the flash drive lately. Look under furniture like the couch, chairs, and beds where small items can easily slip down and get lodged unseen. Open up drawers, cabinets, containers, and shelves to peer inside. Check behind appliances and electronics, as flash drives can fall behind.
Be sure to search inside clothing items and bags you’ve used recently. Carefully go through the pockets of any pants, jackets, purses, backpacks, or bags you’ve carried lately. Also examine clothing piles and laundry bins in case you stashed the flash drive for safekeeping.
Consider when you last remember having the flash drive or using it on your computer. Retrace your steps through the house over the past few days, rechecking anywhere you may have set it down. Don’t just glance – take your time and thoroughly search each area. With persistence, there’s a good chance your flash drive is hiding somewhere within your home.
Check Your Office or School
If you last remember having your flash drive at work or school, thoroughly check your office or classroom. Start by asking coworkers or classmates if they’ve seen it. Oftentimes, someone may have found the flash drive and is holding onto it for you.
Carefully check under and around your desk, making sure to look on the floor and inside desk drawers. Check inside your computer to confirm the flash drive isn’t still plugged in. Expand your search to common areas like printers, copiers, meeting rooms, and break rooms. Retrace your steps during the workday when you may have had the flash drive with you.
If there is a central lost and found at your office or school, inquire there as well. Leave your contact details so you can be notified if your flash drive turns up. Persistently checking over several days increases your chances of recovering a lost flash drive at work or school.
Check Your Car
One of the most common places to lose a small item like a flash drive is inside your car. Be sure to thoroughly check all areas of your vehicle where a flash drive may have fallen out of your bag or pocket.
Look under the seats, lifting up any floor mats or debris that may be obscuring your view. Shine a flashlight to illuminate dark corners and crevices. Check inside the center console and glove compartment, feeling around with your hand in case the flash drive fell into a crack. Don’t forget to look in the trunk and any storage compartments or bag pockets as well.
Carefully check in and around the cup holders, which can easily swallow up a flash drive. Your flash drive could have also slid under the brake or gas pedals, so check the floor mats beneath them. If you placed your bag or jacket on a seat, look beneath where they were sitting in case the flash drive fell out.
Be diligent and meticulous when searching your car, looking in every possible hiding spot a small object could disappear into. With a thorough search, you’re likely to recover your lost flash drive somewhere in your vehicle.
Retrace Your Steps
One of the most effective ways to find a lost item is to mentally retrace your steps and visualize where you last remember having the flash drive. Close your eyes and carefully go through your memories chronologically, starting from the last place you definitively remember having the drive. Picture yourself in that location and the surrounding environment. What were you doing? Where did you go next? Recreate your exact movements step-by-step.
As you mentally walk through your routine, thoroughly check any place you may have set down the flash drive. Look in bags, on surfaces, next to computers or devices you may have plugged it into. If it’s a location you frequent, like your home or office, try reenacting your standard habits and visualize each place you interact with objects. Check couches, desks, nightstands, counters, or anywhere else you typically set down items like your keys or phone.
Often flash drives are left plugged into a computer or laptop if you were recently accessing files. Be sure to check any devices you used that day or regularly use. Visually tracing your steps may help spark the memory of where you last left your flash drive.
Use Tech to Locate It
If you set up a contact phone number on your lost USB drive, you may be able to call it and potentially reach someone who found it. Some USB drives come with built-in GPS tracking capabilities as well. Log in to the drive manufacturer’s website to see if your specific model offers any kind of location tracking that could help pinpoint its whereabouts.
You can also check when the USB drive was last accessed by logging into any cloud storage accounts, email accounts, or social media accounts you may have connected to the drive. The “last seen” timestamp and IP address may provide clues as to the drive’s current location or who last used it.
There are also apps like Locate My Drive that you can install ahead of time that will track the drive’s location history. If you didn’t already have this type of app installed, it may be too late, but could be something to consider for any future USB drives you want to keep track of. For more information, see this article: https://www.rewardhero.com/en/lost-and-found-blog/best-methods-for-finding-a-lost-usb-flash-drive
Check With Friends
One of the most effective strategies for finding a lost item is to ask your friends if you lent it to them or left it at their house. Many times we loan out items and forget to get them back. Send out a message to a group chat or individually text any friends you’ve seen recently. Ask them to check around their house, car, office or anywhere you may have left the flash drive behind. Friends are often eager to help locate lost items, especially if it’s their fault you can’t find it! According to a Reddit thread, you should always accept a friend’s offer to fully repay an item if they lost it.
Contact Any Places Visited
If you’ve been to any public places like the library, coffee shop, school, or office recently, call or visit their lost and found.(“Two-thirds of ‘lost and found’ USB flash drives infected with malware.” ZDNet, 6 Dec. 2011) Often times people turn in found flash drives to these locations hoping the owner will come looking for it. Give each place a call and ask if anyone has turned in a flash drive matching the description of yours. And if you’re able to, stop by in person and check their lost and found bin just in case. Public places want to return lost items to their rightful owners, so they’re likely to work with you.
Buy a Replacement
At some point you may decide it’s easier to simply buy a new flash drive rather than continue searching indefinitely. A basic 16GB USB flash drive can be purchased for around $5-10 (Kootion 20 Pack 16GB Flash Drive USB Flash Drive). Before doing so, be sure to check if any important files or data were saved locally on the lost drive. If you routinely backed up files to cloud storage like Dropbox or Google Drive, you may be able to download those files again. However if you have irreplaceable data or files stored only on the lost drive, you may want to keep searching or consider professional data recovery.
Data recovery services can retrieve lost data from damaged drives, but it can be expensive. Costs range from $100 for minor recovery up to $2000 or more for difficult cases requiring clean room work (Blizzard data recovery). Compare these prices to the value of your lost data to determine if data recovery could be worth the cost.
Don’t Give Up
Keep periodically checking likely spots it may turn up. The flash drive could turn up in unexpected places even after you’ve already searched there. Sometimes lost items find their way between furniture cushions, under car seats, at the back of drawers or closets, or in other hard-to-spot locations. Keep looking in places like these on a regular basis.
Maintain hope that the flash drive may still be found. Even if you’ve already searched everywhere you can think of, there’s always a chance it could turn up later. Stories abound of people finding USB drives years after they went missing, in unlikely spots like inside furniture or under floorboards. Don’t give up on ever finding it again.
Periodically check online classified ads in case someone found the flash drive and is trying to locate its owner. You could also post in local Facebook groups or online forums describing the lost item and when/where it went missing in case someone comes across it. Maintaining hope and persistence could pay off down the line if your flash drive is found.