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Computer: Storage: Removable
Collapsible USB Thumb Drive   (+1)  [vote for, against]
Recall the era of the Mighty Floppy!

A USB thumb drive of whatever capacity is in vogue at the time enclosed within a plastic shell that resembles, at least superficially, a 3-1/2" floppy disk.

However, a resemblance is all that it is, for behold!

Thanks to advances in data storage, high-density devices can be made quite small, hardly larger than a USB wireless dongle. Therefore, the device here need not simply be static, oh no. The floppy disk shell is in fact completely hollow and made up of a series of sections which can be accordioned/collapsed towards the body of the computer. When in its standard position, the faux disc's body is held steady by two firm metal siderails. Simply push the USB into the port, collapse the hollow body, and fold the side rails over to lock in its collapsed position.

It would still stick out from the computer a bit, of course, but the anachronistic value outweighs the imperfections in my mind.
-- shapu, Mar 10 2016

Inspiration http://craigpickard...ork#/retro-storage/
[shapu, Mar 10 2016]

Similar to the other link, but with drive http://hackaday.com...des-sd-card-reader/
[bs0u0155, Mar 10 2016]

This is brilliant but I don't understand it.

Is it a USB stick that telescopes down so that it doesn't stick out of the computer so much?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 10 2016


I'm not sure I follow your "folding up" process, but it would be better to utilise the "rotational" nature of the innards: put a ring of memory chips as the internal "disc", so you can select a chip before plugging it in to your USB slot (or add a tiny motor, and select on-the-fly).
-- neutrinos_shadow, Mar 10 2016


[MB] Close. I'm thinking accordion-style collapse. I'll edit to clarify.

[NS]: your concept makes sense in terms of attempting to use a floppy-reminiscent USB thumb drive to achieve large storage capacity with lots of separate drives. That would be good if you need redundancy or need to isolate files or directories from one another, I suppose.
-- shapu, Mar 10 2016


(marked-for-tagline)

" This is brilliant but I don't understand it. "
-- normzone, Mar 10 2016


^ !
-- whatrock, Mar 10 2016



random, halfbakery