USB flash drives and water.

[Little Girl]

Hey there,

Ian Bruntlett wrote:

>I have a couple of USB flash drives that *might* have gone in the
>washing machine a few days ago.

Oh, my.

> They seem to be bone dry.

How long has it been drying and how have you been drying it? There
seem to be a variety of opinions on how the drying process should go
and whether it will be fine after that or not:

https://www.quora.com/My-USB-flash-drive-went-through-a-wash-What-should-I-do

I would probably go with drying it off with a towel, setting it
somewhere out of the sun to dry for a few hours while flipping it
over every few minutes, and then stuffing it into a jar of dry rice
for a few days to absorb any remaining moisture.

>I am wondering - can I risk connecting them up to a computer to see
>if they are still working?

When you're convinced it's completely dry, I'd do what Colin
suggested and use your cheapest device with it first.

If it works, it would probably be a good idea to get anything you
care about off of it immediately, because odds are good that your
washing machine doesn't use distilled water, so any of the little
nasties that can live in tap water could still be there and could
continue to do damage (corrosion, etc.) even after something dries.

Once this is sorted, you might want to look for waterproof pill
containers. They come in a variety of sizes and you could find one
that's just the right size to hold your USB stick from now on.

-- 
Little Girl

There is no spoon.