Should You Put Serial Numbers On Your USB Flash Drives
Are you interested in keeping track of the USB flash drives you give out? Do you need to associate every USB Drive to a specific person or company? Perhaps you’re giving out sticks that are pre-loaded with sensitive pricing or perhaps they’ve got embargoed press release information on them that must not fall into the wrong hands.
If you’re a school or university and you’re giving the sticks away to students then you might want something on the stick that “binds” them to student – at least this way if the USB stick is lost (and subsequently found) it can be repatriated to the student who lost it. There’s nothing worse then losing precious coursework stored on a USB flash drive!
An easy way to achieve this is to get a unique serial number printed or engraved on every USB stick and record who you give them to. Engraving costs pennies or nothing depending on how many sticks you buy and it is a simple but effective solution. There are various places a serial number can be put on the sticks including the main body, on the USB connector and the side of the body.
If you are planning to pre-loaded sensitive data onto the USB memory sticks then as well as knowing who has been given which stick you might want to consider password protecting the data or even putting some form of encryption solution on the USB memory stick.
Some companies that distribute their sales brochures and distributor price lists on USB flash drives put serial numbers on them not so much to track them if they get lost but to create different “batches” of USB sticks (determined by a range of serial numbers) onto which they then pre-load different prices lists (with differing discount structures etc.). When your faced with 500 USB sticks they all look the same so a serial number is just a bit of a safety net to make sure the right person/company gets the right information – you also have an audit trail of who’s been sent what.
The images here show every USB flash drive uniquely marked with a serial numbers but it is just as easy to personalise every drive with a persons name if preferred – you just need to provide a spreadsheet with these details when you place any order.
Don’t forget at the moment we’re offering free 4 colour printing, free data-loading, free gift boxes and free delivery in the UK (we do ship anywhere in the world but we charge for International shipments at cost)