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Title says it all.
I have a number of "old" MicroSD cards, that aren't really worth putting into any phone or tablet anymore, but still seem to be very capable of storing data (and reading it back - I've made sure to verify that).
I have a lot of documents (drivers license, insurance papers, health cards, various ID cards, income tax papers, etc) that I keep in a relatively small (8GB) encrypted container file, created with VeraCrypt.
Any one of the MicroSD cards ought to be suitable for storing an extra copy of the encrypted file. The VeraCrypt is part of my regular backup set.
My question is - how tough are MicroSD cards, really? Rugged enough to leave in a wallet you carry in your back pocket? I feel like it wouldn't take much for them to bend and snap in half. I have slightly larger plastic cases (that the cards typically come with), which might help prevent them from bending, but these are much thicker than a typical card itself, so I lose that benefit and now have something bulky in my wallet.
What do you think? Leave one unprotected in my wallet, or does someone manufacture some sort of slightly bigger container for them that's rugged enough but still not too bulky?
Or now that I think of it, does anyone know of a wallet with a tiny pocket that can be closed with a zipper or something that would help prevent a card from accidentally slipping out...?
Or would you just forego the whole idea, and place the encrypted file on your phone...
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If you find a way to keep it safely in your wallet you still need some way to read it, like your phone.
So why not just keep it on/in your phone?
If you can't find time to do it right the first time, how are you going to find time to do it again?
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Mike Hankey wrote: you still need some way to read it, like your phone.
Not a concern for my use case, as a matter of fact, I don't want my phone to easily be able to use it, just store it so I can later transfer it back to a PC if I ever need to.
I'm not doing this to view the content of the encrypted file on the go; I view this as just an extra offsite backup that follows me everywhere I go.
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I'd put it on my phone. MicroSD cards are problematic, simply by virtue of being so small. I wouldn't trust it even in a wallet. You're digging around in there for something else, it falls out you won't even notice. Over a long enough timeline it's bound to happen.
The other thing is is they are simply not reliable long term storage. Bit drift seems to be a thing, and it will corrupt if not regularly used, in my experience. This jibes with what I've read online on the subject.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
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That's one of my primary concerns.
I'm more okay with losing a card every once in a while (as I said, the data's encrypted) than losing the data because it becomes unreadable. I just don't know whether sitting in a wallet would exacerbate that type of problem.
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They're very physically durable from what I've seen. I've even seen one work after it melted on a hot car dash.
But they're just not entirely.. stable? I guess.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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Hmm, tape a small envelope in your phone case and store one or two there?
Should be a feature of those phone dot thingies.
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Hmmm, what I have is more of a protector than one of those fancy cases that fold and have pockets of their own, but I could still put a card in a small ziplock bag taped at the back of the phone (and then place the case back over it).
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I have a couple of external USB drives for backups of data, attached to my PC. The drives are Bitlocker encrypted, in case one gets lost or stolen. Everytime I start the PC I have to use my Bitlocker password to get access to the drives.
However, I recently discovered that once I have access to a drive, if I turn off the PC by hitting the power button instead of doing a proper shutdown through the Start menu, any "open" drives remain open. Next time I start the machine, the drive is immediately accessible. No password needed! You have to go through the proper shutdown procedure to ensure your machine won't have immediate access to the drive on the next startup.
I must admit I haven't checked if a different computer will also have access to the drive left open on my main PC. But the point is: My main PC may get stolen with the external drives during a burglary, for example.
Ok, I have had my coffee, so you can all come out now!
modified 3hrs 10mins ago.
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Check the power management settings - your power button is probably set to "sleep" or "hibernate" but there is a "Shut down" option which should restart the OS on power up and require access control to the drives: Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > Chose what the power buttons do
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
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Yes, I found the setting to change what the power buttons do. I changed that from "sleep" to "shut down".
BUT: There is no way to save this change!  At least not in the very latest version of Windows 11! When I exit the settings panel, Windows resets the setting to the default "sleep"! Stoopid Windows!
Ok, I have had my coffee, so you can all come out now!
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Did you hit the "Change settings that are currently unavailable" - the system settings are in UAC Registry so unless you are elevated, it won't change. Mine is set to "Shut down" and that is persistent.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
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Yes I did change that setting and it is NOT persistent. Note: I am the only user on this machine and I am the only administrator. It is running Windows 11 Pro fully updated. I have hibernation mode turned off as it bloats up my system backup images.
Ok, I have had my coffee, so you can all come out now!
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Well, if your system does go in sleep mode, then it'll have to do a full power-up anyway if your system gets stolen and spends any amount of time without any power, just as if you'd have yanked the power cord while it was turned on, rather than doing it while it was sleeping--the results would be the same. Unless it's a laptop and the battery runs long enough.
But perhaps more importantly (from my perspective): If your external drives are backups, physically disconnect them and only power them on when doing an actual backup. Ransomware is just as capable of encrypting your mounted backup drives as your main system. Especially since you enter your Bitlocker password on every boot, conveniently making your backups accessible to said malware.
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I noticed similar with an encrypted USB drive - one of those with a keypad built into it to key a pin (6 digits).
One thing you might be able to do to change things is messing with the power states for them.
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wow.
The credentials are not revoked when restarting a machine ?
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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Depends: if you hibernate or sleep, then probably not unless you log off and log in again. And since most people have "auto logout" disabled to save effort ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Good to know. I'm the only one likely to access my machine, as I live and work out of the same place.
That said, I've been known to angrily turn my machine off the bad way when it misbehaves. I know I'm not really "punishing" it, more myself, but it still feels cathartic.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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I love solving problems using template metaprogramming. It's probably a bad thing, because I tend to gravitate toward it unless I stop myself.
In this case, I have a good reason for it. I need to do color model conversions at compile time.
A pixel has channels, like Red Green and Blue, or Hue Saturation Value, or Y U V, etc
It may also have a metachannel of sorts called an alpha channel.
It might even have no-op channels that do nothing but take up space (for in memory padding)
The presence of no-op channels and alpha channel makes things sort of complicated when determining the color model.
I have
rgb_pixel<16>::has_channel_names<channel_name::R, channel_name::G, channel_name::B>::value
For example (which resolves to true in the above case) for determining the color model - RGB as above in this case.
In order to be more robust, I need to have a different version of that template like, has_color_model or something.
But also, it's a tricky problem to solve with templates. That's what I like.
Sane people play sudoku.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
modified 2hrs 5mins ago.
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When they rewrote Windows explorer for Win 11, they clearly gave the job to the office junior, who had no idea what the previous version (matured for decades in the warm heat of actual usage) was capable of. And they didn't bother to find out because adding tabs was clearly a much more interesting use of their time.
And today I notice they have put something back: you can now drop files onto parts of the address bar to copy / move files to the parent folder (for example) or onto the folder list on the left!
Taken 'em long enough to put back a useful function, but I'm happy they finally did.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
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Oh I've missed that particular feature greatly!
I've just got to wait for our instance to catch up ... :tapping fingers:, :tapping foot:
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So have I - the tabs are still useless because you can't drop onto tabs, but ... maybe in a decade they'll think of that.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Quote: maybe in a decade they'll think of that.
they'll probably reincarnate VB6 before they think of that 
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Still on Win10 here... are you telling me that in Win11 you couldn't (until now) drag/drop directly onto the folder (treeview) panel? That's absolutely crazy! I even have links to FTP sites so that I can just drag-drop up to FTP (without having to open the FTP folder and get the file list, which takes foreeeeever).
That said, I currently (starting a week or so ago) have an issue where if I right-click anything in explorer (to access anything on the context menu) it takes a good 30 seconds to open... I'm assuming a 3rd party tool (e.g. SodaPDF, Notepad++, PowerISO or something) is broken... nothing updated for a while. Except.. yes a Windows update, 13th June. doh...
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I had that as well - lasted about a week, but suddenly went away. I thought it was doing a "proper reboot" of my system that cured it, but probably not.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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