I still have a few more freebies to share with you all but let’s give it a break. Let’s not forget this site is about computing and not offers or promotions. USB flash drives is pretty cheap nowadays and many people usually carry one with them wherever they go. It is so practical and small that sometimes we tend to keep everything in it and the thought of losing the USB drive can be daunting. Usually if a USB flash drive is lost or missing, there’s no hope of getting it back unless you have a note inside the drive or you use a marker to write down your contact on the USB drive.

However, having a note inside the USB flash drive is not something that can really grabbed the finder’s attention. People often gloss over and ignore text files. Hence you need something that is eye catching and can force/trick the finder. I found a very useful tool that is able to do more than placing a note which could possibly make the finder return your missing or lost USB flash drive back to you.

USB Lost and Found is a free tool that works on Windows 2000/XP/Server/Vista to setup your USB drive to keep unauthorized users from keeping your USB drive if it were to be lost.

USB Lost and Found

USB Lost and Found has two methods of telling unauthorized users to return it. The first method is the Message method which when the user tries to use your USB drive it comes up with a message box that tells them to return it, along with your contact information, and denies access to the USB drive.
USB Load and Found Message

The second method, which only comes with the Pro version, is called Lock Down. Lock Down immediately locks the user’s computer when the USB drive is accessed, covering the whole screen and denying access. When the computer is in lockdown mode, hotkeys such as Alt+F4 and Ctrl+Shift+Esc don’t work. Only Ctrl+Alt+Del would work and you can shutdown/restart/logoff your computer.
USB Lost Drive LockDown

When you’ve installed the lockdown protection on your USB flash drive, you can continue accessing your USB flash drive with any of the following methods below.

1. Totally disable autorun in your computer,
2. When AutoPlay appears, click on “Open folder to view files using Windows Explorer” instead of clicking on “Open folder to view files using the program provided on the device.” This is located near the bottom of the list of options in AutoPlay.
3. Go to My Computer, identify which drive letter is your USB flash drive, then right click and select Explore.
4. Go to My Computer, identify which drive letter is your USB flash drive, then type the drive name in the address bar and hit Enter.
5. Allow the USB Lost and Found Lock Down program to run and type in your password.

If you want the Lock Down feature, you’ll have to purchase the PRO version of USB Lost and Found for $3.49. To think about it, the lock down feature might work on “some” computer newbies but definitely not on more experienced users. If the computer has autorun turned off or security products such as USB Firewall or iKill installed, USB Lost and Found will not work. Maybe some antivirus will even warn and stop the autorun.inf from your USB flash drive… As you can see, this feature is not really perfect but I believe there are kind people in this world that would return the USB flash drive if to the owner. Another feature that could make it better is enter own custom message rather than the default “This USB drive is lost! Please contact: XXXXXXXXXX so that I may get my USB drive back! Thank you so much!”

[ Download USB Lost and Found ]

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