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Remember how we came from saving school papers or work documents on floppy disks to CDs, and then the leap into flash drives upon its release in the early 2000 just made the task 10 times easier?
These days, flash drives are just as common as keychains, but still as useful when they were first introduced to the public.
If you’re in need of one or is just looking to get a backup flash drive, read up on how you could get one without spending a cent…
6 Ways You Can Get a Free Flash Drive
If you’re a student or employee, you understand the importance of a reliable and fast flash drive. Here are several ways you could get yours free:
1. Get a Free Flash Drive with Purchase
Many stores of computers, cameras, electronics, cell phones, and other tech-related stores often choose a free flash drive as freebie for purchases.
- Itpstyli – The company is a maker of over 1000 styli for CMM, machine center and gear measurement equipment. To get this free flash drive, reserve yours by adding to cart (and saving your cart as shopping list), and include it with your next order.
- MyBioSource.com – This company is a huge seller of biological reagents. If you work in this field or experimenting on a project and require products in bulk, MyBioSource is giving away 1 free flash drive or more (depending on the amount of items you purchase). All freebies come in 8GB storage. Get 1 if you buy up to $1,600 total products, get 2 if your total reaches $2399, or 3+ flash drives if your total goes higher than $2400.
- GuardAir – This OSHA compliance kit also includes a free flash drive, but it is only for Guardair distributors and qualified end-users.
Also follow NewEgg, Best Buy, Tiger Direct and other similar tech-focused retailers to increase your chances of joining promotions.
Sometimes, these retailers giveaway items when you refer people, subscribe to their newsletter, share one of their promotional posts, contribute to their online presence, or just simply purchase items.
2. Flash Drive Stores
As you can imagine, there are very few stores selling ONLY flash drives. But they do exist. And since their main product is flash drives, your chances of getting a free flash drive is high. You may get it through a store promo, online contest, affiliate program, giveaways, and so on.
WeddingUSB, which is a branch under the Forest USB, is a France-based company that manufactures USB sticks in Hong Kong.
The free flash drive samples are 4G capacity with a wood-like design. You’re limited to just one freebie with engraving per postal address. It also comes with free delivery.
However, you do need to give back by saying something nice about the site and adding their link. When you’re done, include where you posted the review on the order page, and you’ll be sent a USB package in the mail.
This company doesn’t technically sell or giveaway any free flash drive, but if you have a ton of them already and had been dying to find a way to organize them, Store Smart has the solutions for you.
Store Smart sells various flash drive storage products, some of which you can ask samples of before paying for more.
Buy unbranded flash drives in bulk. If you wish to customize its accessories, send the company a message for a possible sample request.
3. Companies Promoting their Brand with a Free Flash Drive
Because flash drives really do come cheap these days, many companies choose flash drives as one of their giveaway items. They just slap on the company logo, or print out event details onto the item, then give away as freebies. Simple, old school marketing that remains effective to this day.
The companies don’t even need to be related to electronics. What companies do is save their information packets, product launch brochures, and other relevant materials into the flash drive. Pretty win-win, right?
Here are some examples:
- Pratt and Whitney – This company is giving away a fancy-looking free flash drive with 1GB storage and tech resources specific to P&W’s 150 years of innovation. Just fill out the form if you reside in the US or Canada, and work for a company dealing with metrology solutions. It is available until supplies last, limited to one person per company office location.
- Micro Center – Check if you have a Micro Center store near you. If you are near one and is willing to visit the store, enter your e-mail address on this link and look out for the coupon they send you via e-mail. This coupon entitles you to redeem a free Micro Center 32GB MicroSD & Flash Drive, no purchase necessary. Limited to one customer/household.
- Blues Media Player – Blues Media Player is a free-to-download, Windows-based media player. They’re giving away a free 8GB Drive by simply filling out the form here.
4. Promotional Companies Giving Away Free Flash Drive Samples
The designs of flash drives are sky’s the limit. Just check out how CustomUSB.com created a True Blood bottle-inspired USB flash drive that looks exactly like the bottle used on the famous vampire HBO show.
The cool thing about printing companies and marketing firms that create promotional items is that are they are usually open to giving free samples.
Are you an influencer in your industry?
Do you have a blog you could promote the company?
It's a giant box of free samples and it comes right to your door at no cost.
Click here and get yours.
Are you planning to buy in bulk?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then your chances of getting free samples are high. If not, it wouldn’t hurt to ask the following companies if you’re offering samples before purchase:
- Everything Branded – As a company providing promotional items to other companies, you won’t run out of options here. From bamboos to plastics to crazy-looking shapes, the flash drive designs here are definitely comprehensive. As of now, Everything Branded made their free samples into paid (but discounted) samples, so you’d have to pay a minimal fee to get a copy of your chosen design/color/print.
- Vista Print – This company normally has a sample kit available, but flash drives may sometimes be on a request basis.
- USB Memory Direct – Samples are available upon request, but some designs may not be available for immediate shipping as many of them are made to order. Contact your account manager for more information on getting flash drive samples.
- USB Spot – This company sends a physical sample of any USB flash drive model with no cost. Contact them for questions.
- FlashBay – Samples are given to corporate clients, so if you have a business registered, you might be able to get USB flash drive samples before ordering here.
- 4imprint.com – The company can send customers a sample of an item they’re considering. These samples are usually free of charge and are given to the customers to keep, but if the item you like is one of the more-expensive items, then the company may request you to return the sample after checking it out.
5. Giveaways of Flash Drive Brands
This last method has no guarantee if or when the brands will hold a giveaway of flash drives.
But if you really want to stock up on quality flash drives, your best bet is to subscribe to official company newsletters, follow them on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube will do), and bookmark their websites.
Famous brands of flash drives include: Kingston, Verbatim, SanDisk, Samsung, and generic flash drive manufacturers PNY and Enfain, to name a few.
6. Companies Rewarding Product Testers with Free Flash Drive
In the past, product review community Home Tester Club gave away USB flash drives of up to 128GB storage. In exchange for the freebie, the recipients were required to review the product as honestly as they can.
Not everyone were given the freebie, since these review sites usually go by a first-come, first-serve basis, by matching your age, gender, or location to the brand being given away, or by application (if you meet certain requirements).
When Microsoft announced that it requires Windows 12 testers and sent e-mails to users, the company said tit’s offering a free USB flash drive with at least 8GB of storage to those testers who want to support the road to the platform changes. Although the freebie wasn’t Microsoft-branded, the USB drives still came from legit companies like Kingston.
At the time, Microsoft’s emails stated: “To perform a clean installation of Windows, we recommend using a blank USB flash drive with at least 8GB of storage. If you don’t have one, request a USB by using this code: W111xxxxxx Limited supply. Items are available on a first-come, first-served basis.”
Where else Have You Found Free Flash Drive?
Do you know other methods you can score free flash drives?
If you’re interested in more similar freebies, check out my post on how to get other kinds of electronics for free.