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>> Look at my new storage solution. Yeah, I modified this floppy disk into a USB drive. I'm Tom Merritt, editor for CNET.com. On this edition of Insider Secrets, a very silly edition, I'll show you how to work this magic.
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Now, I wasn't geeky enough to actually make the USB port read the data off the floppy drive. I cheated. I took the guts out of this USB drive and stuck it inside the casing. Now I did this for three reasons. One, the joy of cutting things apart and destroying them. Two, the opportunity to use super glue. And three, just an unadulterated fascination with mixed cultural signals. Here's how you do it. First, you got to get the guts out of this USB drive. This one was about 15 bucks, not too expensive. And it's good because it's really slim. See the difference between that one and this one as far as popping out the case. Use scissors or a file or a screwdriver to pop open the case. Try not to break the part around here. You'll need that later. See that? That's what is inside a USB flash drive. Now set that aside and get your floppy disk. Again, use something to pop open the floppy, but be careful not to break it. In fact, try not to break open anymore than you actually need to fit that USB drive inside because this thing has to stay together as the case. Also, you can leave the original floppy stuff inside if you want as long as it doesn't get in the way of the USB drive. Now place the USB drive guts inside the floppy. There's a nice little notch right there. Make sure that you have the contact facing up and only the contact showing outside here. Once you've got it in place, super glue it without letting the super glue touch any of the contacts. Now you'll want to set this aside and let it dry while we work on a little bit of casing. Because you see if you tried to put this in as is right now, into the USB port, a little too floppy. Ha, get it? Anyway. One of the reasons that we picked this particular model of USB drive is because it's slim, but it also helps that it's plastic. I'm going to carefully cut the plastic part that held the contacts in place. Now I can fit that part under here and glue it into place on the floppy. All right, let that dry. And then when it's done, kind of like a cooking show, I've already got this one done, you pop it in. Now granted, that wide form factor isn't going to work with every USB port, but as I said, we didn't do this for practicality did we? Now I'm almost certain there's a better way to do this out there, so if you come up with it, let us know. Go ahead and post in our forums. Forums.CNET.com. Look for the CNETTV section. That's it for this edition of Insider Secrets. I'm Tom Merritt for CNET.com. Now, how about a punch card?
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