Use Your Mobile Number As A USB Drive Label

USB drives have lots of great uses, but they’re also easy to leave behind. One Lifehacker reader adds an extra degree of identification by making his phone number the volume label for his USB drives.

David offered up the hint in a comment on our post on 10 USB drive tricks:

I always use a volume label of my mobile phone number . . . If I leave the USB device somewhere, it’ll show my phone number and hopefully someone will recognise it’s a phone number, and call me to tell me they’ve found it.

Volume labels can have up to 11 characters, so a standard 10-digit mobile number fits in nicely. To change the label in Windows, right-click on the drive in an Explorer Window (or from the Computer icon on your start menu), select Properties, and then retype the label, as seen in the screenshot.

The success of this approach depends on users noticing the volume label, of course: if you’re a real klutz, then a stick-on label with your phone number (or email address) might be a necessary extra. We’ve suggested signing your portable media with a text file or a fun photo message, but this is another nice suggestion. Thanks David!

Smart idea!