that's the sort of advice that non-techie people are looking for -- I hear even the U.S. Department of Defense wants to hear ideas. You should send them ALL your thumb drives and they will send them back but they clear out the bugs!!

my ex tasked me with: I NEED A LAPTOP

and i was like you want reliable or cheap or GIVE ME A LAPTOP, HERE IS MONEY YOU DUMB BOY

so I was into them Thinkpads before then and after then,

got cheaper from ignoring the clamoring of lovers,

but there was a period where you could just grab several pallets load of what the fuck laptops for super cheap

edit to add, not to be like me arguing with my ex:

they are all good laptops. good internals. Northbridge? excellent scoring potential.

yeas friend, i have an interesting "high-speed" cable that only belongs to my silly little hard drives. And I pulled that shit before the fascist turnover.