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USB Mouse Flash Drive Hack

Got an old mouse and a flash drive laying around? Put them together and make a USB Mouse Flash Drive! This is my first Instructable, any constructive criticism will be appreciated.

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Step 1Materials Needed

You will need:

USB flash drive
Old Mouse
USB extension cord
Dremel (optional) (not shown)
Assorted Screwdrivers (not shown)

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18 comments

Jul 27, 2011. 5:30 PMLaffyDuck187 says:

Just scrape off the little "Logitech" logo with an X-acto knife or sandpaper. Use rubbing alcohol and rub off the "dell" symbol, and say it's a generic mouse you got at the dollar store.

May 16, 2012. 5:51 PMacabrera7 says:

nice one! and lol too...!!!

May 16, 2012. 5:46 PMacabrera7 says:

A Logitech Unifying keyboard and mouse!!!!

Apr 28, 2012. 7:32 AMAtlas Portal 2 says:

how do you fool your friends with this?

May 24, 2011. 8:23 AMpremald says:

I had one question, how does the PC know this is a mouse? Won't the PC identify this as a Flash Drive, rather than a mouse? Or maybe I'm misunderstanding the application...I have an old style mouse and I want to make it into a USB mouse, so I thought of using this instructable...can you please help?

Jul 4, 2011. 8:59 PMfairypenguin22 (author) says:

This 'ible is for making a flash drive. This will not function as a mouse when you are done with it. It is made to fool people. You can get an adapter to make a PS/2 mouse into a USB mouse, however.

Nov 1, 2011. 9:30 AM

furrysalamander says:

Make it have both inside the case, as well as a usb hub with wifi and an sd card slot!

Jan 7, 2010. 5:57 PM

zieak says:

Not bad... I've been considering trying to cram a usb hub into an optical mouse. One of the hub ports could be connected to the mouse, one to a large capacity thumb drive and the other wired to a SD card reader.

I travel a bit and it would be nice to be able to back up my pictures to a drive (integrated into a mouse) and use the drive to host programs to be able to browse the web safely from public computers.

I should get to work on it...

Mar 21, 2011. 6:49 PMDodge says:

I did exactly that. It does work, but sometimes you have to unplug and replug it in for the mouse to work. Also, it gets warm during use... Great in the winter. Summer, not so great.
I used this hub and this micro-SD card reader in this mouse. I made it before I joined Instructables. I made a tutorial on a different site.

May 24, 2011. 8:27 AMpremald says:

Hi Dodge, I wanted to change my old PS2 mouse to a USB mouse...what I'm not sure is how does the mouse get recognized by the PC once you attach a USB drive to it?

May 25, 2011. 5:51 AMDodge says:

Oh, wait... I see what you are trying to do. This won't work for you.
What you need is an adapter:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ps2-female-to-usb-male-convertor-plug-2688

Disregard my comment below.

May 25, 2011. 7:49 AMpremald says:

Hi Dodge, thanks for that pointer. However, what I want to do is actually make my own converter with USB memory stick, and PS2 mouse...so that I have a USB mouse...what I was wondering was how does the comp recognize this USB mouse?

May 25, 2011. 5:41 AMDodge says:

It's basically just like using a USB hub with a flash drive and a mouse plugged into it. The computer recognizes the hub first, then the drive and mouse. It should be all automatic... Plug-and-play.

Mar 11, 2010. 10:54 PM

KronoNaut says:

I've been telling my friends in the hardware industry that they need to put memory into corded mice so it would be both a mouse, and a flash drive.

Mar 22, 2010. 7:45 AMhoverbored says:

I agree that corded, or 'hard plugged' USB devices should all have SOME memory in them. The obvious use is in wifi devices and printers, where they could contain their own drivers!

Apr 17, 2010. 4:19 AMSimoMies says:

As soon as I get money for a chep-o micro USB hub and a mouse, I shall do that and maybe post an instructable about it :) Been thinking about this for a long time and my fingers itch to get tinkering again :)

Jun 24, 2010. 10:42 AMnatman3400 says:

I did that a while back, i was rebuilding it to include a dpi multiplier, so i gutted it keeping only the senser. After i built in the new micro controller, i had to use a usb hub to get it to work, because i didn't want to loose a good usb cable i use for my scanner, so i soldered the usb connection to the hub. I also had a 64 GB SATA SSD drive (Pulled from a pocket sized laptop), the size of my thumbnail, and I built it in too. Now my mouse has my games on it.