Ask Lemmy

I wouldnt even try. I'd rather write letters. You can achieve the same thing by putting what you want on the USB drive and on upgrade day you go to your friends house and socialise and if you need to transfer a file or share a funny meme you plug in your USB and do that.

The idea is called a sneakernet. There are a few currently running that I know of, but signup is the trickiest part — you have to know a member of the sneakernet irl to join.

You're probably not going to like this answer, but using the internet and a database would solve a lot of your problems.

IT is like anything else in life, everything is a tradeoff. You've chosen to use local storage instead of internet storage. That choice has pros and cons. Many of the problems you're encountering are because of the cons of local storage. By attempting to "solve" this problem, you're effectively trying to crowbar functionality from a technology that was never intended to function in that way.

I'm not saying these problems are insurmountable; anything is possible with enough time, money, and effort. But, I do humbly suggest it may be easier to approach the architecture of your project like an engineer; try to stick to the strengths of what you've chosen to work with and avoid its weaknesses, rather than trying to out-engineer them.

invite only ... unless authorized

Cryptography but it will be hard to achieve.

how do i not lose drives

Human problem.

too many video projects to make

How is relevant?

Last but not least: since you will use cryptography, why bother with USB keys? You can use the internet.

Your "experimental network" is pretty much how everyone shared files before broadband.