Bring Your Own Drive

Already own a fast USB drive or portable SSD? Mail it to us and we'll load Off-Grid AI Core onto it and send it back. It's the same software, library and maps as every Off-Grid AI drive, on hardware you already have.

How it works

◆ Choose Your Own Drive on the Off-Grid AI Core page and check out. Return shipping to you is added at checkout.

◆ Mail your drive to the address below with your order number. Sending it to us is at your cost; use a tracked service.

◆ When it arrives, we check it, erase it, load Core and ship it back within 3 business days, with tracking.

Drive requirements

◆ 256GB or larger, real capacity. We test every drive, because fake-capacity drives are common.

◆ USB 3.0 or newer (also sold as USB 3.1 Gen 1 or USB 3.2), with a USB-A or USB-C plug. USB 2 drives are not accepted.

◆ Fast enough to run the AI. The label on the box is not a speed: some drives sold as USB 3.2 are slower than our cheapest drive. Your drive must read at 150 MB/s or faster (our Carry drive reads at about 190 MB/s). We test every drive before loading.

◆ A readable hardware serial number. Your licence is tied to it. Some no-name and promotional drives don't report one and can't be used.

◆ Good choices: a portable SSD, or a high-performance flash drive such as the Kingston DataTraveler Max. Most budget and promotional sticks won't pass.

◆ Not accepted: spinning hard drives, SD cards, internal drives without an enclosure, Thunderbolt-only drives, drives that need their own power supply, and drives with hardware encryption or a PIN keypad.

Your data

Your drive will be erased. Copy anything you want to keep before you send it. We can't recover or return files left on it.

Mailing your drive

◆ Put the drive in an anti-static bag if you have one, then a padded mailer.

◆ Include a note with your order number, your name, and the drive's make and model. You can print the mail-in slip below.

◆ Send it to:
Off-Grid AI
c/o Elastic Thoughts LLC
101 Bilo Pl. #1030
Seneca, SC 29678

If your drive doesn't pass

We'll email you before doing anything. You can switch to our Carry 256GB drive for the price difference (we send your drive back with it), or we return your drive and refund your order, less the return postage.

Timing and refunds

◆ Cancel any time before your drive arrives for a full refund.

◆ If we haven't received a drive 45 days after your order, we cancel and refund it.

◆ Once your drive is loaded, the Core licence is bound to it, like an opened Off-Grid AI drive. If Core doesn't work on a drive that passed our checks, we fix it or refund it. We send your drive back either way; it was yours to begin with. See the Refunds & Returns Policy.

Questions about a specific drive? Email info@offgridai.io before you buy and we'll tell you if it's likely to pass.