As we build up hordes of more and more gadgets, it can be tricky to keep track of where we've stored all our data. Is that the SD card you keep your photos on or the one you use to record video with your AVCHD camcorder? Which USB flash drive has your bootable Linux system and which has your presentation for work? Being aware of where your files are is even more important when you sell or throw out an old gadget, as you have no idea where it may end up. In the case of one MP3 player, before it found its way into an Oklahoma thrift shop, it was loaded by the previous owner with military documents.

The buyer couldn't get the player to work, so he hooked it up to his computer to view the contents as a USB drive. Inside, he found personnel data on deployed soldiers and mission planning data, not the kind of thing the military probably wants floating around in the open. Rather than being evidence of some nefarious plot to smuggle data out of military bases, it's more likely that someone was using the device to transfer the files and forgot they were on there.

The lesson to take home from this: double-check the contents of anything that can hold data before you get rid of it. Not only might you prevent embarrassing or sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands, but you could run across some long-lost file you thought you'd never find again. Just to be safe before getting rid of the gadget, you might want to check out one of the many software tools you can use to totally clean a drive of any stray data.

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