Scan to Thumb Drive

One way to ensure that important sensitive document stay secure is to scan to a thumb drive as opposed to sending it over e-mail. This article will show you the steps to take in order to do that on a Toshiba or Konica Minolta copier that you have access to on campus. Other types of copiers will have this function as well, and the steps should be relatively similar.

Issue/Question

• Many of the documents that we interact with on a daily basis contain sensitive information that would be classified under HIPAA, FERPA or that contains Personal Identifiable Information (PII). In order to ensure the utmost security when transferring these documents, the typical scan-to-email security that you may use for general documents would not be sufficient. One way to circumvent these concerns while still getting the physical documents in a digital format would be to use a thumb drive and the scan-to-thumb drive option that is available on most copiers on campus. 

Environment

• Toshiba/ Konica Mintola/ Etc. 

Resolution

• Toshiba
  • Insert the thumb drive into the copier. The USB slot will typically be located on the edge of the touchpad/keypad or on the side of the device itself. 
  • Once the machine detects the drive, a notification should appear on the periphery of the screen saying 'Found USB Device'. If you are seeing this message, you are on the right track. 
  • Now select the 'Scan' button on your touchpad/keypad as you normally would.
  • Now you will select the 'USB' option and press ok (you will have the option to name your file at this point, if you so choose) and then press scan again, and the file should be saved on your thumb drive.   
  • The machine will inform you when it is safe to remove your USB device.
• ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

 

• Konica Minolta
  • Insert the thumb drive into the copier. The USB slot will typically be located on the edge of the touchpad/keypad or on the side of the device itself.   
    •   
  • When a Konica Minolta detects a thumb drive, you should expect to see a notification reading 'External Memory' that lists three options to choose from. This notification will be impossible to miss as it fills the majority of the screen.
  • Select the 'Save a document to External Memory' option in order to scan a document to your thumb drive. 
  • At this point you should place your document in the automatic document feeder or on the scanning bed. 
  • Here you can rename your document and adjust any settings, then finally press start and the document will be saved to your thumb drive. It is now safe to remove your USB device.

Notes

• If your device is not being detected by the copier, it may be that your thumb drive needs to be reformatted as FAT32. If you have any questions about this process, give the helpdesk a call and we will be able to help you out. 
• It is also important to note that some models of copier will not recognize USB drives that are too large in storage size. Before reformatting your drive, see if you have a smaller thumb drive laying around that you might be able to use instead. 
• While we have detailed how this process works on the two most common brands of copier on campus, it should work with other brands as well in much the same way. If you have any questions about this process with a different model type, just give us a call and we will be happy to guide you through it.