Beware of the usb stick you buy.

[kc1di]

Warning some new and cheap USB sticks not up to par as reported by the Register.

Failed USB sticks found to contain 'defective' memory chips

It's all down to recommissioned kit, claim techies tasked with retrieving data from busted gear

www.theregister.com

 

[Condobloke]

Stock coming out of China stands front and centre among the worst of this rubbish.

I have received usb sticks that cannot even be reformatted successfully. Errors galore.

You get what you pay for.

 

[KGIII]

Score one for me! I've mentioned how I consider thumb drives to be pretty much disposable.

I've never trusted them for any long-term storage solutions.

That doesn't mean they don't have value, it's just that I'm not going to trust them for anything important. They're great for sharing data, making installation media, or transporting data from one place to another when there's no network connection between them.

Edit:

There's one cheap brand that I've had great success with and that's Team Group. They're not the cheapest but they're not expensive. They've been consistently good products - for me.

 

[aeiou]

Score one for me! I've mentioned how I consider thumb drives to be pretty much disposable.

I've never trusted them for any long-term storage solutions.

That doesn't mean they don't have value, it's just that I'm not going to trust them for anything important. They're great for sharing data, making installation media, or transporting data from one place to another when there's no network connection between them.

Edit:

There's one cheap brand that I've had great success with and that's Team Group. They're not the cheapest but they're not expensive. They've been consistently good products - for me.

I've used a variety of USB Flash Drives, I've found SanDisk to be very reliable and Samsung to be the fastest.

 

[truckerDave]

Not too long ago, I watched a video on YT where the fella was saying that certain branded cheap ones on Amazon contained malware. Not real sure how true that is (If on the web, it has to be the Gospel. Right?). Or if it was true, if it has been rectified by now.

 

[aeiou]

Not too long ago, I watched a video on YT where the fella was saying that certain branded cheap ones on Amazon contained malware. Not real sure how true that is (If on the web, it has to be the Gospel. Right?). Or if it was true, if it has been rectified by now.

I always Format/Reformat any USB Flash Drive before using them, which should take care of any potential Malware problems. I seriously doubt that new flash drives sold by the major companies will have Malware. Anyway, don't buy or use cheap Flash Drives, it's not worth it.

 

[Vimmer]

i found that a pretty large percentage of usb drives i bought off ebay were crap, they just don't work. Probably counterfeit. And what's the point of returning something online that was under $10?

 

[ron.alan]

Stock coming out of China stands front and centre among the worst of this rubbish.

Are there any out there not made in China?

 

[osprey]

There are few checks that users can run on usb drives.

There's the e2fsck command from the package: e2fsprogs which can use the "badblocks" facility to find bad blocks. Users can use the badblocks program directly as well, but best to read the caveats on the manpage.

The package: f3, has a suite of tools including a probe, f3probe, and a fixer, f3fix, which deal with "fake memory" on usbs, that is, the difference between the claim made for the usb stick, and the real memory it has. The f3 tools try and mark out the real size and then make a partition of the real size so the usb can be used with knowledge about it's true capacity. The man page for the f3 tools are noted as "experimental", but they have worked here.

 

[bob466]

I always buy well known brands...so I don't have problems and come with a warranty too.

 

[The Duck]

Yeah I've had a few name brand ones crap right out of the pack.

Took them back and got a no brand and it's still working.

Most modern electronics these days is cheap garbage.

It's hit and miss imo.

 

[The Duck]

There's one cheap brand that I've had great success with and that's Team Group. They're not the cheapest but they're not expensive. They've been consistently good products - for me.

Yep I've had good results from team group products.

 

[kc1di]

I have always used sandisk sticks and never had a problem with them. But any USB stick can become faulty after awhile. So just be for warned they may crap out on you at any time.

 

[The Duck]

I have always used sandisk sticks and never had a problem with them. But any USB stick can become faulty after awhile. So just be for warned they may crap out on you at any time.

I've had good results with Sandisk and Lexar and PNY brands and quite a few other brands and off bands.

I've had a few of them fail out of the lot I figure it just happens which is why I save important stuff to a CD/DVD disc.

Short of stepping on CD/DVD disc they have been bulletproof.

 

[KGIII]

Yep I've had good results from team group products.

I'd initially tried their SSDs and was satisfied with the results. If you're cost-sensitive, they go on sale often.

 

[The Duck]

I'd initially tried their SSDs and was satisfied with the results. If you're cost-sensitive, they go on sale often.

Yeah Team Group are the first SSDs I installed in others computers.

 

[charlie.corder]

I have used several different brands of flash-drives. Memorex, Adata, Sandisk, Lexar, Onn, and a couple of no-name ones.
I have had as much success with Onn {Walmarts' brand} as any of the others. My use is basically using them to give to friends and family with different things on them. {Pics, vids, books, etc.} The smallest one now is 16 GB.
Been using flash-disks since they first came out. The first one cost over $50 and had a mini-cd which had to be installed first. It was a HUGE 64 MG in size. LOL.
BTW I have only had one fail on me, and that is because I ran over it with my car.
OG
TC

 

[Vimmer]

I always buy well known brands...so I don't have problems and come with a warranty too.

Yeah you should stick with companies that actually invest in their products, not Janky Electronics Corp. Warranties are sketchy though, i never buy warranties and i never regret it.

 

[bob466]

I didn't mean buying extra warranty...every product comes with a warranty e.g. My internal 500GB SSD has a 5 year warranty...of cause you have to keep the receipt.

 

[aeiou]

I didn't mean buying extra warranty...every product comes with a warranty e.g. My internal 500GB SSD has a 5 year warranty...of cause you have to keep the receipt.

of course