Pendrive recognized but not "fdisk-able". But works OK in Windows!

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I got one of these for Christmas, an unbranded 32Gb USB stick which wouldn't play in Linux but appeared to work in Windows. idVendor was 0011 and this led me to this discussion through a Google Search. I downloaded a Windows program called H2testw www DOT heise DOT de/software/download/h2testw/50539 the program itself is in English as well as German so just hit download, look inside the zip and read the readme file. Anyway I'm in WinXp as I type, and this program has been running for several hours and still has over 4 hours to run. The output so far reads as follows:


The media is likely to be defective.
7.5 GByte OK (15912960 sectors)
10.0 GByte DATA LOST (21019296 sectors)
Details:10.0 GByte overwritten (21019296 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
0 KByte corrupted (0 sectors)
228 MByte aliased memory (466944 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x00000001e5a00000
Expected: 0x00000001e5a00000
Found: 0x00000007cc200000
H2testw version 1.3

Only the DATA LOST and Details lines are increasing as the test proceeds. The others do not change at all. This is telling me that we have a drive with 7.5Gb actual capacity (typical for an 8Gb drive) but the controller chip has been faked to return 32Gb. I actually think that these are on sale at Amazon called "7daymemory" well they're physically identical anyway. Considering that the 32Gb bytestor USB stick is around £20, and works but with speed issues, getting this for £16 seems to be a step too far. And so it proves.

Quod erat demostrandum.

Thanks for this information. It's a pity we can do nothing about it. Those sellers sprout like mushrooms and withdraw like ghosts. There's no way reporting them in eBay, Amazon or wherever.

But I've got a good lesson: never again buy anything to Chinese that could possibly be faked.

As to my USB stick, one of my brothers is using it as "family buffer" for movies. I think he's never filled the little thing beyond 4 or 5 Gb. :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zogoibi

As to my USB stick, one of my brothers is using it as "family buffer" for movies. I think he's never filled the little thing beyond 4 or 5 Gb. :(

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The problem here is that if it gets fragmented, then the 7.5Gb line may be crossed over with far less data on it! May I suggest you tell your brother to partition it (7gb FAT32 and the rest, empty!) which should act as some protection against this. I think it might make the stick usable.

By the way it's not 7daymemory, it's 7dayshop at Amazon (my mistake). I am using PCLinuxOS and one reviewer said it wouldn't work under Ubuntu. Reviews vary wildly, and I suggest that it's down to the actual amount of data people are putting on the drive. If it's small, then people think they have a 32Gb drive cheap. If it's a lot, then they are losing data. Never the twain shall meet!

Partition it! That's a darn good idea. Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't think you might actually even lose data with such a device...

I'll do it. As you say, it might make the stick usable under Linux: just an only partition under 8Gb. In any case, I've downloaded the program you mention and I'll pass it to the pendrive, in order to know exactly how much real usable space I have. I'll report results here, for general knowledge, if I'm able to remember...

It won't make it work on Linux, it might just make it safe to use on Windows.

Oh, Well. I see... Thanks for the info.
In any case, it turns out that my bro doesn't have that pendrive any more. So, I couldn't pass it the program.