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Advice for Testing USB Sticks and Data Recovery Tools

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4wd:
For a more detailed look at your USB Flash devices you can also check out ChipGenius, (Google translated).

Advice for Testing USB Sticks and Data Recovery Tools

ChipGenius (chip Wizard) is a USB device detection tool-chip models, it will automatically query disk, MP3/MP4, card readers, mobile hard drive and all USB devices chip control models, manufacturers, brands, and provide relevant information Download Address.  Of course, can also access the USB device VID / PID information, device name, interface speed, serial number, equipment and other versions.
Small green software, plug-and-play, digital consumer electronics enthusiast, DIY and maintenance personnel digital good helper around.
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After analysing a drive it can also provide a link to a production tool suitable for that drive that can allow you to change various parameters of the drive, eg. you can turn it into a virtual writable CD drive - or render it useless if you screw up.

MerleOne:
I had once a fake USB key, supposedly 1GB, actually only 512MB.  The HP USB Format Tool was able to reformat it to its real size. It has been working nicely since then.  Other keys, that weren't reformatted, got damaged after a while, probably whe  more than 512 MB was written.

To test them, I also rely on a similar tool, Bart Stuff Test (http://www.nu2.nu/bst/).

brahman:
Found an even more comprehensive testing program for USB Flash Drives: Check Flash

For simplicity I use h2testw but for more comprehensive stuff I use Check Flash now.

Regards,

B.

P.S.: Same link as above is another nice proggie: Video Stress Test to check your graphic card's memory.

MilesAhead:
I had once a fake USB key, supposedly 1GB, actually only 512MB.  The HP USB Format Tool was able to reformat it to its real size. It has been working nicely since then.  Other keys, that weren't reformatted, got damaged after a while, probably whe  more than 512 MB was written.

To test them, I also rely on a similar tool, Bart Stuff Test (http://www.nu2.nu/bst/).
-MerleOne (July 05, 2009, 04:34 PM)
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One thing I noticed with a USB key I formatted. It seems obvious but easy to forget in the rush of the moment.  I did a quick format to another file system type.  Later after showing a file successfully copied, it would not read it all back out.  A full format as NTFS fixed it.. even just using Windows shell format.

MilesAhead:
...

What used to be the dirty little secret of the USB drive industry was how hard it was (is?) to find the read/write speeds on every drive. Sometimes two different brand drives which are otherwise identical have radically different read and write capabilities. Sometimes for just about the same price you can get a drive that's 3 times or more faster than its competitors.
-Innuendo (July 04, 2009, 09:21 AM)
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I just spent a couple of weeks trying to pick out a flash drive due to this very thing.  The online store tech specs blurb often doesn't even have the write speed listed.  Checking out benchmarks you find what is supposed to be a good ratio of write speed per dollar then find out from user reviews, once delivered the drive doesn't actually write at that speed for sustained writes.

I ended up with a Verbatim Store & Go which has pretty good sequential write speed, but I'm just wondering how it will stand up to constant plugging/unplugging since it has a plastic slide inside a really flimsy plastic sleeve.

Seems like instead of devices these things are still considered throw-away gimmicks or stocking stuffers.  Kind of like a ball point pen.  Most of these 16 GB or larger are coming in at over $50.  Time there should be some meaningful stats to go with them.  Like sequential read/write speed and durability info(will the thing break the 11th time you unplug it?)

Serious reviews should contain "life testing" results where an automaton plugs/unplugs the thing with a counter to give the average fail count.  Great if something writes at 20 MB/sec. but not so great if it splits in 2 the 3rd time you unplug it.

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