Crap Flash Drives

I thought I would give Amazon a try and see if the USB flash drives sold there are any better than the crap sold on eBay.  Well, it seems not.  I picked a drive in a metal case to stand up to a bit of abuse and order two in order to get the free shipping.  Amazon makes it hard to get the free shipping without signing up for their master plan that's over $100 a year now.  But eventually I got that to work. 

So the drives came today and I plugged on in to be tested with H2testw.  Of course it failed.  It seems to be a 32 GB drive doctored to report 512 GB.  

The return process involves a QR code that you show to the UPS store, but they don't send it to the phone in a convenient manner.  I would have had to use a SD card to move it or I guess I could email it to myself.  So I tried calling Amazon to see if they could just email it to me.  The person on the phone was a bit hard to understand, but eventually we communicated.  In the end, after I asked for this vendor to be reported, she said she would do that and also gave me the refund without a return.  

So in the end it worked out, but Amazon doesn't make it easy.  I guess if I were a high volume Amazon customer, I would know how to make it all easy, and would also be able to give this outfit a bad review.  But I'm not allowed to write reviews until I've spent $50!  

So much for buying at Amazon. 

-- 

Rick C.

- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 9:42:21 PM UTC-7, Ricky wrote:
> I thought I would give Amazon a try and see if the USB flash drives sold there are any better than the crap sold on eBay. Well, it seems not. I picked a drive in a metal case to stand up to a bit of abuse and order two in order to get the free shipping. Amazon makes it hard to get the free shipping without signing up for their master plan that's over $100 a year now. But eventually I got that to work. 
> 
> So the drives came today and I plugged on in to be tested with H2testw. Of course it failed. It seems to be a 32 GB drive doctored to report 512 GB. 
> 
> The return process involves a QR code that you show to the UPS store, but they don't send it to the phone in a convenient manner. I would have had to use a SD card to move it or I guess I could email it to myself. So I tried calling Amazon to see if they could just email it to me. The person on the phone was a bit hard to understand, but eventually we communicated. In the end, after I asked for this vendor to be reported, she said she would do that and also gave me the refund without a return. 
> 
> So in the end it worked out, but Amazon doesn't make it easy. I guess if I were a high volume Amazon customer, I would know how to make it all easy, and would also be able to give this outfit a bad review. But I'm not allowed to write reviews until I've spent $50! 
> 
> So much for buying at Amazon. 

You didn't say how much you paid for them. But from guessing, it's 2x 512G for less than $50.  You got what you paid for.

On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 12:48:06 AM UTC-4, Ed Lee wrote:
> On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 9:42:21 PM UTC-7, Ricky wrote: 
> > I thought I would give Amazon a try and see if the USB flash drives sold there are any better than the crap sold on eBay. Well, it seems not. I picked a drive in a metal case to stand up to a bit of abuse and order two in order to get the free shipping. Amazon makes it hard to get the free shipping without signing up for their master plan that's over $100 a year now. But eventually I got that to work. 
> > 
> > So the drives came today and I plugged on in to be tested with H2testw. Of course it failed. It seems to be a 32 GB drive doctored to report 512 GB. 
> > 
> > The return process involves a QR code that you show to the UPS store, but they don't send it to the phone in a convenient manner. I would have had to use a SD card to move it or I guess I could email it to myself. So I tried calling Amazon to see if they could just email it to me. The person on the phone was a bit hard to understand, but eventually we communicated. In the end, after I asked for this vendor to be reported, she said she would do that and also gave me the refund without a return. 
> > 
> > So in the end it worked out, but Amazon doesn't make it easy. I guess if I were a high volume Amazon customer, I would know how to make it all easy, and would also be able to give this outfit a bad review. But I'm not allowed to write reviews until I've spent $50! 
> > 
> > So much for buying at Amazon.
> You didn't say how much you paid for them. But from guessing, it's 2x 512G for less than $50. You got what you paid for.

In the end I paid nothing.  What should these drives cost? 

-- 

Rick C.

+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 10:19:35 PM UTC-7, Ricky wrote:
> On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 12:48:06 AM UTC-4, Ed Lee wrote: 
> > On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 9:42:21 PM UTC-7, Ricky wrote: 
> > > I thought I would give Amazon a try and see if the USB flash drives sold there are any better than the crap sold on eBay. Well, it seems not. 
> > You didn't say how much you paid for them. But from guessing, it's 2x 512G for less than $50. You got what you paid for.

> In the end I paid nothing. What should these drives cost? 

A good half-terabyte M.2 NVMe drive is about $50, and has four lanes (4x faster than USB-C).   Add $20 for
a USB interface and case, if you want it external and portable.   USB cable extra.

On a sunny day (Thu, 13 Oct 2022 22:46:01 -0700 (PDT)) it happened whit3rd
<whit3rd@gmail.com> wrote in
<b1371986-26d1-4ae1-9e0e-0480e1608dbdn@googlegroups.com>:

>On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 10:19:35 PM UTC-7, Ricky wrote:
>> On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 12:48:06 AM UTC-4, Ed Lee wrote: 
>> > On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 9:42:21 PM UTC-7, Ricky wrote: 
>> > > I thought I would give Amazon a try and see if the USB flash drives sold there are any better than the crap sold on eBay.
>> > > Well, it seems not. 
>> > You didn't say how much you paid for them. But from guessing, it's 2x 512G for less than $50. You got what you paid for.
>
>> In the end I paid nothing. What should these drives cost? 
>
>A good half-terabyte M.2 NVMe drive is about $50, and has four lanes (4x faster than USB-C).   Add $20 for
>a USB interface and case, if you want it external and portable.   USB cable extra.

I payed about 95 Euro (say 95 USD these days) for a Toshiba Canvio Basics 4 TB external USB harddisc. 
I now have 2 connected to my Raspberry Pi4s.
One runs 24/7 since December 2020 recording security cams and some other stuff.
 I do not see the point of large FLASH drives, but I have 32 GB and 64 GB Samsung micro sdcards everywhere.
Samsung has not failed me until today.

On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 1:46:06 AM UTC-4, whit3rd wrote:
> On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 10:19:35 PM UTC-7, Ricky wrote: 
> > On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 12:48:06 AM UTC-4, Ed Lee wrote: 
> > > On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 9:42:21 PM UTC-7, Ricky wrote: 
> > > > I thought I would give Amazon a try and see if the USB flash drives sold there are any better than the crap sold on eBay. Well, it seems not.
> > > You didn't say how much you paid for them. But from guessing, it's 2x 512G for less than $50. You got what you paid for. 
> 
> > In the end I paid nothing. What should these drives cost?
> A good half-terabyte M.2 NVMe drive is about $50, and has four lanes (4x faster than USB-C). Add $20 for 
> a USB interface and case, if you want it external and portable. USB cable extra.

I think you mean add nothing for the USB interface and $1 for the "case".  This was a USB memory stick, not a hard drive replacement.  But thanks for the $50 figure.  In the meantime I've wiped an old drive that was storing stuff I don't need anymore.  

I took a look at higher capacity drives on Amazon, and I see no clear demarcation between crap drives and useful drives.  So pricing is not a useful criterion for distinction.  I did see a number of Micro Center drives, but nothing above 64 GB.  I'll wait until I'm in a Micro Center again.  I've never had any trouble with their drives, although I'm sure they are just basic drives, at least they aren't crap. 

-- 

Rick C.

-- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

On Thu, 13 Oct 2022 22:19:31 -0700 (PDT), Ricky
<gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> wrote as underneath :

>On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 12:48:06 AM UTC-4, Ed Lee wrote:
>> On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 9:42:21 PM UTC-7, Ricky wrote: 
>> > I thought I would give Amazon a try and see if the USB flash drives sold there are any better than the crap sold on eBay. Well, it seems not. I picked a drive in a metal case to stand up to a bit of abuse and order two in order to get the free shipping. Amazon makes it hard to get the free shipping without signing up for their master plan that's over $100 a year now. But eventually I got that to work. 
>> > 
>> > So the drives came today and I plugged on in to be tested with H2testw. Of course it failed. It seems to be a 32 GB drive doctored to report 512 GB. 
>> > 
>> > The return process involves a QR code that you show to the UPS store, but they don't send it to the phone in a convenient manner. I would have had to use a SD card to move it or I guess I could email it to myself. So I tried calling Amazon to see if they could just email it to me. The person on the phone was a bit hard to understand, but eventually we communicated. In the end, after I asked for this vendor to be reported, she said she would do that and also gave me the refund without a return. 
>> > 
>> > So in the end it worked out, but Amazon doesn't make it easy. I guess if I were a high volume Amazon customer, I would know how to make it all easy, and would also be able to give this outfit a bad review. But I'm not allowed to write reviews until I've spent $50! 
>> > 
>> > So much for buying at Amazon.
>> You didn't say how much you paid for them. But from guessing, it's 2x 512G for less than $50. You got what you paid for.
>
>In the end I paid nothing.  What should these drives cost? 

Ok so just partition them to the correct size or slightly less as
reported true by h2testw, they wont overwrite files then - and label
them never to be reformattted in the normal way and you have useful free
drives for unimportant stuff! I have number of TF cards like that for
free and they have been reliable for years!  I name them with NOFORMAT
in the volume name.. C+

On 14/10/2022 07:27, Ricky wrote:
> On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 1:46:06 AM UTC-4, whit3rd wrote:
>> On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 10:19:35 PM UTC-7, Ricky wrote:
>>> On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 12:48:06 AM UTC-4, Ed Lee wrote:
>>>> On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 9:42:21 PM UTC-7, Ricky
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> I thought I would give Amazon a try and see if the USB flash
>>>>> drives sold there are any better than the crap sold on eBay.
>>>>> Well, it seems not.
>>>> You didn't say how much you paid for them. But from guessing,
>>>> it's 2x 512G for less than $50. You got what you paid for.

+1
There is a reason why the largest drives cost more.
>>> In the end I paid nothing. What should these drives cost?
>> A good half-terabyte M.2 NVMe drive is about $50, and has four
>> lanes (4x faster than USB-C). Add $20 for a USB interface and case,
>> if you want it external and portable. USB cable extra.
> 
> I think you mean add nothing for the USB interface and $1 for the
> "case".  This was a USB memory stick, not a hard drive replacement.
> But thanks for the $50 figure.  In the meantime I've wiped an old
> drive that was storing stuff I don't need anymore.
> 
> I took a look at higher capacity drives on Amazon, and I see no clear
> demarcation between crap drives and useful drives.  So pricing is not
> a useful criterion for distinction.  I did see a number of Micro
> Center drives, but nothing above 64 GB.  I'll wait until I'm in a
> Micro Center again.  I've never had any trouble with their drives,
> although I'm sure they are just basic drives, at least they aren't
> crap.

I have never had any bother with any of Integral, Samsung, Toshiba or my 
favourite SanDisk drives in terms of either rated speed (when correctly 
formatted), capacity or reliability. Maybe I am just lucky.

USB 3.0 128GB presently ~£16 UK.256GB ~£27 and 512GB ~£50.

Come to that I have yet to see one of the ultra cheap 4/8GB ones I buy 
for sending things to friends fail either. Smaller ones tend not to lie 
about their capacity and work well enough not to worry about.


-- 
Regards,
Martin Brown

On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 11:27:13 PM UTC-7, Ricky wrote:
> On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 1:46:06 AM UTC-4, whit3rd wrote: 

> > A good half-terabyte M.2 NVMe drive is about $50, and has four lanes (4x faster than USB-C). Add $20 for 
> > a USB interface and case, if you want it external and portable. USB cable extra.
> I think you mean add nothing for the USB interface and $1 for the "case". This was a USB memory stick, not a hard drive replacement. But thanks for the $50 figure. In the meantime I've wiped an old drive that was storing stuff I don't need anymore. 

I tried a microSD card with 1 TB for $10-ish, and a USB dock for it for about $1.  The SD card, with the same
h2testw, actually got to day two of testing (about 300GB) before it faulted.   It's not a mislabeled item, or complete fraud,
just a low-reliability card (this was Xiaomi brand, and less return-able than an Amazon purchase).

For some applications, it might even be useful.

The M.2 drives, though, are price and performance winners; a fast USB interface is less mass-producible than
the card edge M.2 NVMe form factor.  NVMe needs case, power regulator, and controller interface to talk USB.

On Friday, 14 October 2022 at 09:31:42 UTC+1, whit3rd wrote:
> On Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 11:27:13 PM UTC-7, Ricky wrote: 
> > On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 1:46:06 AM UTC-4, whit3rd wrote: 
> 
> > > A good half-terabyte M.2 NVMe drive is about $50, and has four lanes (4x faster than USB-C). Add $20 for 
> > > a USB interface and case, if you want it external and portable. USB cable extra. 
> > I think you mean add nothing for the USB interface and $1 for the "case". This was a USB memory stick, not a hard drive replacement. But thanks for the $50 figure. In the meantime I've wiped an old drive that was storing stuff I don't need anymore.
> I tried a microSD card with 1 TB for $10-ish, and a USB dock for it for about $1. The SD card, with the same 
> h2testw, actually got to day two of testing (about 300GB) before it faulted. It's not a mislabeled item, or complete fraud, 
> just a low-reliability card (this was Xiaomi brand, and less return-able than an Amazon purchase). 
> 
> For some applications, it might even be useful. 
> 
> The M.2 drives, though, are price and performance winners; a fast USB interface is less mass-producible than 
> the card edge M.2 NVMe form factor. NVMe needs case, power regulator, and controller interface to talk USB.

Samsung 850 PRO and 860 PRO drives have proven to be extremely reliable.  The nice thing about them (and
others) in the 2.5" form factor is that they have nice housings so for external use they just need a USB to
SATA cable and no extra housing.  They are not as fast as nvme M.2 of course.  However, for some reason the
860 PRO drives seem to be very expensive at the moment.  I have bought several of both types from eBay
with no problems at all.  Most users get nowhere near the rated maximum writes and even then there seems
to be plenty of headroom.

John