Crap Flash Drives

On 10/14/2022 1:27 AM, Martin Brown wrote:
> 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.

I had a SanDisk go "read only" shortly after purchase.  But, that was
many years ago and only a single instance (~4G drive).

> 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.

We primarily use them as write-once, read-multiple media for videos.
~64GB is about the largest that makes sense (given the number of
entries in the ToC; too many gets hard to browse with the TV's UI).
A "full size" drive lets me affix a print label so SWMBO can sort out
which she wants to use, today.

[I had set up a SMB share connected to the TV just for her content and
she found it too hard to locate specific files when there were terabytes
accessible]

For music, the practical limit is even smaller as titles (even for albums!)
are so much smaller; it will take me *months* of driving to run through
all the content on even a 32G drive in the car!

And, at audio and video rates, even USB2 drives are adequate.

[The hope is that read-only use will minimize the potential of the
drive becoming a brick]

On 10/14/2022 2:05 AM, John Walliker wrote:
> 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.

Hmmm... that's an idea!  I'd rescued a dozen 256G drives but found them
too small to use in machines.  So, they've just been collecting dust.

OTOH, hard to see the need for more than one of them as SneakerNet media.

> 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.

On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 4:31:42 AM UTC-4, 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). 

It's pretty inconceivable that a 1TB drive could be sold for $10 unless it used defective chips (rejects).   One way or the other, this is a fake part. 


> For some applications, it might even be useful. 

If you have absolutely no concern about it continuing to work or store data.  I suppose there are uses where it only needs to store data for a short time. 


> 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.

Unfortunately, no matter how good a NVMe interface is, it won't fit a USB socket. 

-- 

Rick C.

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On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 5:19:35 AM UTC, 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. 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

well your time spent is worth money, eh, Rick?
Losing an hour of your time could easily out-cost
those purchases :-)

I try to use "name brand" product. And ignore
user reviews.

On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 9:35:05 AM UTC-4, Rich S wrote:
> On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 5:19:35 AM UTC, 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. 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
> well your time spent is worth money, eh, Rick? 
> Losing an hour of your time could easily out-cost 
> those purchases :-) 
> 
> I try to use "name brand" product. And ignore 
> user reviews.

How do you know these were not name brand?  The counterfeiters mark up the capacity of flash drives.  They do that with any brand.  If there were a break point with lots of options at or above and few below, I would say those below are counterfeit.  But there's no longer a discernible break point.  Unless you know the "fair" price of a flash drive, you have nothing to go on.  

I've never tested the waters extensively, but it's possible they know no shame and sell the counterfeits at the "fair" price as well. 

-- 

Rick C.

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

On Thu, 13 Oct 2022 21:48:02 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
<edward.ming.lee@gmail.com> 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.

Rick's life seems to be centered on cheap. He said his dad was like
that too. Could be hereditary.

On Fri, 14 Oct 2022 06:21:02 -0700 (PDT), Ricky
<gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 4:31:42 AM UTC-4, 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). 
>
>It's pretty inconceivable that a 1TB drive could be sold for $10 unless it used defective chips (rejects).   One way or the other, this is a fake part. 

I got two of these supposedly 2 TB  sticks.  They were definitely
fake.  I was stupid for even thinking you could get a 2TB stick for
under $75.  I'm not sure you can even get one for $750 ??

boB



>
>
>> For some applications, it might even be useful. 
>
>If you have absolutely no concern about it continuing to work or store data.  I suppose there are uses where it only needs to store data for a short time. 
>
>
>> 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.
>
>Unfortunately, no matter how good a NVMe interface is, it won't fit a USB socket. 

On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 8:50:00 AM UTC-7, boB wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Oct 2022 06:21:02 -0700 (PDT), Ricky 
> <gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote: 
> 
> >On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 4:31:42 AM UTC-4, 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). 
> > 
> >It's pretty inconceivable that a 1TB drive could be sold for $10 unless it used defective chips (rejects). One way or the other, this is a fake part.
> I got two of these supposedly 2 TB sticks. They were definitely 
> fake. I was stupid for even thinking you could get a 2TB stick for 
> under $75. I'm not sure you can even get one for $750 ?? 

Real 1/2TB is around $50 to $100.  1TB $100 to $150.  2TB $150 to $200.

Of course, fakes and rejects from the "Land of Cheap Lies" are available for much less.  $10 TB are as real as $1 9800mAhr 18650.  

John Larkin <jlarkin@highlandSNIPMEtechnology.com> Wrote in message:r
> On Thu, 13 Oct 2022 21:48:02 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee<edward.ming.lee@gmail.com> 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.Rick's life seems to be centered on cheap. He said his dad was likethat too. Could be hereditary.

I stay away from 'cheep', you waste too much time trying to make
 it work.

Cheers
-- 


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On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 11:50:00 AM UTC-4, boB wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Oct 2022 06:21:02 -0700 (PDT), Ricky 
> <gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote: 
> 
> >On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 4:31:42 AM UTC-4, 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). 
> > 
> >It's pretty inconceivable that a 1TB drive could be sold for $10 unless it used defective chips (rejects). One way or the other, this is a fake part.
> I got two of these supposedly 2 TB sticks. They were definitely 
> fake. I was stupid for even thinking you could get a 2TB stick for 
> under $75. I'm not sure you can even get one for $750 ??

That's the problem.  The quality is not related to the price.  That's why I test all the flash devices I buy, regardless of price. 

-- 

Rick C.

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