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Interesting USB issue

Stuman1
By Stuman1
in Peripherals
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So, I bought this cheap USB in Hong Kong, and I brought it home, and it's a bit buggy, but it worked all right. And I'm 99% sure that when I bought it and plugged it in it had an at least 2gb capacity. I haven't used it for a while, and now it says that it can only store 200mb? It also does this weird thing where it occasionally seems to wipe itself when I plug it back into the computer?

 

Does anyone know what could have happened to the capacity, or what is causing the wiping issue? Any help would be appreciated.

50Cent sweg.

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thats cheap usb sticks from hongkong in a nutshell.

My Main Build: NZXT S340 - NZXT Kraken X31 - Crucial MX100 256GB - i5 4460 - Gigabyte Z97P D3 - Kingston HyperX Red 8GB - MSI Nvidia GTX 780 3GB - Corsair LL & HD RGB Fans, Corsair Lighting Node Pro. 

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thats cheap usb sticks from hongkong in a nutshell.

Yeah, that's what I thought, especially with the wiping issue. But I don't understand how it just lost capacity? I haven't even used it that much.

50Cent sweg.

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they usually just take very low capacity usb sticks and mod them so they show up with a bigger capacity.

 

Example: 16GB USB gets modded to show up as a 128GB one and you can write fine on it, but when you get past the 16gb, it still writes flawlessly but in the background its just corrupting everything.

My Main Build: NZXT S340 - NZXT Kraken X31 - Crucial MX100 256GB - i5 4460 - Gigabyte Z97P D3 - Kingston HyperX Red 8GB - MSI Nvidia GTX 780 3GB - Corsair LL & HD RGB Fans, Corsair Lighting Node Pro. 

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Generally 1 of 2 things happen-

1- they spoof the size. They do this with external hard drives, put a usb in it, and a coujple of bolts for wieght. 

OR 

They use jank flash memory that was tossed for quality control issues. I bought a 5$ 32GB usb stick for shits and giggles and it failed in less than a day despite the whole capacity working. Now the files copy, but they don't copy properly. 

muh specs 

Gaming and HTPC (reparations)- ASUS 1080, MSI X99A SLI Plus, 5820k- 4.5GHz @ 1.25v, asetek based 360mm AIO, RM 1000x, 16GB memory, 750D with front USB 2.0 replaced with 3.0  ports, 2 250GB 850 EVOs in Raid 0 (why not, only has games on it), some hard drives

Screens- Acer preditor XB241H (1080p, 144Hz Gsync), LG 1080p ultrawide, (all mounted) directly wired to TV in other room

Stuff- k70 with reds, steel series rival, g13, full desk covering mouse mat

All parts black

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Shelf- i7-2600 non-k (has vt-d), 380t, some ASUS sandy itx board, intel quad nic. Currently hosts shared files, setting up as pfsense box in VM. Also acts as spare gaming PC with a 580 or whatever someone brings. Hooked into laptop dock area via usb switch

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Its a 256MB USB that's been made to identify as having 2GB of space.

"We also blind small animals with cosmetics.
We do not sell cosmetics. We just blind animals."

 

"Please don't mistake us for Equifax. Those fuckers are evil"

 

This PSA brought to you by Equifacks.
PMSL

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Have you formatted it at all? Or if it's formatting itself, it can use a weird format type that reduces the effective size of it. I had to format my USB stick to a Mac format at one point and it reduced it to around 500MB instead of 32GB. 

 

Also, that's kind of what you get with cheapo USB drives. It's best to buy a decent one that will last IMO, if you can keep it and not lose it. I just have my small Corsair travel one on my keys so I always know where it is. 

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Have you formatted it at all? Or if it's formatting itself, it can use a weird format type that reduces the effective size of it. I had to format my USB stick to a Mac format at one point and it reduced it to around 500MB instead of 32GB. 

 

Also, that's kind of what you get with cheapo USB drives. It's best to buy a decent one that will last IMO, if you can keep it and not lose it. I just have my small Corsair travel one on my keys so I always know where it is. 

Yeah, I think that I did format it at one point to work with my Mac. And for a decent USB, I recently ordered a 64gb Corsair Flash Voyager Go from Massdrop, and it's supposed to ship tomorrow :)

50Cent sweg.

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Never take candy or USB's from a shady place: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2896732/dont-trust-other-peoples-usb-flash-drives-they-could-fry-your-laptop.html

 

But really, it's probably a 256MB USB... Or it's formatted uncorrected.

 

inb4 1.5GB+2GB

Oh yeah, I saw that article on USB's that can fry your computer by constantly moving power around till it fries everything. Sounds pretty horrible.

50Cent sweg.

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Never take candy or USB's from a shady place: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2896732/dont-trust-other-peoples-usb-flash-drives-they-could-fry-your-laptop.html

 

But really, it's probably a 256MB USB... Or it's formatted uncorrected.

 

inb4 1.5GB+2GB

That reminds me of an old Belkin optical mosue I had, it worked fine for 11 months then proceeded to fry the 2 left hand ports on my Presario R3000, I then bought a PCMCIA 4 port USB 2.0 card, as a replacement, which was subsequently lost.

"We also blind small animals with cosmetics.
We do not sell cosmetics. We just blind animals."

 

"Please don't mistake us for Equifax. Those fuckers are evil"

 

This PSA brought to you by Equifacks.
PMSL

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Yeah, I think that I did format it at one point to work with my Mac. And for a decent USB, I recently ordered a 64gb Corsair Flash Voyager Go from Massdrop, and it's supposed to ship tomorrow :)

If you can, try formatting it back to something like FAT32 or ExFAT on a Mac, it should revert the size if it's not spoofed. The Voyager Go is a good choice, nice and reliable. 

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If you can, try formatting it back to something like FAT32 or ExFAT on a Mac, it should revert the size if it's not spoofed. The Voyager Go is a good choice, nice and 

 

Thanks, I might try that some time, if I remember.

50Cent sweg.

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