How big is the ocean; how big is my drive?

[mm]

Somehow I never get rid of all my problems and questions.

How do I know how big my flashdrive is?

Today I went to use my NIB flashdrive and it says there is no room to
copy AVG11 to it (to install on another computer *before* going on the
net.) PowerDesk shows my drive is only 1.07 gig big. I thought it
was 16 gig. I bought it at a flea market. 16 gig for only 30
dollars. I think it was still sealed in the original packaging, but
it's been 3 weeks and now I'm not sure. (maybe I'll find the
packaging and that will remind me.

I thought I plugged it in the day I bought it and it was 16, and I
thought it said 16 gig on the packaging, but I'm not sure about either
of those now, either.

So maybe only part of it is partitioned?

Easeus Partition Master doesn't even show the flashdrive.
PM8 boot disk won't show any USB drive.
PM8 under Windows worked the first time I installed it and now
freezes the computer every time I try to use it, except maybe once
each time I uninstall and reinstall.
XP Help won't show me anything relevant for Partition Manager .
I have to go google to learn the phrase disk management.

So use Help to find Disk Management and I run it, and the map at the
bottom shows the flashdrive as 15.92 gig, FAT32, and healthy. But
the chart at the top says it's capacity is 1.07 gig and it has 58 megs
free, 5%.

So which is it?

Any help is appreciated.

PS: The drive seems to have linux files of some sort on it. Twelve
files, rootfs.img is the biggest, about 1 gig big. It has a
subdirectory called "recovery" that has 7 files. If linux is already
installed, I'd like to keep it and try it, so if I can get at the
other 15 gig, I'd like to that non-destructively if possible.

PPS: The drive is covered in leather, with metal trim, and the cap is
connected to the drive with a leather strap, cut so the cap slides on
the leather but won't come off. I never saw anything like this
before. No brand name.

 

[mm]

Today I went to use my NIB flashdrive and it says there is no room to
copy AVG11 to it (to install on another computer *before* going on the
net.) PowerDesk shows my drive is only 1.07 gig big. I thought it
was 16 gig. I bought it at a flea market. 16 gig for only 30
dollars. I think it was still sealed in the original packaging, but
it's been 3 weeks and now I'm not sure. (maybe I'll find the
packaging and that will remind me.

I thought I plugged it in the day I bought it and it was 16, and I
thought it said 16 gig on the packaging, but I'm not sure about either
of those now, either.

FWIW, no brandname, as I said, but right on the drive, it says 16 gig.

 

[Rod Speed]

mm wrote

Somehow I never get rid of all my problems and questions.

All you need to do is hang yourself and they will all be gone forever.

How do I know how big my flashdrive is?

You could try measuring it.

Today I went to use my NIB flashdrive and it says there is no room
to copy AVG11 to it (to install on another computer *before* going
on the net.) PowerDesk shows my drive is only 1.07 gig big.
I thought it was 16 gig. I bought it at a flea market. 16 gig for
only 30 dollars. I think it was still sealed in the original packaging,
but it's been 3 weeks and now I'm not sure. (maybe I'll find the
packaging and that will remind me.

Or maybe you got one of the fakes that are nothing like the size claimed.

I thought I plugged it in the day I bought it and it was 16,
and I thought it said 16 gig on the packaging, but I'm not
sure about either of those now, either.

So maybe only part of it is partitioned?

Its more likely its a fake.

Easeus Partition Master doesn't even show the flashdrive.
PM8 boot disk won't show any USB drive.
PM8 under Windows worked the first time I installed it and now
freezes the computer every time I try to use it, except maybe once
each time I uninstall and reinstall.

XP Help won't show me anything relevant for Partition Manager .
I have to go google to learn the phrase disk management.

So use Help to find Disk Management and I run it, and the map at
the bottom shows the flashdrive as 15.92 gig, FAT32, and healthy.

That healthy label just means there is no blindingly
obvious problem, not that it really is completely healthy.

But the chart at the top says it's capacity is 1.07 gig and it has 58 megs free, 5%.

So which is it?

Most likely its a fake.

Any help is appreciated.

Even help to hang yourself ? Funky.

PS: The drive seems to have linux files of some sort on it.
Twelve files, rootfs.img is the biggest, about 1 gig big. It
has a subdirectory called "recovery" that has 7 files. If linux is
already installed, I'd like to keep it and try it, so if I can get at
the other 15 gig, I'd like to that non-destructively if possible.

So it cant have been sealed.

PPS: The drive is covered in leather, with metal trim, and the cap is
connected to the drive with a leather strap, cut so the cap slides on
the leather but won't come off. I never saw anything like this before.
No brand name.

Bet its a fake.

 

[Franc Zabkar]

How do I know how big my flashdrive is?

Test it with H2testw:
http://www.heise.de/software/download/h2testw/50539

- Franc Zabkar

 

[mm]

That healthy label just means there is no blindingly
obvious problem, not that it really is completely healthy.

You've just about convinced me it's a fake, but how did it fool XP
Disk Management, half of which says it's 15.92 gig?

 

[Rod Speed]

mm wrote

You've just about convinced me it's a fake, but how did it fool
XP Disk Management, half of which says it's 15.92 gig?

It isnt that hard to fool that bit of XP, it just asks the device
how big it is and it believes any lie the device tells it on that.

The same thing happens with drives short stroked by the manufacturer
when they no longer make the size that is replaced under warranty and
they ship the bigger one that they currently make and just short stroke it so
it claims to be smaller than it actually is, normally with rotating hard drives.

 

[GMAN]

mm wrote


All you need to do is hang yourself and they will all be gone forever.


You could try measuring it.


Or maybe you got one of the fakes that are nothing like the size claimed.



Its more likely its a fake.




That healthy label just means there is no blindingly
obvious problem, not that it really is completely healthy.

free, 5%.


Most likely its a fake.


Even help to hang yourself ? Funky.


So it cant have been sealed.


Bet its a fake.

Hey Speed, instead of being the biggest cockgobbler on usenet, why dont you
point the OP to some usefull software that will check, and verify, and format
the full capacity of the drive?????


http://webtrickz.
com/usb-flash-tools-backuprestoreeraseverify-capacity-of-a-memory-card-or-usb-
drive/

"Use it to create a backup image (with optional compression) of a flash drive
or restore a backup image. It erases a drive securely by overwriting its
content and making data irretrievable. Also, it can detect fake flash devices
that report false and incorrect memory capacity."


Direct link here:

http://sdean12.org/zipped2/USBFlashTools200.zip

 

[GMAN]

You've just about convinced me it's a fake, but how did it fool XP
Disk Management, half of which says it's 15.92 gig?

http://webtrickz.
com/usb-flash-tools-backuprestoreeraseverify-capacity-of-a-memory-card-or-usb-
drive/

"Use it to create a backup image (with optional compression) of a flash drive
or restore a backup image. It erases a drive securely by overwriting its
content and making data irretrievable. Also, it can detect fake flash devices
that report false and incorrect memory capacity."


Direct link here:

http://sdean12.org/zipped2/USBFlashTools200.zip

 

[GMAN]

mm wrote


It isnt that hard to fool that bit of XP, it just asks the device
how big it is and it believes any lie the device tells it on that.

The same thing happens with drives short stroked by the manufacturer
when they no longer make the size that is replaced under warranty and
they ship the bigger one that they currently make and just short stroke it so
it claims to be smaller than it actually is, normally with rotating hard
drives.

Name one manufacturer today that does that?

 

[Arno]

You got a fake. They pretend to be large, but when you
try to put data on them, that fails very early on.
It is strongly advisable not to use these at all,
as they likely also use substandaard, unreliable chips
in addition.

The only sensible thing you can do with this is to
dispose of it or use it as a demonstration object on
how flash drives get faked.

You can of couse increase you losses by believing that
no, this could not have happened to you, and add more
time to what the criminals already took from you. This
seems to be a surprisingly common reaction.

Arno

Somehow I never get rid of all my problems and questions.

How do I know how big my flashdrive is?

Today I went to use my NIB flashdrive and it says there is no room to
copy AVG11 to it (to install on another computer *before* going on the
net.) PowerDesk shows my drive is only 1.07 gig big. I thought it
was 16 gig. I bought it at a flea market. 16 gig for only 30
dollars. I think it was still sealed in the original packaging, but
it's been 3 weeks and now I'm not sure. (maybe I'll find the
packaging and that will remind me.

I thought I plugged it in the day I bought it and it was 16, and I
thought it said 16 gig on the packaging, but I'm not sure about either
of those now, either.

So maybe only part of it is partitioned?

Easeus Partition Master doesn't even show the flashdrive.
PM8 boot disk won't show any USB drive.
PM8 under Windows worked the first time I installed it and now
freezes the computer every time I try to use it, except maybe once
each time I uninstall and reinstall.
XP Help won't show me anything relevant for Partition Manager .
I have to go google to learn the phrase disk management.

So use Help to find Disk Management and I run it, and the map at the
bottom shows the flashdrive as 15.92 gig, FAT32, and healthy. But
the chart at the top says it's capacity is 1.07 gig and it has 58 megs
free, 5%.

So which is it?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Rod Speed]

GMAN wrote

Hey Speed, instead of being the biggest cockgobbler on usenet,

Wota stunning line in rational argument you have there, child.

why dont you point the OP to some usefull software that will
check, and verify, and format the full capacity of the drive?????

Hey, ****wit, why dont you go and **** yourself and do that yourself ?

http://webtrickz.com/usb-flash-tool...erify-capacity-of-a-memory-card-or-usb-drive/

"Use it to create a backup image (with optional compression) of a flash drive
or restore a backup image. It erases a drive securely by overwriting its
content and making data irretrievable. Also, it can detect fake flash
devices that report false and incorrect memory capacity."

Just because some fool claims something can do something, doesnt make it gospel, ****wit.

 

[Rod Speed]

GBOY drivelled

Name one manufacturer today that does that?

All of them, ****wit.

 

[mm]

http://webtrickz.
com/usb-flash-tools-backuprestoreeraseverify-capacity-of-a-memory-card-or-usb-
drive/

Thanks. I'm trying it now. I thought I'd save what was on the drive
first, and it's 20 minutes just for a gig, then it wants to rewrite
the whole flashdrive, so I may go to sleep before it finishes.

 

[mm]

http://webtrickz.
com/usb-flash-tools-backuprestoreeraseverify-capacity-of-a-memory-card-or-usb-
drive/

"Use it to create a backup image (with optional compression) of a flash drive
or restore a backup image. It erases a drive securely by overwriting its
content and making data irretrievable. Also, it can detect fake flash devices
that report false and incorrect memory capacity."


Direct link here:

http://sdean12.org/zipped2/USBFlashTools200.zip

Well, this is pretty strange. It finished stage 1, writing the whole
flashdrive, in about 22 minutes. Not so different from the time it
took to copy the flashdrive to my internal harddrive. When I finally
went to sleep, it had been in the read/verify stage 2 hours. It ended
up taking over 6 hours.

The program concluded:
Time taken for stage 2: 6:26:46 AM
+++ POSSIBLE FAKE: Able to read more data than could be written?!
-- end quote --

This seems strange, to say the least. Was it tricked into starting
over at the beginning again.

The whole log:

Verifying capacity of drive: F:
Determining disk geometry...
Drive reports:
Cylinders : 2077
Media type : 0x0B (Removable media other than floppy.)
Tracks per cylinder: 255
Sectors per track : 63
Bytes per sector : 512
Total bytes (cylinders * tracks * sectors * bps): 17083906560 (16292
MB)
Determining partition information...
Drive reports:
Starting offset : 0
Partition length : 17091788800 (16300 MB)
Hidden sectors : 0
Partition number : 1
Partition type : 0x00
Boot indicator : Inactive
Recognized partition: FALSE
Rewrite partition : FALSE
Verifying reported capacity...
Stage 1: Writing data...
Max bytes writable: 1154482176 (1101 MB)
Time taken for stage 1: 12:23:19 AM

===> This is strange. It seems to say Stage 1 took 12 hours, but 20
minutes is more like it. Maybe 22:19. But I started after midnight.
And what does AM mean. It's not the time. I finished about 1:32AM

Stage 2: Reading and verifying data...
Verified max bytes writable: 17091788800 (16300 MB)
Time taken for stage 2: 6:26:46 AM

===> It might well have taken 6 hours, especially since it read 16
times as long as it wrote. 16 x 22 minutes =352 minutes, just shy of
6 hours.

+++ POSSIBLE FAKE: Able to read more data than could be written?!

Note: The *actual* capacity of the drive shown above may well be less
than was claimed when it was sold to you as (e.g. a 64MB drive may be
reported here as only having 61MB of storage.
This is "normal", and can be caused by several things:
1) Manufacturers pretending that there are 1,000,000 bytes to the MB
instead of 1,048,576. This is pretty "normal" in the industry and done
to make products sound better than they actually are
2) Slight errors of a few KB in the testing process due to only
checking the partition area of the drive selected. The MBR (incl
partition table) would probably add another 16K or so
3) Opting to perform a quick check, as opposed to using this utility's
more thorough option. This can introduce an error of up to 1MB

Summary
=======

THIS DRIVE IS MISREPORTING IT'S CAPACITY AND IS PROBABLY A FAKE
CARD/USB DRIVE

This device SHOULD have been sold to you as a >4 GB device.

Total time taken: 6:50:06 AM


===> Why greater than 4? The original indication was that it was
either 16 or 1.

So I went to look at what PowerDesk said, and it said nothing because
it wasnt' formatted. So I did a quick format, and now it says 15.9
gigs!

Not convinced, I went to Disk Management (why is this not in the list
of All Programs?) and it said 15.9 gigs at the bottom and the top.

MS Defrag said 15.9 also.

So I guess it is. Someone must have screwed it up, I guess.

I don't really need it now for more than a few bytes. So I can't test
directly, but I think it was 16 megs and someone screwed it up
somehow. Maybe that's why he sold it.


Thanks a lot, GMAN.

 

[Arno]

Well, this is pretty strange. It finished stage 1, writing the whole
flashdrive, in about 22 minutes. Not so different from the time it
took to copy the flashdrive to my internal harddrive. When I finally
went to sleep, it had been in the read/verify stage 2 hours. It ended
up taking over 6 hours.

The program concluded:
Time taken for stage 2: 6:26:46 AM
+++ POSSIBLE FAKE: Able to read more data than could be written?!
-- end quote --

This seems strange, to say the least. Was it tricked into starting
over at the beginning again.

What is strage here? "POSSIBLE FAKE" is quite non-strange and clear.

If everything points to you having been ripped off, then maybe,
just maybe you were ripped off?

Arno

 

[mm]

What is strage here? "POSSIBLE FAKE" is quite non-strange and clear.

That's not what is strange. "Able to read more data than could be
written" is strange.

If everything points to you having been ripped off, then maybe,
just maybe you were ripped off?

Yeah, sure, but not everything does. After I ran USBFlashTools.exe
and then formatted the drive, everything that used to say 1 gig (and
almost full and no unpartitioned space) now says 15.9 gig.

 

[Rod Speed]

mm wrote

That's not what is strange. "Able to read more data than could be written" is strange.

Nope, just a rather clumsy description. They mean that the drive continues
to provide data for more logical blocks than it claims to be able to write to.

Yeah, sure, but not everything does. After I ran USBFlashTools.exe
and then formatted the drive, everything that used to say 1 gig (and
almost full and no unpartitioned space) now says 15.9 gig.

Yes, it might well have just had a ****ed partitioning etc.

 

[GMAN]

GBOY drivelled


All of them, ****wit.

Unless you can prove that, shut up and go rightback to sucking my dick!

 

[GMAN]

Well, this is pretty strange. It finished stage 1, writing the whole
flashdrive, in about 22 minutes. Not so different from the time it
took to copy the flashdrive to my internal harddrive. When I finally
went to sleep, it had been in the read/verify stage 2 hours. It ended
up taking over 6 hours.

The program concluded:
Time taken for stage 2: 6:26:46 AM
+++ POSSIBLE FAKE: Able to read more data than could be written?!
-- end quote --

This seems strange, to say the least. Was it tricked into starting
over at the beginning again.

The whole log:

Verifying capacity of drive: F:
Determining disk geometry...
Drive reports:
Cylinders : 2077
Media type : 0x0B (Removable media other than floppy.)
Tracks per cylinder: 255
Sectors per track : 63
Bytes per sector : 512
Total bytes (cylinders * tracks * sectors * bps): 17083906560 (16292
MB)
Determining partition information...
Drive reports:
Starting offset : 0
Partition length : 17091788800 (16300 MB)
Hidden sectors : 0
Partition number : 1
Partition type : 0x00
Boot indicator : Inactive
Recognized partition: FALSE
Rewrite partition : FALSE
Verifying reported capacity...
Stage 1: Writing data...
Max bytes writable: 1154482176 (1101 MB)
Time taken for stage 1: 12:23:19 AM

===> This is strange. It seems to say Stage 1 took 12 hours, but 20
minutes is more like it. Maybe 22:19. But I started after midnight.
And what does AM mean. It's not the time. I finished about 1:32AM

Stage 2: Reading and verifying data...
Verified max bytes writable: 17091788800 (16300 MB)
Time taken for stage 2: 6:26:46 AM

===> It might well have taken 6 hours, especially since it read 16
times as long as it wrote. 16 x 22 minutes =352 minutes, just shy of
6 hours.

+++ POSSIBLE FAKE: Able to read more data than could be written?!

Note: The *actual* capacity of the drive shown above may well be less
than was claimed when it was sold to you as (e.g. a 64MB drive may be
reported here as only having 61MB of storage.
This is "normal", and can be caused by several things:
1) Manufacturers pretending that there are 1,000,000 bytes to the MB
instead of 1,048,576. This is pretty "normal" in the industry and done
to make products sound better than they actually are
2) Slight errors of a few KB in the testing process due to only
checking the partition area of the drive selected. The MBR (incl
partition table) would probably add another 16K or so
3) Opting to perform a quick check, as opposed to using this utility's
more thorough option. This can introduce an error of up to 1MB

Summary
=======

THIS DRIVE IS MISREPORTING IT'S CAPACITY AND IS PROBABLY A FAKE
CARD/USB DRIVE

This device SHOULD have been sold to you as a >4 GB device.

Total time taken: 6:50:06 AM


===> Why greater than 4? The original indication was that it was
either 16 or 1.

So I went to look at what PowerDesk said, and it said nothing because
it wasnt' formatted. So I did a quick format, and now it says 15.9
gigs!

Not convinced, I went to Disk Management (why is this not in the list
of All Programs?) and it said 15.9 gigs at the bottom and the top.

MS Defrag said 15.9 also.

So I guess it is. Someone must have screwed it up, I guess.

I don't really need it now for more than a few bytes. So I can't test
directly, but I think it was 16 megs and someone screwed it up
somehow. Maybe that's why he sold it.


Thanks a lot, GMAN.

No problem, That program saved my butt when i was testing a 32GB SD card. It
turned out the 32GB SD card i bought was real, but had somehow been corrupted
and it took a utility like that to verify it was real, and to bring it back
from its braindead state.

Most likely, the person you bought it from tried to install a linux install
and screwed up the USB stick.

 

[Rod Speed]

GBOY drivelled

Unless you can prove that, shut up

Go and **** yourself, again.

and go rightback to sucking my dick!

Wota stunning line in rational argument you have there, child.

No one sucks your dick, they'd need a microscope to find it.