How long to format a pen drive.

[ericmark]

Was after a pen drive and my son said he had just got one I could have it he would get another. 256 Gb still in the package unused.

Tried putting pictures on the drive seemed to work OK up to 10 Gb but then had problems. Warned my son so he did not get another one the same but seems he already had and like mine he had passed in on to guy at work who said it worked A1. However he had done full format first.

So went to format my drive shows capacity 249 GB file system NTFS allocation unit size 4096 bytes called it Large Stick and set it to format. However this morning nearly 7.5 hours latter still not quite half way but never tried formatting anything so big so how long should it take. Plugged directly into Laptop USB2.

 

[JohnD]

What version of Windows?

 

[Nozzle]

You might have a dodgy one that has been hacked to make it report being larger than it really is. I was conned on ebay with a flashcard in a similar way. You can use a piece of software called H2testw which does a proper test to find out how much space is actually writeable. (p.s. make sure you have other copies of the files before continuing as it will wipe the lot during the test). PPS you shouldn't ever need to do a long format or any kind of drive unless you're trying to change to file system type - but even then??

Nozzle

 

[ericmark]

Thank you running Vista downloaded software you said but will wait for format to finish first.

 

[CylonRaider]

Something seriously wrong there !

 

[Astra99]

I use USB sticks on a daily basis, and have found that the unbranded ones, or those with little-known names are far more problematical than the branded ones. Now I only use Kingston or SanDisk brand sticks, as I have found them reliable, and error-free.

I bought a 64GB "Unknown" stick on e-bay. It failed to format NTFS, and struggled to reformat to FAT32X. After threatening to lose all my files I chucked it. I would rather carry 4 x 16GB reliable sticks than one 64GB useless one!

I know the OP and I are in different leagues as far as USB stick files are concerned, but if you are using a 256GB stick, perhaps you should be considering NAS!

 

[skhudy]

This was on the TV just the other day, fake portable HDs and Memory Sticks.. and the problems you have trying to use them.. there loads of fakes on ebay apparently

 

[ericmark]

I have now formatted and tested with the program you recommended and it would seem it's really a 6.2 Gb pen drive. I don't really need a pen drive that big anyway 32 Gb is big enough for anything I want to transfer.

Most of my stuff is stored on two x 2 TB hard drives both external important stuff is duplicated manually.

I also have a 500 GB and 1 TB lan hard drives again a lot of duplicated stuff. But I am against carrying hard drives around knocks can so easy damage them and such a lot of data gone in one hit.

Likely better off using 32 Gb SD cards as then can also be used in my cameras. But it would seem formatting is a problem has to be fat32 for camera but NTFS for large films for example so having stick formatted with NTFS and cards to Fat32 is an easy way to ensure I don't select wrong formatted card.

Returned to my son for him to send back. He got two and the other guy claimed it was A1 after formatting but I will guess he has not put over 6.2 Gb on the stick so thinks it's OK.

 

[CylonRaider]

Does FAT32 still have a 4gb (individual) filesize limitation ?

ONE dvd copied over would exceed that limit and it would spit out errors !

 

[Monkeh]

Does FAT32 still have a 4GiB (individual) filesize limitation ?

Yes, except via unsupported clever hack. Which will almost certainly never work on Windows.

 

[Nozzle]

I have now formatted and tested with the program you recommended and it would seem it's really a 6.2 Gb pen drive. I don't really need a pen drive that big anyway 32 Gb is big enough for anything I want to transfer.

You can't trust any of your data on a drive which reports to be bigger than it really is. The system will carry on writing to your drive anywhere the file system chooses too - and that's not necessarily starting at the lowest address. Consequently, you can merrily write the file but when you try to read it back, bosch, some or all of it is not there. If you bought it from ebay, use the counterfeit goods complaint procedure to get your money back and the trader removed. And when you get a replacement product, the first thing to do is test it with H2testw to make sure it really can store all that it reports to be capable of.

Nozzle

 

[skhudy]

I have now formatted and tested with the program you recommended and it would seem it's really a 6.2 Gb pen drive. I don't really need a pen drive that big anyway 32 Gb is big enough for anything I want to transfer.

You can't trust any of your data on a drive which reports to be bigger than it really is

Nozzle

agree... the memory itself might be ****te. you cant rely on anything stored on it. the cost of memory is so cheap id just bin it and take it as a lesson learnt