Dodgy pen drive(s)

MarkW7 · 9 Jun 2009 at 17:42

Hey all,

I've got two memory sticks;

1gb and a 16gb.

when i put something on them, it transfers it over (or does it). So i think it's done, i unplug it then plug it back in and its not there.

At the moment they are formatted to;
1gb - FAT
16gb - FAT32.

They are used on; XP, Vista, Windows 7, Ubuntu and backtrack.

When i remove it on windows i click the "safely remove"

Any ideas what could be causing this.

TomElZ · 9 Jun 2009 at 19:33

Manufacturer?

MarkW7 · 9 Jun 2009 at 19:47

The 1gb is "Easy Disk" and the 16gb doesn't have anything written on it.

iraiguana · 9 Jun 2009 at 21:05

How big is the file being transferred? Have you tried to transfer a different file in case something odd about the settings of that one?

MarkW7 · 9 Jun 2009 at 21:13

Varied in size the biggest was 4gb but i've tried it with folder's and then folder stays there but everything inside it goes and says 'This folder is empty but it still used harddisk space.

So the 16gb now has 8gb with no files on it.

MarkW7 · 10 Jun 2009 at 17:14

Any ideas?

something daft already!! · 10 Jun 2009 at 17:17

Tried reformatting?

Monkeynut · 10 Jun 2009 at 17:24

If you got them from eBay then they could be fakes which only have 128mb chips inside. Have you tried putting small files on them?

Dauthi · 10 Jun 2009 at 17:26

Fat32 can't have files of 4gb and above so that could be the problem. reformat the drive with a different file system.

MarkW7 · 10 Jun 2009 at 19:31

Monkey, yes a text file stayed but a 300mb avi didn't, well it stayed but it was corrupt.

What should i format to?

something daft already!! · 10 Jun 2009 at 20:05

Well Fat32 as you use Linux I guess. Not sure if it can read NTFS.

MarkW7 · 10 Jun 2009 at 20:17

Dauthi said:
Fat32 can't have files of 4gb.

Is this true?

something daft already!! · 10 Jun 2009 at 20:19

MarkW7 said:
Is this true?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463/en-us

You cannot create a file larger than (2^32)-1 bytes (this is one byte less than 4 GB) on a FAT32 partition.

MarkW7 · 10 Jun 2009 at 20:22

That sucks, i think linux can read NTFS. I'll just boot up my Laptop and check;

NTFS is the best way to go? (on both?) What setting should i have it at.

something daft already!! · 10 Jun 2009 at 20:26

Yep and just the default settings.

MarkW7 · 10 Jun 2009 at 20:30

The 1gb can only be FAT or FAT32.

edit; and on XP the 16gb can only be FAT32 but on win7 it can be NTFS, F32 and exfat