Testing USBStick

[Npl]

Is there a program that can scan an USB-Stick for bad sectors (write&verify) ?
Further, can you mark those sectors as bad, so they arent used anymore?

My USB Stick already had a damaged file 2 times.

 

[Rainbow Man]

I'd say doing a full format should do the trick but since windows seems to cheat a lot these days (because drives got so big formats could take half an hour or maybe more and people can't be bothered to wait that long). So this doesn't work anymore.

If you just want to know if there's bad areas on your flash stick you could download and install 7Zip it's a free archive program. Then you make a zip archive and fill it up with random stuff until your USB drive is crammed full. Then you verify the archive and you'll know if it's healthy.

If there's any errors you return/throw away the USB stick. There shouldn't be unless you've rewritten your files many tens of thousands of times (you'd have to work hard succeeding with that).

So if there are any werrors it's likely there'll be more of them appearing spontaneously. So it won't help you marking the current ones as bad because you can't mark the new ones before they appear. Ansd they'll appear in your new freshly written files and ruin them.

So get rid of that stick now. Don't use it any more.

You didn't use bad floppies in the past right?

Peace.

 

[Bolloxoid]

Chkdsk /r

What's wrong with chkdsk /r? Assuming it's Windows we are talking about.

 

[Npl]

I'd say doing a full format should do the trick but since windows seems to cheat a lot these days (because drives got so big formats could take half an hour or maybe more and people can't be bothered to wait that long). So this doesn't work anymore.

I fail to see how that should help. Its not the filesystem thats damaged.

If you just want to know if there's bad areas on your flash stick you could download and install 7Zip it's a free archive program. Then you make a zip archive and fill it up with random stuff until your USB drive is crammed full. Then you verify the archive and you'll know if it's healthy.

I already faced two damaged files, so I wouldnt know more than I do now.

If there's any errors you return/throw away the USB stick. There shouldn't be unless you've rewritten your files many tens of thousands of times (you'd have to work hard succeeding with that).

Its only a couple months old, but even if I find the damn bill (which is highly unlikely) I`d prefer knowing a tool which can verify the stick is bad. And that "tens of thousands writes" is an probability, which say nothing for 1 stick. You know, statistics primary use is having a way to define lies in mathematics

So if there are any werrors it's likely there'll be more of them appearing spontaneously. So it won't help you marking the current ones as bad because you can't mark the new ones before they appear. Ansd they'll appear in your new freshly written files and ruin them.

Thats the case with magnetic storage, not sure that holds for Flash.

So get rid of that stick now. Don't use it any more.

You didn't use bad floppies in the past right?

Peace.

Yeah, but only because a single bad sector usually meant I couldnt backup games. I wouldnt comlain if my 1GB Stick misses a few KB.

 

[Npl]

What's wrong with chkdsk /r? Assuming it's Windows we are talking about.

Will try, thanks.

 

[Rainbow Man]

I fail to see how that should help. Its not the filesystem thats damaged.

A full format in windows always wrote all sectors and did a verify afterwards. You'd get a window wuith statistics tjhat said how many sectors total and lots of other stuff. And if any sectors were damaged and marked unusable.

Since windows only seem to write a new file allocation table or equivalent these days one can't rely on that method unfortunately.

Thats the case with magnetic storage, not sure that holds for Flash.

It does. A buddy of mine had a CF card for his camera that generated new errors when written to every now and again. He exchanged it and the new one did the same thing. And the next one. Bad batch of flashram chips.

Yeah, but only because a single bad sector usually meant I couldnt backup games. I wouldnt comlain if my 1GB Stick misses a few KB.

You would complain if it misses a few more KB every once in a while on random. Inside your favorite files.

I would consider the stick junk and untrustworthy. You however might reason otherwise but that's your responsibility of course. And your fiels and data...

Peace.

 

[Frank]

You only get bad files on an USB stick if they or the index aren't completely written when you pull it out of the computer. Look at the properties -> hardware -> properties -> policies, and make sure it is optimized for quick removal. Close the explorer when you're done with it and wait for the led to stop flashing before you remove it.

 

[bystander]

Someone on Sourceforge has developed a USB memory stick testing tool. I haven't used it myself but it maybe worth a try.