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USB stick dead


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:angry: It appears that winsetupfromusb has killed my usb key. I have a 4gb data travler usb stick.

I used the winsetupfromusb 0.2.3, and it didnt work, so I tried to create the usb key again, and now it gives me a read 7 error. I have tried using winpe diskpart to clean the usb key and I get a semiphore timeout. I try to use windows disk manager, and I get the error that the format did not complete.

I cannot add or remove files from the usb key.

My USB has become useless and is not even heavy enough to be a paper weight.

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Thanks for pointing me to this post. I did see this post, but haven't yet had time to try everything.

I did try HP USB formater, winpe and diskpart.

I will try on a different computer some other time. Today I went out and bought 3 more sticks, although I haven't gotten the install to work properly yet, I have not had any issues with the sticks.

It may be that the stick I am having problems with is just dead. These things are made so cheaply these days, it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

Ken.

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I bought 3 similar Samsung sticks a few years ago, from reliable online retailer. They all died within a few weeks.

At the same time I got 2-3 times more expensive Lexar, Buffalo and Transcedent sticks and have been using them exclusively since then.

Perhaps you can imagine the number of experiments performed with them during this project and similar USB boot related.

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I bought 3 similar Samsung sticks a few years ago, from reliable online retailer. They all died within a few weeks.

At the same time I got 2-3 times more expensive Lexar, Buffalo and Transcedent sticks and have been using them exclusively since then.

Perhaps you can imagine the number of experiments performed with them during this project and similar USB boot related.

Yes I can understand the number of experiments performed.

I have done a lot of work with Winpe and Ghost/imagex on USB flash drives, I am surprised I have not reached a read write max on some of them.

Ken.

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In other hand, WinSetupFromUSB doesn't put any extra write cycles or anything weird. It makes simple file copy operations coded in AutoIt. You will wear out the stick in the same way if you drag&drop your Windows source files, plus a few extra, not a big deal.

To say it another way- it doesn't makes sense an application, which doesn't make constant write cycles or something similar, to be blamed for dead stick. It's either something else wrong, as pointed in the topic mentioned, or just the stick's time was over and you just happened to be using it at that time.

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Yes I can understand the number of experiments performed.

I have done a lot of work with Winpe and Ghost/imagex on USB flash drives, I am surprised I have not reached a read write max on some of them.

Ken.

I guess I could spend a couple of words on this. :unsure:

The number of WRITE cycles (READ cycles are NOT reportedly affecting the life of a stick) is LARGELY UNKNOWN.

Most of the numbers you see around like 100,000:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory#Memory_wear

are largely speculative and/or came out with previous releases/versions of both memory and controllers.

Current devices have "better" (more lasting) memory chips and controllers which feature wear leveling techniques, which can introduce a large multiplying factor for "life expectancy", bigger than 2 or 3 in average use.

Now think a bit about an image file (Ghost/imagex) sized at, say, 1 Gbyte.

With a typical AVERAGE USB flash sequential write speed around 10/12 Mbyte per second:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/di...p_11.html#sect2

you have 1024/12=÷85 seconds time to write the image to the stick.

85 seconds x 100,000= 8,500,000 seconds

8,500,000/60=141,667 minutes

141,667/60=2,361 hours

2,361/24=98 days

Now, if you have passed the last three months 24/7 :w00t: copying images to the same USB sticks , you appear to have a bigger problem than a non-working pendrive! ;)

Most pendrives may "die", much earlier than when the memory wears out for three reasons:

  • "mechanical" problem i.e. a soldering that got stressed during insertion/removal
  • the controller simply dieing, possibly because of overheating (sticks kept connected all the time, some tend to get VERY hot)
  • defective controller

In other words, if you insert your stick and it is NOT recognised anymore, it is probable that the controller rather than memory died.

About memory wearing, it is GREATLY increased by:

  • using NTFS (or any semi-journaled/journaled filesystem on it) for NTFS you may want to disable a key in the Registry:
    http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/50/
    but unfortunately it's a "global" setting
  • using it as "temporary" or "cache" or "swap"

jaclaz

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Well I don't believe I reached a write/read limitation, I was trying to be funny with that statement.

Its a weird problem, the controller seems to behave properly, but you cannot re format or delete files from the stick.

Files can be read just fine. Some sort of corruption may have occured, but it is odd that it cannot be re formatted.

I have tried every utility I could find.

I am not worried about it though, as it is no big deal, I just went out and bought a few more sticks.

It is almost as if there is a read only switch turned on somewhere, but this drive does not have a physical read only switch, so it must have happened in the controller somehow.

Ken.

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I have tried every utility I could find.

Maybe you didn't find the "right one", run on the strick Chipgenius and report manufacturer/controller used.

If we find the correct manufacturer tool it is possible that the stick can be re-initialized.

I am not worried about it though, as it is no big deal, I just went out and bought a few more sticks.

Besides being notoriously cheap :ph34r:, I do not condone giving up, you mean you are allright having been beaten 1 to 0 by an obscure piece of silicon? :w00t:

Chipgenius:

http://www.mydigit.cn/chipgenius.htm

http://dl.mydigit.net/2009/0406/chipgenius.html

http://dl.mydigit.net/download.php?a_k=WAk...kwJUVUcUQFEXARR

Don't worry about the Chinese ;), the app is mostly harmless:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=4661

jaclaz

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Thanks for the info, I will try this tool tonight and see if there is a manufactures tool to correct the problem.

I don't normally give up on a problem, but I look at this as a very low priority task. I still have the drive sitting on my desk at home, and will work on it from time to time, but I have much bigger fish to fry at the moment.

Thanks again for the info, I will let you know if this works.

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