Only some media files play from USB drive

[Daniel Koucky]

I bought a cheap 128GB USB drive from china and when I copy video files over only some of them will play, the properties of the files appear fine and they open in VLC but there is no play time. In Windows media I get the error:

Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.

Documents and Photos copy fine but audio files have the same problem. It does not matter what the extension is they randomly have the same problems

I have tried to format the drive as NTFS through through disk management but it takes hours and fails at the end every time. Any suggestions?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey Daniel. It seems very odd that this would happen only with a specific type of files. First backup any important data which you might have on it. Then I'd recommend that you do the basics of troubleshooting first, like trying the drive with a different USB cable (not longer than 12"), and a different computer to see if the same thing happens again. If everything looks the same, then I'd recommend that you download the manufacturer's diagnostic tool to test the drive with it and see if it has any errors or bad sectors. If the manufacturer doesn't offer such a tool then try a 3rd party one.

Hope that helps. Let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

 

[boosted1g]

Most likely it is just the program does not support the files.

VLC is one of the best media players and will play any file type (you could rename an mp4 file as a word .docx file and VLC could still play it).

 

[Daniel Koucky]

It looks like the drive may not be as large as they claim. I did not find this thread using the search, but now I posted my question it linked me to related thread http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2207944/play-files-flash-drive.html

There is a test app I downloaded here http://www.pendriveapps.com/test-for-fake-usb-flash-drives-h2testw/ that shows the drive isn't really what they claimed online.

I guess $10 for 128GB really was too good to be true

 

[Boogieman_WD]

This happens sometimes. Usually when you see such a deal, which is "almost too good to be true", more often than not - it is. 🙁
I'd suggest that before you buy such a product, that you get to know a bit with it on the web, like where it's manufactured or what capacities it has. And look for the info on the label. There are often even spelling mistakes on the labels of fake devices.
Sorry you had to go through that with your USB drive.

 

[sougo]

well here's a link to tutorial , hope it may help you to format your pen drive succesfuly http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2476428/format-memory-card-longer-formatable.html