Question Testing USB drive reliability with h2testw ?

[Dasa]

Hello all,

I wanted to test a used 16GB Kingston Data Traveler 101 G2 (DT101G2) that shows as 14.4GB

I had a feeling (memory) that this exact drive might be too flaky for win image installation, so I found h2testw, since it writes and verify data, exactly what I want.

Once test started, I got a warning that not all errors will be found and I need to format USB so test area include every bit of the drive, they implied using Fat32, I did change to Fat32 and the lost area went down to 1 MByte (14783-14782) BUT I still got the warning even I am not on NTFS.

Questions:
1. Is there a format that can have no wasted bytes? so I don't get a warning?
2. Is this the best tool? what do pros use?
3. Shouldn't it show as 15.5GB on windows instead 14.4GB?

 

[Colif]

1 & 3
14.4 to 14.8gb is about normal for a 16gb USB drive once its formatted

16 gb flash drive, only 14 gb usable

when you have a 16 gb memory card or flash drive, why is it that only 14 point something gb is only usable?

forums.tomshardware.com

I don't think you can get any more space.

I know that tool is good at checking a drive is the size it says it is. Good for checking 2tb USB drives since they don't actually exist yet. Not sure about checking speed of a drive though. Apart to confirm it is right speed.

you could use this to test its speed - https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

 

[Dasa]

Hi Colif,

Someone reviewing the USB on Amazon said it is 15.54 out of the box ( he wanted full 16GB like me ) ... so what decides the size? pure commercial number and we get what we get? how do I know I got a lemon?

No I don't care about speed, it's 5MB/s write, can't be worse than that
I just want to make sure USB is reliable, no write/read errors.
I use CrystaldiskMark for HDD/SSD speed

Would this tool work for testing USB ports themselves? I think I have problem with USB ports, my keyboard kept giving me power erros last year, it is power hungry keyboard that could use it's own power source, and I felt it might have ruined the whole port area, but I got no errors this year (maybe once), so I am skeptical of everything, if this tool can test the motherboard ports that would be great, I am not sure maybe if I disconnect the keyboard the bad effect would go away, the problem is it happens randomly, I don't know how to check this issue.

The test finished without errors after 50min, I asked it verify 2-3 times (10min each) and also no errors, I guess USB is good.

 

[Colif]

Someone reviewing the USB on Amazon said it is 15.54 out of the box ( he wanted full 16GB like me ) ... so what decides the size? pure commercial number and we get what we get? how do I know I got a lemon?

See the last post in the thread I linked in previous post, it explains where difference is. Or isn't since it doesn't exist.

like to see proof from Amazon person as I have a 32gb USB drive but once formatted it is 29.8. You always lose space to formatting. 15.5 is closer to the amount you would get in ram as it does give you the right amount when you buy a stick. Ram doesn't need to be formatted to work with windows.

This is totally normal. The advertised size of memory cards/hard drives is the unformatted capacity of the drive/card. When you format the card the File Allocation Table (FAT/FAT32/NTFS) AKA the file system- takes up the difference in space that you see.

Manufacturers sell the drive based on 1GB=1000MB, 1MB=1000kb 1KB=1000bytes....and so on.

Hard drives/Memory Cards are formatted like this: 1GB=1024MB, 1MB=1024kb, 1KB=1024bytes...and so on...


This works out to be approximately a loss of ~74MB per GB of advertised capacity so do the math:

16GB advertised space * 74MB = 1184MB or ~ 1.2 GB

16GB - 1.2GB = 14.8 GB which is what your seeing as your MicroSD card's usable capacity and it totally normal.

16gb microSd shows 14.8gb only [solve]

I bought 16gb microsd from kingston, sadly it shows only less than 15gb on my DS 14.8 to be exact Rom is fallout. Why does it only shows 15gb? :/

xdaforums.com

what power errors?

most keyboards don't need their own power source, USB is enough. Even RGB keyboards are fine.
USBDeview just checks attached devices. Not the ports themselves.

if this tool can test the motherboard ports that would be great, I am not sure maybe if I disconnect the keyboard the bad effect would go away, the problem is it happens randomly, I don't know how to check this issue.

How to check the power output of a USB port in Windows 10?

If you want to know how to check the power of a USB port, this guide is for you. We'll show you the different types of ports, the power it supplies, and more! keep reading to find everything you need to know!

www.auslogics.com

Don't buy anything

 

[USAFRet]

Its not "losing space due to formatting".

It is simply a difference in reporting units.
Base 10 vs Base 2.
Human vs Computer.

A "1TB" drive will be reported by Windows as 931GB.
16GB flash drive as 14.8GB

It has always been thus.

https://www.gbmb.org/gib-to-gb

Gigabyte​

Gigabyte (GB) is one of the most commonly used units of digital information which is equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes. However, in computer operating science, the value of 1 GB is considered to be equal to 230 or 10243 bytes which is equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes. GB is often used for indicating a size of memory or specifying a size of a movie, computer RAM, and so on.

 

[Colif]

It is almost as much fun as what ISP do with download speeds.

 

[Dasa]

See the last post in

Sorry Colif, I missed that, I thought you were quoting me.

yeah yeah I know about GB/Gib even though I keep forgetting the details, I had a university pal who was a CS nerd and every single time I said gigabyte is 1000 megabyte he would correct me saying "1024" but I had trouble converting it

I can't find the damn proof, suddenly every review says 14.X I swear I saw15.5 or 15.6, never mind at least 5 ppl said 14 this time.

Thank you for the links, I guess I did 16,000/1024 instead of 16,000,000,000/1024/1024/1024...


Regarding the keyboard,

It's called cm storm trigger, it has a place for 5v adapter and can power 2xUSB, it also has 3 levels of back light.

I checked the link, windows only gives max value that can be used by device? I thought I would see values in real life (while changing lights)

This is what I have there:

This guy describes my problem exactly:

https://www.reddit.com/r/coolermaster/comments/1y1dn2/cmstorm_trigger_problems/

In short: It would turn off, few specific lights would turn on, only fix is removing USB cable from port and plugging it once or twice. sometimes 3 times.

The solution according to some expert seems to be related to replacing cable But OP didn't mention these windows errors I used to get, I honestly forgot what it said but looks like this with red X, I think it is but I just forgot, and not sure why it sopped after storing keyboard for some time.

Don't bother yourself with this issue, I didn't get it for some time but it made me feel there is a problem with my PC, worry it has been damaged maybe because of high power usage.

Its not "losing space due to formatting".

It is simply a difference in reporting units.
Base 10 vs Base 2.
Human vs Computer.

A "1TB" drive will be reported by Windows as 931GB.
16GB flash drive as 14.8GB

It has always been thus.

https://www.gbmb.org/gib-to-gb

Thank you

 

[Colif]

It's called cm storm trigger, it has a place for 5v adapter and can power 2xUSB

it might be a fault in the keyboard, I can find other people from 8 years ago with same problem - link

How old is keyboard? I see model been out 10 years, is that age?

 

[Dasa]

it might be a fault in the keyboard, I can find other people from 8 years ago with same problem - link

How old is keyboard? I see model been out 10 years, is that age?

I had it from Aug 2012 and reported the problem to cm storm forums (gone?) in Sep 2012 but I got no helpful answers.

 

[Colif]

I think its time to consider a new keyboard. They not bad these days, you can probably find a replacement that doesn't cause same problem.
12 years is a good age for any hardware, and if it was causing the problem all that time, I would have swapped by now. I have had 4 keyboards in that time... though that is misleading... they weren't all new in that time period, first one was about 3 years old in 2014.

My current one is bluetooth, no USB at all except when I have to charge it.

i had fun finding a new one last year

Discussion - Gaming keyboard suggestions

I think I need a new Gaming Keyboard but I am trying to work out what. Last 3 keyboards were from: Razer Logitech Corsair I want to try someone different. Currently looking at https://steelseries.com/gaming-keyboards/apex-pro-tkl-2023 as I have used a Steelseries mouse for over 10 years so I...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Dasa]

I think its time to consider a new keyboard. They not bad these days, you can probably find a replacement that doesn't cause same problem.
12 years is a good age for any hardware, and if it was causing the problem all that time, I would have swapped by now. I have had 4 keyboards in that time...

My current one is bluetooth, no USB at all except when I have to charge it.

What are you talking about? I'm giving it to my children when I die, they'd better take care of it!

 

[Colif]

family heirloom... 200 years time they be wondering why they still have their chunk of plastic

It seems the company I bought my keyboard off have updated it since. I know why, its to do with the software that modifies the keys
https://nuphy.com.au/products/nuphy-halo96-v2

not sure its enough to make me buy a new one...
a bit much my version is outdated so fast...

 

[Dasa]

family heirloom... 200 years time they be wondering why they still have their chunk of plastic

It seems the company I bought my keyboard off have updated it since. I know why, its to do with the software that modifies the keys
https://nuphy.com.au/products/nuphy-halo96-v2

not sure its enough to make me buy a new one...
a bit much my version is outdated so fast...

Consumerism is strong in USA, it blows my mind how different the culture is but I understand it is related to resources, my PC is from 2011 (parts from 2009-2010 years), I updated it with 512 SSD and increased RAM to 12 in 2019, still using GTS (not X) 450 and still consider it a strong PC lol I think this phenomena is related to not trying something better, once I tried SSD there was no going back, before SSD I was used to waiting sooo long for stuff to happen, also 4GB RAM was hell, ofc I don't follow tech news or I'll be drooling over my trusty keyboard and that is not good for it's longevity lol

 

[Colif]

ssd is a one way street, can't go back once you can boot into windows within a minute. I still have to use a pc with a hdd, and its painful to just start it up. Not my PC, a family members. I turn on and walk away for 5 minutes... if I do that on my pc the screen will turn off.

i remember only having 2.5gb of ram on 32bit windows. My hdd was running out of space constantly as I was using page file too much. When I swapped to 16gb I found I was using more than I thought I had been - though windows will grow to use what you have.

Not in us myself, Australia. Making things last is a thing down here but i got a new pc 4 years ago.

and still consider it a strong PC lol I think this phenomena is related to not trying something better,

thats a good way to stay sane. if you don't know what you missing out on, you won't miss it. There are parts faster than what I have but since I never used them, what does it matter? Be happy with what you have.

 

[Dasa]

ssd is a one way street, can't go back once you can boot into windows within a minute. I still have to use a pc with a hdd, and its painful to just start it up. Not my PC, a family members. I turn on and walk away for 5 minutes... if I do that on my pc the screen will turn off.

i remember only having 2.5gb of ram on 32bit windows. My hdd was running out of space constantly as I was using page file too much. When I swapped to 16gb I found I was using more than I thought I had been - though windows will grow to use what you have.

Not in us myself, Australia. Making things last is a thing down here but i got a new pc 4 years ago.



thats a good way to stay sane. if you don't know what you missing out on, you won't miss it. There are parts faster than what I have but since I never used them, what does it matter? Be happy with what you have.

We had an ancient laptop at home that has core 2 duo and also 2.X RAM , it was painfully slow but rarely used for some family members, I needed a laptop for a thing so I am currently upgrading it and fixing some issues, I just added SSD, it had 8GB RAM but not used due to 32bit sys, I am surprised that Core 2 duo is doing a good job handling win10, you can feel the delay but it's nothing like before.

You know the pain lol now I don't even look at ram, moved from wifi to ethernet, zero connection problems, wifi was my daily dose of pain, for me it's heaven right now, I have no special needs to justify a new build.

I checked some of your PC prices, you seem to be cheaper than usa, I thought you'd be double at least.

 

[Colif]

win 10 was designed to bundle up all the computers that were still on older OS so that Microsoft had less OS it needed to answer questions about. It didn't get all of them but enough. So yes, it works on PC it probably shouldn't be on. Its not perfect, finding drivers that work for old hardware on 10 can be a pain.
Win 11 they put on some restrictions and win 12 likely has even more to stop old PC from using it.
Hardware makers don't make any money if Windows keeps supporting all their hardware.
Artificial barriers were needed to make people think about buying a new PC.