Pen Drive storage devices have proved themselves to be a very practical and robust mobile storage method, far surpassing anything that has gone before. For the most part these devices are very reliable as they rely on solid state technology and therefore have no moving parts, which is a big bonus.
This doesn’t explain the huge number of failures noted in recent months, in fact the whole of the data recovery industry seem to be focusing a lot of attention in the USB Memory Stick Recovery sector, but why should good old trustworthy Flash Memory require such devoted attention?
USB storage devices are also dropping in cost all of the time. They are growing in popularity at such a rate that the number of devices shipped in 2007 was double that shipped in 2006. By the end of 2008, annual sales are estimated to be in the region of 300 million shipped units.
With such large numbers of devices actually being shipped and purchased by the consumers and increase in the number of failures is in reality inevitable, however the actual level of failure is a cause of concern and is reported to be running far higher than is acceptable.
When a previously very reliable product starts to have increased failure rate, just as in any industry the repairers (in this case the data recovery companies) start to ask why and often collaborate on their findings. Investigations have started to reveal that the actual memory chips in the drives have not failed at all and are working just as expected.
Part of the problem lies with the consumer to some extent as the demand for ever cheaper products leads to the need for lean and more efficient or cheaper manufacturing requirements. A lot of failed devices are said to originate in the far east as are marketed as generic memory devices. In addition there is also a large increase in the number of fake devices in the market place as noted by one of if not the leading UK data recovery company in this article:
Nand Flash Identity Fraud
These fake devices often take advantage of the consumer by reporting much higher storage capacity than is actually available which is very misleading right from the off. Another problem here as well is the cost , yes they are cheaper but what are you actually getting for your money? The manufacturing process can only go so far and that only leaves one option, cheaper and substandard components!
Often These portable devices will hold a lot of your valuable data that if lost and not backed up could be lost forever. You get what you pay for as the saying goes so is it really worth the increased risk of data loss to save what is in reality a tiny sum compared to the cost of a branded device?
You can find more great advice on data recovery here or for general computing advice visit the computer data recovery and repair website.
#1 by KittyFireFlash - August 23rd, 2009 at 20:37
The situation for fake, false capacity usb flash drives is very serious.
It is a global problem. There is good news thought. The FrankenFlash Project was created about 20 months ago to try and address the issue.
A number of different groups have joined together to fight the issue and promote consumer awareness.
The main site is SOSFakeFlash.
There are also four other sites, each with a different subject matter, from counterfeit brand names, current prices for nand flash chips to how to fix fake flash devices.
One site is agressive, in reporting suspected sellers on eBay, fightflashfraud.
SOSFakeFlash publishes on confirmed fake flash sellers.
The sad thing is that most consumers have no idea on the real costs of nand flash based technology – it is frightening. It leads to so much data being lost.
The best advice is that people should only buy locally from a reputable seller and of course test the device for it’s real capacity prior to storing any data. Consumers also need to be aware that many brand names are being counterfeited now too. Most brand names have validation sites and all buyers should check the serial numbers at these sites to be sure, better to only buy from authorized dealers.
It is not worth trying to save a few dollars and have a nightmare.
There is absolutely no way to recover data. If the device has been reprogrammed to report 16GB and the flash storage chip is only 2GB, anything copied beyond 2GB is gone. Why? Exactly were are the files supposed to go? There is no place to put them. The usb controller chips have been digitally altered. The only thing that is copied to the fake is information about the file, not the file itself. So there is nothing you can recover, it is not there.
Be safe, research and do not expect super bargains on the internet , the true profit margin for this technology for genuine capacity is small.