A flash drive bought from one of the big retail web portals or from other online shops offer great deals, big discounts or other amazing services for their products. Just be careful what you buy and from where you buy it.
Pay attention on what you buy
For example, if you purchased a 16GB flash drive there is no way for knowing if the product is actually a 16GB one just by looking at it. Also, you operating system will not tell you that its size is exactly the one you bought. Also, to see the item life span, it may take hours, days or even months. But if it fails in a short period of time, you have made a poor bargain.Consider another situation, if you want to buy a popular brand of flash drive and you get an imitation. The reason most shops or individuals sell their products at higher price is because their quality. Thou manufacturing faults may also be encountered in strong brand items, as they offer safety and quality, do not jump right away at a very big discount offered by unknown sellers or distributors.
So when you are thinking about buying a flash drive, pay just as much attention as if you were buying any other house appliance or other important product. Mostly because you will know what you have spent your money on, only after you have tested it.
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How to be sure of the real deal?
Next, I will give you a few ways of ensuring that the product on that you have spent your money is actually the real deal. First, regarding the manufacturer of the flash drive, there is a very easy way to check it. Plug-in the device in the right socket, open My Computer, on Windows XP, or Computer, in Vista, or later versions of Windows.Wait until the device is detected, has its drivers installed and it is shown like one of the other storage devices. When you see it, right click on it and from the drop down menu select Properties. Now, go to the Hardware tab and you will notice the name of the drive there. In most cases, if the flash drive is genuine, the name of the producer will be shown. If not, if it is reported as a Generic Flash Drive or something similar to this, you need to check some more to be sure.
Low transfer and access speed is one of the most common signs that your newly purchased flash drive is a fake. And also, the rate that you come across lost or corrupt files. A great tool for checking your flash drive is the H2testw. This is a simple tool, distributed as freeware, with an easy to use interface, designed to test the specifications of storage devices.
But before you start to test your device, make sure that it is empty. After the test is initiated, this may take a few hours, depending on its size and speed, you will get different messages depending if the drive had errors or not. If the flash drive is genuine you should receive the message that the test finished without errors.
However, if errors were encountered, like “… The media may be defective.”, the device may be a fake or counterfeited and you should contact your supplier for a refund or a change of product.
EricAbout the Author:
Eric, the author of this article enjoys to bolg about technology and the latest trends in the world of gadgets. He works for USB Company in UK as a consultant where he blogs about personalised usb flash drives and the whole creation process. You can also see his contribution on Facebook.