Kingston Flash Drive A Waste Of Time & Money

[mike_rad]

Last year I bought a Kingston 128gb usb flash drive from Tuk com in Pattaya. Left the country shortly after and when I came to use it the first time I noticed it was very slow copying files. Very slow for Usb 2 that is. Floppy drives could copy faster or so it seemed.

Anyway I persevered and copied about 10gb in data across but finally get fed up with it, putting the headache it was aside. When I tried again some weeks later most of the files were corrupted, particularly any folder bigger than 2gb.

Shortly after I returned to Pattaya and took it back to the shop. They didn't want to know me at first but I stood my ground. Finally one guy tested it on his laptop and it took a long time for it to become visible. They eventually exchanged it and I thought all was good until I tried out this new one - exactly the same problem, and I was out of the country again too.

Now I'm back but have lost the receipt so there's nothing I can do. I notice there are 256 and even 1000gb ones for sale now, same Kingston, but I'm hesitant to buy another. When I was at Pantip in BKK a few weeks ago I looked for these drives but the biggest one I could spot was 32gb, though I didn't ask about their availability.

Anyone got some ideas or suggestions? Thanks.

[Darrel]

Fakes.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251243-32-problem-flash-drives

[mike_rad]

Fakes.

http://www.tomshardw...em-flash-drives

That thought had occurred to me, Though I have to say the packaging looked authentic. There was even a hologram IIRC. Oh well...

[rakman]

You are seeing normal behavior. USB drives are particularly slow. I have a 32 GB Sandisk Cruizer and its horrible.

The format of the USB drive typically is Fat which has a 2GB limit. A Fat32 limit is 4GB. And, with NTFS formatting, the speed is even slower, but allows large file sizes. You have to use a special program (HP usb stick formatter for example) to format NTFS.

What I see when I'm copying large files, the copy speed will start ok, but in a few seconds it slows to a crawl, then after ~2-4 minutes the copy speed improves for about 15 seconds, then slows to a crawl again. It does keep going, just take a coffee or beer break.

I haven't been able to come up with a solution, but an alternative is to use a 2.5" notebook or SSD in a USB-SATA enclosure and get the speed back.

[bobl]

Slight error...

CHINESE FAKE "Kingston Flash Drive A Waste Of Time & Money"

There... fixed it for you.

They've hacked the thing to report 128Gb to Windows, when it's probably only a very small flash disk. It's easy to do.

Speed-wise, yes - thumb drives are typically a bit slower than you're used to or would like, but some are better than others.

That's not the problem in this case though - in this case you've been had, without a doubt. Let me guess, it was a bargain price, right?

p.s. It's not a new trick, they do it with hard drives also. Here's one of my favourites... http://blog.jitbit.com/2011/04/chinese-magic-drive.html

[TheWalkingMan]

I always thought that the Kingston flash drives sold in TukCom were fakes and have avoided them.

[bino]

Genuine Kingston drives have laser engraving on the metal connector that plugs into the computer, like this:

Fakes don't have it.

A friend bought a 128 GB Kingston stick in Pattaya for a price that was too good to be true, and sure enough, it was missing this engraving. It is easy enough to knock off the packaging and even the holograms, but the laser engraving is considerably more difficult / costly to replicate. There might be really good fakes out there that have this, but if it doesn't have then you can be certain that the drive is bogus.

OP wants a suggestion- if it doesn't have this engraving, suck it up and consider it lesson learned.

Edited July 2, 2012 by bino

[kkerry]

Kingston 128gb USB drives are $200+ in the US and 256gb ones are $800... and they sell for how much in Pattaya...

Biggest size I saw last time I was in Panthip was 64gb at a small shop selling Transcend. The 600 series from Transcend are more expensive than some other brands but are the fastest USB 2.0 drives I have used but USB 3.0 is now the go if your computer supports it.

[mike_rad]

Genuine Kingston drives have laser engraving on the metal connector that plugs into the computer, like this:

Fakes don't have it.

A friend bought a 128 GB Kingston stick in Pattaya for a price that was too good to be true, and sure enough, it was missing this engraving. It is easy enough to knock off the packaging and even the holograms, but the laser engraving is considerably more difficult / costly to replicate. There might be really good fakes out there that have this, but if it doesn't have then you can be certain that the drive is bogus.

OP wants a suggestion- if it doesn't have this engraving, suck it up and consider it lesson learned.

Thanks for that, and thanks to everyone else too. The cheeky thing is that there are a load of 256 & 1000gb ones for sale now, all at prices to good to be true. Preying on all the tourists.

My problem was that I didn't do any research on why they were at such a price. If I had done so I could have avoided all this.

[chinook]

i tend to buy that kinda stuff from Tesco Lotus ........... greater chance of it being genuine.

[transam]

I wonder if Kingston phone memory cards can be fakes too. We have problems with a couple of them, but how can one tell with this small piece of kit.

[KunMatt]

Genuine Kingston drives have laser engraving on the metal connector that plugs into the computer, like this:

Fakes don't have it.

A friend bought a 128 GB Kingston stick in Pattaya for a price that was too good to be true, and sure enough, it was missing this engraving. It is easy enough to knock off the packaging and even the holograms, but the laser engraving is considerably more difficult / costly to replicate. There might be really good fakes out there that have this, but if it doesn't have then you can be certain that the drive is bogus.

OP wants a suggestion- if it doesn't have this engraving, suck it up and consider it lesson learned.

I have one of the black ones at the bottom, no engraving on the connector, I had no idea it was a fake! Been using it for 3 years with no problems and it does hold the stated 8GB. Always been a bit slow though!

Bought it from Panthip Plaza in BKK if anyone was wondering, on one of the temporary shops who sell everything from a table and rack outside the big real shops - I should've known!!

[waza]

I have a kingston thumb drive I bought in Aus, it works fine but doesnt have the laser engraving

[01322521959]

Interestingly, I bought an 8gb flash drive from Larsi Plaza, which just didn't work at all. Took it back and exchanged it for an identical one, which has been fine for the last year. No lazer etching, though.

[tutsiwarrior]

I've got a Kingston 16GB Data Traveler that I bought in saudi about 5 years ago that I store all of my porno clips on and it works perfectly and there is no laser emblem that I can see...maybe the fake problem is recent...

[bobl]

I see some of the comments about having "suspected" fakes that work...

Reason for this is there's 3 types of drive...

1. The "original"

2. The "copy" and

3. The "fake"

The copies are often as good and reliable as the original - just some happy cheeky Chinaman with a cheap, but working product making an extra buck by copying a brand name. Many of them don't even bother to copy the (design) style of the original - only the name and packaging. When we went to China to do purchases for a hotel refit, once we'd found the flat screen TV's we wanted, the factory asked us straight up, "What brand name would you like on them? Sony? Toshiba? Panasonic?".

The fakes are just crooks. They don't even make an attempt at a working product their aim is to defraud, plain and simple. Make no mistake, the guys selling them knows 100% that they're neither originals nor (at least) working copies. They know very well that they are fake.

[bendejo]

I have a 1Gb Kingston purchased in the US six years ago (looking back the price was ridiculous compared to today's).

It has never had problems, even though it has been on my keyring all this time and looks bashed up. There is no laser etching on the connector, but my later Kingstons (a 4Gb, a8Gb, a 16Gb, all purchased in Thailand or Malaysia) all have the etching. Maybe the etching is a fairly recent thing.

A few years ago, in the street market area near Pahurat, I picked up a pair of Sony rechargeable AA batteries. Total rip-off, they weren't even batteries. What was lucky for me is that whatever it was didn't ruin my charger, cause a fire, etc.

[bino]

I've known about the laser engraving for about three years, so it my not apply to their older products. Makes sense that they might have introduced this as a security feature once larger and more expensive drives made their way into the market and the knock-off artists sprang up.

The fakes can be good / work just fine. In the case of my friend's 128GB stick, it does hold the full amount of data. He bought it to use with his LCD TV, and loaded it up with movies. However, it wouldn't work when plugged onto his TV. I tried to fix it for him by reformatting, and the stick wouldn't reformat. I pulled it out of the computer and looked at the connector, and had my answer. Whatever cheap chinese chip is inside isn't as good as a real item. So- he can continue using it, but only for data connected to a PC.

He was with another guy in Pattaya when he bought it, and they both bought the same drive. The other guy's didn't work right out of the box, so he went straight back and kicked off until the merchant replaced it. When my friend and I discovered his fake, he got on the phone to his buddy and asked if his had the engraving, which it apparently did. Don't know whether that means that there are better fakes out there with engraving, or the merchant gave him a real one to placate him.

I have a kingston thumb drive I bought in Aus, it works fine but doesnt have the laser engraving

Waza- when I was searching for the pictures above yesterday, I ran across an Ebay Au web page that says lots of retailers in Oz are selling these fakes unknowingly.

I wonder if Kingston phone memory cards can be fakes too. We have problems with a couple of them, but how can one tell with this small piece of kit.

T/A - I'm guessing here, but would believe that the process and cost of producing such a "small bit of kit" would be prohibitive to the knock-off artists.

Edited July 3, 2012 by bino

[Darrel]

I've got a Kingston 16GB Data Traveler that I bought in saudi about 5 years ago that I store all of my porno clips on ....

We're a credulous lot on here I know but there's no way you could store all your porno clips in just 16GB.

[klikster]

i tend to buy that kinda stuff from Tesco Lotus ........... greater chance of it being genuine.

Packaged 4GB Data Traveler from Tesco Lotus about 2 years ago .. no laser engraving.

[BuddhistVirus]

I've got a Kingston 16GB Data Traveler that I bought in saudi about 5 years ago that I store all of my porno clips on ....

We're a credulous lot on here I know but there's no way you could store all your porno clips in just 16GB.

He can, if they are .3gp video clips.

[transam]

I've got a Kingston 16GB Data Traveler that I bought in saudi about 5 years ago that I store all of my porno clips on ....

We're a credulous lot on here I know but there's no way you could store all your porno clips in just 16GB.

He can, if they are .3gp video clips.

Bit off topic but l have a Sony Handy cam that takes the small DVD. It also has a 1 GB memory card. How many minutes of Video will go on the 1 GB card ?.

[BuddhistVirus]

I've got a Kingston 16GB Data Traveler that I bought in saudi about 5 years ago that I store all of my porno clips on ....

We're a credulous lot on here I know but there's no way you could store all your porno clips in just 16GB.

He can, if they are .3gp video clips.

Bit off topic but l have a Sony Handy cam that takes the small DVD. It also has a 1 GB memory card. How many minutes of Video will go on the 1 GB card ?.

Will depend on the resolution of the video and the codecs used to compress/encode video and audio. I think.

[bobl]

I've got a Kingston 16GB Data Traveler that I bought in saudi about 5 years ago that I store all of my porno clips on ....

We're a credulous lot on here I know but there's no way you could store all your porno clips in just 16GB.

He can, if they are .3gp video clips.

Bit off topic but l have a Sony Handy cam that takes the small DVD. It also has a 1 GB memory card. How many minutes of Video will go on the 1 GB card ?.

Those mini-DVD's are 1.4Gb and hold around 30 minutes (2.8Gb/1hr for the double sided ones) - so I'd say on the 1GB memory card, maybe 20 minutes. If you pop a 16Gb card in there (assuming the device supports it) it seems you'd be able to shoot for around 5+ hours.

[transam]

Thanks for that.