You’re not imagining things — USB memory sticks are getting worse

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https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/07/failed_usb_sticks/

A German data recovery specialist has confirmed what many Reg readers will have suspected: USB memory sticks are getting less reliable. The cause, as you might have guessed, is inferior memory chips, while the move to storing multiple bits per flash cell also plays a part.

CBL Data Recovery posted that the quality of newer memory components in microSD and USB sticks is declining, and it reported that USB sticks where the NAND manufacturer’s logo had been removed from the chip are increasingly turning up in its data recovery laboratory.

It suspects that flash chips from manufacturers such as SK hynix, Sandisk or Samsung that fail quality control checks are being resold into the market, but marked as components with lower memory capacities.

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Veteran US software engineer and security researcher Steve Gibson has announced a new drive tool from Gibson Research Corporation (GRC). The underlying purpose of ValiDrive v1.0 is to “spot-check any USB mass storage drive for fraudulently missing storage,” which has become ever more important given the influx of fake drives flooding online retailers. This freeware tool also checks any USB-connected drive for read / write errors.

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opti1, WCHS, lmacri, jburk07, mledman, Lars220, SueW, windbg, n0ads, CraigS26, b, A1ex, Rob F, Myst

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I have used some new Emtec USB flash drives in the bugdet/value range and the controller and/or the NAND chip is very slow maxing out at 15mbps read & write speed even though the controller communicates using USB 2.0 protocol.

The memory chip hold files as expected and size is as stated on the package, these flash drives are fit for that purpose.

However booting stock Ubuntu to completion actually took 15 minutes on decent computer! (SystemD demands a whole lot of resources, because many boot processes took too long and frequently timed out and restarted.)

Attempting to boot an offline virus scanner tool (ESET) did fully complete, also but was equally slow.

There is a black label over the memory chip, so after reading this article it will be removed just to see who manufactured the NAND chip.

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windbg

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