gHacks technology news » usb flash drives http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:31:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Test USB Flash Drive And Hard Drive Integrity And Size http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/28/test-usb-flash-drive-and-hard-drive-integrity-and-size/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/28/test-usb-flash-drive-and-hard-drive-integrity-and-size/#comments Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:04:45 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=15807 microsoft windowsPortable software program H2testw has been designed to test the integrity and the size of usb flash drives, memory cards, hard drives and even network shares. The software program works by writing, reading and verifying test data that is written on the selected device. Existing files that are already stored on the device will not be harmed if the tests do not find any defects. This does however mean that existing files can be harmed if defects are found on the device. It is therefor recommended to clean the device before running the test program.

The device integrity and size test will write files with a size of one Gigabyte to the selected storage device. All files that are written to the device will be named x.h2w with x starting with 1 and counting up. The software will then verify the files that have been written to the medium and display a report once the verification has been completed.

test usb flash drives

The program will display a rating and a detailed report on the data that was written correctly and incorrectly. The tool can for example be used to test if the advertised capacity of the USB flash drive or hard drive has the correct size.

H2testw is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and does not require administrative rights.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/28/test-usb-flash-drive-and-hard-drive-integrity-and-size/feed/ 2 USB Flash Drives Cleaner http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/19/usb-flash-drives-cleaner/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/19/usb-flash-drives-cleaner/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:53:35 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=15531 USB Driver Fresher has been designed to clean USB flash drives automatically when they are plugged into the computer system the software program is running on. The program uses rules to automatically scan and clean files and folders on USB flash drives. There are several situations where this might come in handy. Some operating systems do automatically create files and folders, for example a thumbs.db file, .Spotlight-V100, .ds_store or .trashes folders. While it has been designed to clean these files and folders it can be used for other purposes as well as the rules are flexible enough to cleanup all files and folders that might be stored on the USB flash drive.

usb flash drives cleaner

Existing rules can be modified or removed and new rules added. Supported are file and folders names plus the wildcard. It is theoretically possible to clean all files that are stored on USB flash drives by adding a *.* rule. This could be interesting for users who have to clean a lot of USB flash drives or want to work with empty drives on a specific computer system.

The software program will run hidden and cleanup connected USB flash drives automatically. These settings can be changed in the options of the program so that a confirmation is required before the data is deleted on connected USB flash drives.

USB Drive Fresher is a free software program for the Windows operating system. It is available for download at the developer’s website. Supported operating systems are Windows XP, Windows Vista and several other Microsoft operating system. It is likely that the program will also run under Windows 7.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/19/usb-flash-drives-cleaner/feed/ 1 Partition USB Flash Drives http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/17/partition-usb-flash-drives/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/17/partition-usb-flash-drives/#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:22:12 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/17/partition-usb-flash-drives/ usb flash drivesUSB flash drives cannot be partitioned in the Windows operating if the drive is identified as removable media. The only way to partition the USB flash drive is to flip the removable bit so that it is recognized as fixed media instead which can be partitioned like any normal hard drive.

A tool that can flip the bit and should work with most usb flash drives is Lexar’s USB format tool. It is a portable tool that has been designed for Lexar USB drives but it works with other brands as well. The main interface can not only be used to flip the removable bit but also to format the usb drive, set a volume label and a partition to be bootable. You only need to press the flip removable bit button if you want to prepare the flash drive for use with multiple partitions. The drive has to be removed and connected again to the computer system afterwards.

partition usb flash drives

It should be noted that Lexar USB Format (via Shell City) will not partition the usb flash drive which has to be done with other tools. For that you can use the build in tools in the operating system. Read Joshua’s System Partitioning With Vista article to find out how to do that in Windows Vista. A more universal software is the gParted Live CD which can be booted from any computer system.

Another option to create multiple USB stick partitions has been discussed before at Ghacks. The process involves editing the Windows Registry and has the disadvantage that the add-on partitions are only visible on that computer system.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/17/partition-usb-flash-drives/feed/ 16 USB Flash Drives: USB Vaccine http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/06/usb-flash-drives-usb-vaccine/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/06/usb-flash-drives-usb-vaccine/#comments Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:17:01 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=10971 Panda Security has released a new security software program that increases the security of usb flash drives. The portable software program called USB Vaccine provides the means to vaccinate both the computer system and usb flash drives.

Computer vaccination referring to disabling autorun completely from removable media like usb flash drives or optical drives like CDs or DVD drives. To enable the protection of the computer system from programs that are auto-executed if usb flash drives or CDs or DVDs are inserted into the computer drives.

A click on vaccinate computer will immediately disable autorun on the computer system. The USB drive vaccination option on the other hand will disable autorun from selected usb flash drives. The drives have to be connected to the computer system before the computer can be protected. Every connected usb flash drive will be listed in a pulldown menu. A click on vaccinate usb will prevent autorun from being executed from that usb flash drive.

It should be noted that it is not possible to undo the autorun protection of a selected usb flash drive in the computer system using the security software. Another limitation is that it will only work on usb flash drives that have been formatted with the FAT or FAT32 file system.

usb flash drives

Panda Research USB Vaccine increases the security of a computer system in regards to usb flash drives and other media with autorun capabilities. The security software has been tested under Windows Vista, Windows XP and even Windows 2000. It will work on all

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/06/usb-flash-drives-usb-vaccine/feed/ 6 Test the Speed of your USB Flash Drives http://www.ghacks.net/2008/06/07/test-the-speed-of-your-usb-flash-drives/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/06/07/test-the-speed-of-your-usb-flash-drives/#comments Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:05:40 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=4899 The speed difference of USB Flash Drives that support the USB 2.0 standard can be more than 15 MB/s with maximum speeds of about 30 MB/s for fast drives. That’s still less than modern hard drives are capable of but better than a few years ago. I think it’s really astonishing that there are only a few recent comparisons of USB flash drive speeds available on the first results pages of Google. A recent (another one) comparison from May 2008 that tested seven USB flash drives showed differences of more than 15 MB/s between the fastest and slowed drive while copying files of a certain size

If you already have an USB flash drive and want to know how it compares you can test the speed of it with the free version of HD Tune which can benchmark USB drives as well. The free version will only test the read speed and access time but it should give a good impression of the capabilities of the device at hand.

To make the test accurate you should set the test speed to Accurate in the benchmark options. The last two steps are to select the USB flash drive from the pulldown menu at the top and to click on start to start the benchmark.

hdtune benchmark

Those speed differences are really interesting. It’s probably a good idea to research USB flash drives extensively before buying one. What’s your experience with those drives ?

Tags: , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/06/07/test-the-speed-of-your-usb-flash-drives/feed/ 5