Hi. I just received a 4gb flash drive I bought on eBay. Seemed like a good deal for about £12; and indeed it is, in the sense that it basically works fine, and very fast.

But it has one very annoying problem: namely, if I save stuff to it within folders, it quite often refuses to move or delete said folders. And when I investigate what's in the folders, there are a whole load of tiny (1kb) files with names ike "a", "A", "RRaa". These files also refuse to be deleted, individually - it tells me something about the wrong volume, or wrong label, or something. The only option is to reformat. I've done that twice, and it's happened again both times. At first I thought it might be some sort of pre-installed virus (the drive came from Hong Kong...); but since I've formatted and it's happened again, I'm assuming that's not the case... ?

There was also one file that I lost completely in the transfer process. It was no longer in the folder concerned, but another file that claimed to be an essential system file was...

Do I have a faulty drive, or is this some sort of glitch that can be fixed?

Thanks in advance, MS.

Did you ever wonder how resellers on Ebay can sell seemly comparible items for much less money?
I don't know about your flash drive, but in the memory industry RAM chips are all tested by the manufacturer and is either use under thier own brand name or resold.
The RAM that is not up to brand name standards gets sold to third party companies that then build RAM sticks, flash memory or other hardware using that memory.

My advice would be to trash it and stay away from Ebay. You can get excellent prices and good hardware using Pricewatch.com.

Dealing eBay is indeed a slithery slope. The organization as a whole is murkily designed & very far from being perfect & there are just about as many honest sellers as there are deceitful buyers & vice versa.

Contact the seller if it isn't too late to do so or chalk it up for the community.

Thanks for all these responses - duly noted!

But maybe one of you (or someone else) could clear one thing up for me. I've been using the drive since my post earlier on, but without creating folders on it - so, just lists of files - and it seems to work fine, and, as I mentioned before, very fast. So, am I safe to assume that the only harm it might do is to the data I'm trying to tranfer? In other words, can I assume that it's nothing to do with viruses or any malicious files or whatever. If so, I can live with it... !

Thankks again, MS.

a) Have you tried using simple folder names, no greater than 8 characters and no spaces?

b) Your last post advises problems appear when folders are used, but works ok when not.

You advise you are using Vista and XP. Can you narrow the problem down to one of the two. If so, this would suggest a driver problem.

Good Luck - Keep us posted.

Thanks for that. Thanks for the tip - I'll give it a try.

I have a laptop with Vista and a desktop with XP, and I'll basically be using it for transferring between the two - or occasionally to other machines altogether. Does that answer your question?

MS

You ARE "safely removing" the drive by using the icon in the tray aren't you?

I am indeed - but I can see why you asked... !

No need to safely remove in xp.

It is bad, face it. Throw it away.

A lot of junk is sold on ebay. Why go there? You local store is close enough and should warranty the junk.

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you goober.

jefro

You are wrong when stating there is no need to safely remove in WinXP.
You don't know where the OP lives. Thaere may not be a store close by. OP most likely lives in the UK.