Flash Drive Education 101

This article will be revised. It is possible now for 16GB drives to be manufactured in China and some 32GB drives. There have been a few drives investigated that finally are genuine! They are few and are sold at fair prices – not bargain basement.

Before proceeding to Flash Drive Education 101 education and your shopping trip. Please see this new article:

Fake 8GB 16GB 32GB USB Flash Pendrives Drives On eBay YouTube Videos – A Buyer And A Seller Speak

Not one usb flash drive investigated by SOSFakeFlash has delivered a true capacity of more than 8 GB. So far SOSFakeFlash has been concentrating on eBay. Why? It seems to be the largest distribution tunnel of counterfeit USB drives – for internet shopping. eBay has a Global presence – members in many countries. A great place to shop with bargains glore. But when it comes to usb flash drives, it no paradise – it is a nightmare. Honest sellers are buried under the listings for fake drives.

Time for flash drive education, are you ready for a little shopping tour? Let’s head off into cyberspace – destination China. Let’s see the drives as they are offered by the manufactures, their true capacity before they are reprogrammed by the devious into frankenflash!

We have been wondering for a long time why all the models investigated aren’t more than 8GB when tested.

As of 2007 it appears that China did not manufacture chips with a capacity beyond 8GB. To have a 16GB drive you would need two chips working together under a controller chip to present 16GB of space. So for 32 GB, 4 chips would be needed. We at SOSFakeFlash are not chip “experts”, some of us do know a lot about technology – but we are not at that level.

It goes without saying the more a flash chip can hold, the more expensive it will be. You can buy four 8GB drives on sale for the price of one 16GB drive in some countries. Recently the 8GB Kingston DataTraveller retailed on sale for less than $20 US at a reputable retail chain. In the same geographical region, the Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go 16GB was on sale for $95 US.

Verbatim is one of the most reputable and reliable flash drive brands. They are currently manufactured in Taiwan and offer a limited lifetime warrently. The largest size they are offering? 16GB. That’s right. Verbatim doesn’t offer 32GB or 64GB yet or at least not as of the time of this post.

Another Popular Brand is Kingston – the highest they offer is 16 GB, except for a limited edition of a 32GB,Kingston DataTraveler 150 32GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) Model DT150

Let’s head off to China for our shopping trip. In Flash Drive Education 102 we will visit the United States, let’s start with Flash Drive Education 101 first!

Our objective in China? To see if we can find the drives being sold on eBay and the sizes the manufactures offer for a model. You may wish to bookmark this article as your lesson may be short or long – it depends on your interest level.

Begin by clicking on a few sites we have chosen for you, then off you go to explore in earnest! Scroll through the pages to see a drive that might look like one you bought or is similar to the picture for an eBay listing.

POP Electronic Co., Ltd.

Shenzhen Feetek Electronics Co., Ltd.

Time to visit the main shopping site. Explore, investigate and learn. You might want to book mark this page if you need a break from Flash Drive Education 101.

Main Shopping Site

So what are your thoughts after this shopping adventure? Did you find drive(s) you bought? If so what did the manufactures offer in size? Were the size capacities smaller than the listing of advertised capacity size on eBay? Did your testing with H2testw 1.4 come close to the size the manufactures offered. If so…the question is, WHO TURNED THE INNOCENT DRIVE INTO FRANKENFLASH!

Did you by any chance come across any strange memory offerings such as a range for a drive 128mb to 16GB with the keyword optional? That is an odd word, to use. Since when is memory size optional? Unless…you have to do the reprogramming yourself? It is not clear to us at SOSFakeFlash as to what this means.

Did you see any models offered similar to those on being listed on eBay? The difference being that the drives on eBay advertise a much larger size than what the manufacturers offer?

Did anyone see a manufacture offering a flash drive of more than 8 GB? Let us know? We took the class and in the few hours we spend, we did not find one. Did you find a 16GB or 32GB or 64GB being offered by a manufacturer?

Please feel free to share your thoughts on your “shopping trip” to China with a comment.

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Next lesson in the series is Flash Drive Education 102.