250219 Grant Edwards wrote:

On 2025-02-18, Michael <confabulate@kintzios.com> wrote:

I would refrain from stating anything which could well be
outside their sphere of knowledge or understanding.
I would not mention Linux, ext2, gparted
or anything exotic for the average MSWindows user.
"I just cannot format these sticks - they took many, many hours
and eventually failed. They are not like the previous USB sticks
I bought FROM YOUR SHOP. Can I please replace them
for something more reliable AND FASTER, if need be at a higher price".

Definitely that. The second they hear "Linux", they're going to say
"Those aren't supported on Linux" and turn their backs.
If you push the issue, they're going to claim the waranty is void
because you were using Linux.

Then they should definitely advertise the fact that they work only for M$ ;
USB sticks sb reformatable at the customer's wish :
if these aren't, the store should make that clear to the purchaser.
CC is the kind of store you go to if you build your own machines,
so I wb surprised if that was their response ; it's more likely to be :
"They are outside the in-store warranty. You can send them back to the maker".

Well, that's what would happen in US. Maybe retailers are nicer in Canada ?

Yes, we're all nicer in Canada : that's why the US Prez doesn't like us (grin)

If they start asking questions, just say: "I tried to format them on
my PC. It ran for 10 hours, then failed". It doesn't matter what they ask apart from "cash refund, replacement or credit?", that's your answer.

No, you're both quite wrong. "Both sticks came already formatted as 'msdos',
so why were you trying to reformat them, Mr Customer ?
As you should know as a Linux user, Linux systems can RWX 'msdos' files".
To which there is no clear-cut reply.

I've bought a number of Toshiba and Samsung internal and external SSDs
(M.2 and USB3) and they have been absolutely solid. If possible,
buy flash products from manufacturers that actually make flash chips.
You know they're not putting the floor sweepings in their own products.

Thanks to both + Frank : I'll definitely look into this.

I have plenty of older but reliable sticks,
but if I can't rely on new ones in future,
I'll need an alternative for long-term system archives.

--
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SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb
ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto
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On Wednesday 19 February 2025 01:12:34 Greenwich Mean Time Philip Webb wrote:

250219 Grant Edwards wrote:

If they start asking questions, just say: "I tried to format them on
my PC. It ran for 10 hours, then failed". It doesn't matter what they ask apart from "cash refund, replacement or credit?", that's your answer.

No, you're both quite wrong. "Both sticks came already formatted as 'msdos', so why were you trying to reformat them, Mr Customer ?

I smile at the mental gymnastics we have to go through to avoid being advised to restart our PC ... :p

The answer to the hypothetical question the cocky shop assistant would ask is to say you HAD TO format the stick because when you attempted to copy a couple of 2GB file(s) it took many hours and it failed.

To confirm this would be the case you can just create a single /dev/sdb1 partition the size of the whole drive, format it[1], before you try to copy 5 or 6 large files, like e.g. a few full ISOs. Given what you've observed so far I expect one or both of the sticks will fail.

Either way, Kingston will not ask such questions if you return them and should readily replace them. Their DataTraveler sticks come with a 5 year warranty and free technical support. In addition their data sheet states they work
with MSWindows, MacOS, Linux and ChromeOS. There are no caveats to avoid partitioning and formatting them with any other fs type than what they arrived with.

[1] Until recently MSWindows would not allow formatting a partition larger
than 32GB with FAT, but they increased this to 2TB on a Windows 11 update. Therefore these sticks would probably have arrived with exFAT or NTFS filesystem format on them.

BTW, the interwebs have posts by a number of disgruntled customers complaining of glacial performance, so it seems you're not alone.

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