questions → are there differences in usb flash drive…

vote-for12vote-against +13 -1

Are there differences in USB flash drive technologies?

All the HDMI inputs on my Sony LCD TV recently stopped working and I thought I would try upgrading the firmware to see if that fixed the issue. Sony has the upgrade files on its site and lists some brands of flash drives that are compatible. I had one of the compatible versions available but it was a 1GB and the compatible one was a 4GB. I just couldn't believe that there would be a difference since the upgrade files were only about 10MB. The upgrade didn't work and the Sony tech guy I was chatting with told me that my drive was incompatible. Does this sound reasonable? What could account for drives nor working. The TV definitely was able to read the data (it started the upgrade but didn't finish it).

by benyust2
asked 10 months ago

10 Answers answer

Sort By:

vote-for3vote-against

is it possible the TV writes things to the drive while doing the upgrade? thus the need for the 4gb drive? i'm just guessing here.

carl669
10 months ago

vote-for2vote-against

I doubt it but I would try formatting the drive to be NTFS if it is FAT or FAT if NTFS.

caffeine_dude
10 months ago

vote-for2vote-against

@carl669: There were other 1GB drives that were listed as compatible.

@caffeine_dude: Yeah, that was part of the instructions. The TV didn't recognize the drive at all when it was NTFS (I believe - I can't remember what it was originally, only that it didn't work until I formatted it).

benyust2
10 months ago

vote-for2vote-against

@benyust2: you using fat16 or fat32?

carl669
10 months ago

vote-for7vote-against

Reflecting on the time I had to fix a Sony Vaio desktop using standardized parts, I wouldn't put it past Sony to hardcode devices to work with limited & specific devices of their choosing.

gregorylikescheaps…
10 months ago

vote-for1vote-against

@carl669: fat32 per Sony's instructions.

benyust2
10 months ago

vote-for3vote-against

@gregorylikescheapstu: Yeah, surprisingly, most of the compatible drives were Sony brand.

benyust2
10 months ago

vote-for1vote-against

Flashdrives do vary somewhat in throughput speed. Maybe that has something to do with it?

heymo
10 months ago

vote-for1vote-against

@benyust2: Quite surprising. :p Since my comment got a few votes, I feel I should qualify it a little...

If that IS the case, it's quite possibly not an exercise in evilness, but in laziness. Firmware updates, of course, do carry some risk and there are a multitude of specialized drives. Not to mention the number of untrustworthy devices. Sony might have just felt it wise to only allow use of the devices that were tested in their facility to perform the task. I might do the same, since people flashing their TV might not comprehend the risk as well as those flashing their computer firmware. (Even that has a reduced number of people with the appropriate amount of sweat and fear.)

gregorylikescheaps…
10 months ago

vote-for2vote-against

USB drives are all different inside and out, but they essentially do the same things, some better than others. I find name brand USB drives hold up longer and work consistently in more devices than do the really dirt cheap, no-name ones. Crucial Technologies makes the Gizmo & its usually had from Crucial Direct for $10 for a 16 Gb Stick.

Hope I answered your question. Pick a capacity, find a reputable manufacturer, & when yr drive goes on sale, stock up - it isn't like they're gonna go bad if properly cared for. Lastly, you can run disc utilities on them if they start acting funny, but if they show more than a couple of sectors gone bad, send them back to their evil maker (damn the purchase date - I never even mention it) and I've never had them refuse to send me a free replacement drive, all for the cost of postage both ways.

giaimo13
10 months ago

Stats

Asked
10 months ago
Asked By
benyust2
Answered
10 times
Viewed
1971 times
Voted Against
1 time
Voted For
13 times

Similar Questions

Related Deals

Hey, log in or sign up first!

Whatever it is you're trying to do can ONLY be done by registered, logged-in Deals.Woot members. Why? Because they're better people than you. Don't worry: you can easily improve yourself by logging into your Woot account or signing up for a new one.

Sorry

This is only for people who have bought woots

We restrict voting to users who have purchased something from one of the other Woot stores. It's not just because we want your money (which we do) - it's the best way to be sure all the votes are coming from real people and not spam-bots or phony accounts. The best way we can think of, anyway. For now.

You can always get voting rights by buying something from one of Woot's other sites:

Purchases through Deals.Woot don't count, because in that case you're not buying anything from us. And we don't have your account information for those purchases.

If you think you've bought something from Woot before and still can't vote, make sure you're logged in with the same account you used to buy from us.

Geez, why so negative?

You have to vote up more before you can vote down.

Don't get us wrong. Negativity has its place. And downvotes are just as essential as upvotes when it comes to making Deals.Woot a useful place to find deals.

But when your votes lean so heavily toward the dark side, we have to wonder. Go vote up a few things. Accentuate the positive for a little while. It'll do you some good, and it'll do the site some good, too. Then you can get back to dealing out the smackdowns, OK?

Too late, we all heard you!

Hmm... you're wanting to take your vote back?

Well, that's a bit tricky. See, we do a lot of stuff with your vote, using it to work out the popularity of what you voted for, compare that to all the other things voted on, tally up our leaderboard, work out your reputation. Someday we'll do a little cartoon showing just how hard your vote is working.

Anyway, taking votes back messes all that up, so we give you five minutes, in case you just mis-clicked. After that we've got to say no take-backs. Luckily, votes are free, so feel free to throw them around left and right wherever you see fit.