Some of the files I copy to a USB stick seems to be corrupted? Maybe the stick is bad but I haven't used it much and want to know for sure.

Is there a Windows utility to test the stick? Mark bad areas as bad so the file system doesn't save to them? I format before I copy but I still get corrupted files? Does chkdsk work on USB sticks reliably?

1

4 Answers

USB Flash Drive Tester allows testing of any removable media including SD, MMC, CF, USB flash pen drives for bad or unstable sectors. Especially useful for testing for fake sizes often seen on low quality USB pen drives.

USB Flash Drive Tester is freeware.

1

Under Linux (or after booting a Linux LiveCD) you can use badblocks to scan the USB stick (just like a harddisk).

CHKDSK will work just as reliably on USB flash drives as on regular hard disk drives. It will mark bad sectors as unusable and the operating system will skip them automatically.

Take a look at Check Flash. This looks like what you are looking for.

Alternate link to author's site.