Creep USB

Old(er) Patriot 128G USB flashstick USB3 speed, maybe 5 years use.

Lot of fighting with it not taking between computers. Sits there with
its LED light flashing and OS doesn't recognize it. Remove and reseat
unit it does. . .mostly.

Brownout today and I find it in limbo for hours and hours unrecognized
after the system reboots into the OS. Not the first time.

Had some reprieve, two, three months ago, with a format to 64G,
leaving the rest RAW, and recopying data to it. Some on a downward
slope.

Tried a few cursory tests before thinking to take down the sectors
from an 8K to 4K format, common for flashstick defaults on FAT32,
assuming mine wasn't higher for fitting it to 128G. Or reversing the
RAW for a format, cycling the formatted into RAW.

Last minute check: I hadn't bothered other than to dump data it
takes, usually 50 or 60 mixed directories and files, split between,
without much in the actual directories. Made an exclamation
directory, however, this time, for " DRV:\! " at the logical drive's
root, where, the usual assortment of data was moved into.

Fixed. Caching, nagging USB drivers or irregular controller
interface, possibly an unneeded or prior OS default setting, not least
to rule out the Patriot's unwillingness to comply.

Rather "fixed again". We're somewhat bound together, if and until it
breaks again. Good copy/write speeds for what it is, old, and the
next best thing I have is a SanDisk (Western digital subsidiary) that
sits hot in a USB port, no activity, thinking it's a portable heater.
(Got to be some current to get as hot as it does.)

USB Hubs. Self-powered, of course, might be a nice conjectural
compound on basic USB issues. Someday is for what they're selling
now, not reputable nor instrumental grade, but continuing in somewhat
USB flavors of a plague Microsoft once demonstrated at a press
conference, when first introducing USB.

I bought a 7-port hub recently out of curiosity. A bad joke for total
junk, at lest for me, as perhaps lesser insignificance to note, at the
time, among similar receptions accorded by others;- Can't claim what
constituted a positive experience, though, to yet others, nor any idea
whatsoever they were on. A gloried spare USB power "test" source,
that's no doubt cheap.

Microsoft, anyway, plugged in a USB device for that press review and
the USB device wasn't able to be recognized.

I don't need USB3 speeds, though I have them in reserve. Someday I'll
have to burn out the MB's USB chips, too, for the hell of it. Buy a
SATA to USB3 interface instead of powering down and removing a SATA
port for temporary a transfer of large amounts of data. I've seen
others do it, get to brag about speeds before they burn them out, to
fall back to USB2 chipset support if at that.