Flash Drive Scam?

[Jim40]

You techies, Is this a scam ?

Sorry if I'm in wrong forum, but is this a scam ? Click on image to enlarge

Jim

 

[Slydude]

Thread moved to a more appropriate area,

 

[IWT]

@Jim40

In what way do you mean "is it a scam"? There doesn't appear to be any "threat", or suggestion that if you don't buy the products, your Mac would be in serious trouble.

How did this appear - from an email, from a search on the internet, or unsolicited in some way? Were you looking on the internet for ways to speed up your Mac?

I only ask in the name of clarity. No offence intended.

Ian

 

[Jim40]

I meant has any member had any experience of this product. It was on an advert on YouTube, but it was to be shipped from the US. Then they started you "buy one, you get another free." I don't use searches on the Internet, especially Google. I use my own knowledge or Mac websites like this one. I've been a Mac user since 1992, my first Mac an LC III had 2MB Ram & 160 MB Hard Drive.

FYI. A scam is where some person or company tries to get your money. In this case, add ons for computers. It was posted to see if any member had bought one, because to me, a company or individual tries to sell a product and finishes up giving one free is a scammer.

 

[IWT]

Ah, Jim. Sorry. I didn't take your post in the way you meant it to be taken.

As regards the product(s): personal opinion, of course; but I don't believe any product of this sort can "speed up your Mac" and I'd be concerned that something got messed up. I would avoid any product that made such claims.

Furthermore, it appears that the three options are for PCs, ie Windows' computers??

Ian

 

[Jim40]

No problem Ian, no offence taken. Good site on Security Computer Hope Feedback

Apparently it changes your OS to Linux .

 

[krs]

I was confused by the "Scam" part of the thread as well.

In the ad, I took the "speed up" portion to apply to the different flash drives, ie transfer read & write, (rather than the computer) and that is certainly possible.
However, especially with flash drives (and also SD cards) I'm always very leery buying a 'No Name' brand like this one or even buying a 'Brand Name' one from an unknown seller.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Just for everyone's info. This is not a generic USB drive that is used for simple storage purposes. So the speeds aren't talking about read/write speed to the drive.

Xtra-PC is essentially a Live Linux distro made to look to a Windows desktop and operates fully out of the USB drive. So when they say they speed up your computer, they are basically doing that by running Linux on your old clunker. Since Linux runs WAY faster than Windows, the perception is that everything is going to be faster.

Since Linux can read/write FAT, NTFS, ExFAT filesystems, you can access your data on your Windows HD without doing anything special.

So you would use your HD for storing data, while the USB stick drives the OS.

It's not a scam, but it's also only a solution for dire situations or when you absolutely have to resurrect an old computer for use. With Windows laptops/desktops going for as cheap as $250 or so, this isn't really a everyday thing.

 

[krs]

I understand what you're saying (new widget to me), but what are they referring to with the different, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB storage sizes?
Is that somehow scratch-pad RAM on the USB stick (in addition to the OS)?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

No, not scratch pad. The OS (Linux) on the drive is going to use all of the resources of the laptop, CPU, GPU, RAM, screen, Ethernet port, WiFi, sound, etc.

The additional space on there is for putting any files you want to keep just on the USB drive so that you can move it to another computer and have what you need.

Obviously, you'll be using the space on the USB drive for only the vital stuff while you use other accessible storage media for everything else.

 

[Jim40]

Thanks for your advice guys. The original advert before they started advertising " buy one get one free",
said it would work on PC or Mac ?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Yes, it will work on anything that can boot from the USB since Linux can run on pretty much any architecture, x86, ARM, PowerPC, SPARC, etc.

So what the computer is really doesn't matter.

 

[MacInWin]

One caution is that if it's for Windows it will very likely be for Intel Macs only, not M1.

 

[Jim40]

Thank you all for your replies. Most grateful.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

One caution is that if it's for Windows it will very likely be for Intel Macs only, not M1.

No, the marketing is in the way of technology.

The USB stick contains Linux and will run on ANY computer that is able to boot to USB.

 

[MacInWin]

Ashwin, Linux will run on any architecture, but if the installation on the USB is compiled for Intel, it won't run on Apple Silicon. If the USB has source code, and if it is then compiled for each boot and if it can compile for ARM, then yes, it will run. But I'm betting the binary is for Intel. And won't run on Apple Silicon.

 

[krs]

The USB stick contains Linux and will run on ANY computer that is able to boot to USB.

So using this USB stick with Linux, I would be able to use both HFS+ and APFS on the Mac?

I have a few old Intel Mac Minis gathering dust - maybe I can find some use for them using this USB stick.

 

[zephar77]

Sorry if I'm in wrong forum, but is this a scam ? Click on image to enlarge

Jim

I just purchased from Amazon at 256 GB flash drive that reads around 400 MB per second for under $40. These prices are outrageously high. Yes, I would say this is a scam, or a very old advertisement.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I just purchased from Amazon at 256 GB flash drive that reads around 400 MB per second for under $40. These prices are outrageously high. Yes, I would say this is a scam, or a very old advertisement.

You obviously didn't follow the entire thread. Please do so before commenting.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

So using this USB stick with Linux, I would be able to use both HFS+ and APFS on the Mac?

I have a few old Intel Mac Minis gathering dust - maybe I can find some use for them using this USB stick.

You will definitely be able to access HFS. I haven't kept up with all the latest Linux changes (used to my primary OS and my work OS for while), so not sure if they've added APFS support. But if they have, then yes you could run Linux on an old Mac and access all of your data from it.