I just found the information on what I bought. It is supposed to be a 128 GB USB 2.0 Flash Mini Thumb drive. When click on Properties, it says that it has 108 GB free.

Udisk drives are usually used for an Ipad or IPhone, does yours have a usb on each end one being smaller?

It has a USB on one end, just like my other flashdrives. I only use that term Udisk because that is what it calls itself .....that is what it says is (E:) I don't think that is what it really is. While I was checking it's properties I clicked on "tools" and there was a tab for error-checking, so I did that. It scanned and said that there were some issues but it fixed it. Now it is worse! It shows some files that look like empty tiles and when you click on them it says "Windows Photo Viewer can't open this picture because Photo viewer doesn't support this file format, or you don't have the latest updates to Photo Viewer" which is ridiculous as the rest of the picture files can be opened up!

"It was very inexpensive ... "

Is it possible that it's a fake? Fake capacity I mean.

http://www.ebay.com/gds/All-About-Fake-Flash-Drives-2013-/10000000177553258/g.html

I'm not saying it is, but the possibility came to mind when you said "very inexpensive".

Probably what I would do if I had one I suspected might be fake
would be to format it, copy about 128GB of files onto it and then
try to copy them back to my PC.

I believe a 128 GB (gigabyte) drive should hold around 119 GiB (gibibyte) of data.

http://coolconversion.com/bit-byte-converter/Convert_128_GB_to_gibibyte_

I think that may be the issue. I don't think I can get 128GB of data on it! As I said, I've been loading photos on there and I thought that they were there but when you go to open them, they aren't! Yes, inexpensive...like $7. I am just glad that I didn't delete the photos from my other flash drives in my effort to consolidate!

$7 does sound too cheap to me, especially a year ago. Reading the eBay article linked to above, they mention a German tool that supposedly exposes fakes. I haven't used it but if I were in your shoes, I'd probably be curious enough to try it.

Googling "heise h2testw" leads me to this: http://www.heise.de/download/product/h2testw-50539/download/danke?id=50539-1

I heard back from the Chinese person that sold me this flashdrive when I told him it was a fake:

dear customer
sorry for this issue
would you please help to format it to exfat
they can only be formatted to exfat
wait for your further reply
carol

What does this mean? What should I do to fix it.

Thanks

He's telling you to move on. I would advise you to NOT reformat the drive, there's too much risk to you of doing permanent damage to your PC if you do it in slightly the wrong way. It would seem to be a substandard product, I'd toss it in the trash and forget about it.

Last year, a normal price for a real thumb drive of market quality in this size might have been $50-$75. The price you paid should have been enough of a red flag that what you bought was a fringe product, at best. Thankfully you have other copies of these files.

Buy a name brand thumb drive to replace it and expect to pay something in the $30-$50 range.