Question Can't force fake 2 TB pendrive to reveal its total capacity

Perene

Member
Oct 12, 2014
163
10
81
I was given a fake 2 TB pendrive (with the "Samsung" label in it) and while Windows 10 64-bit says it has 1.9 TB free and it's using exFAT, I did some research and noticed some programs can reveal the actual smaller size and perhaps this is fixed by you readjusting the partition size to fit what is real and not false information.

The problem is that I have no idea which programs can do each task. Here's a summary of what I need:

1) To know the actual true size of this flash drive. With 100% certainty.

2) To adjust this pendrive to only use what it can hold. I also want to know if it's true these fake pendrives ALWAYS corrupt the files (or some of them) you put there, even if you only use less than what they can hold. I read one guy saying it corrupt ALL the files.

Here's what I tried so far:


***
Fix An Incorrect Size USB Drive Using Command Prompt

The wrong USB drive size issue can be fixed using Command Prompt as well. There’s a command that allows you to remove all the partitions, format your drive, and then re-create partitions on the drive.

Open the Start Menu, search for Command Prompt, right-click on it when you see it in the results, and select Run as administrator.

(It says for me to use DISKPART):

The problem is that if I do this command:

format fs=fat32 quick

The pendrive does not accept it, and worse: it becomes invisible to Windows, but visible to these software that can detect it. In other words it rejects a FAT32 format and forces you to always use exFAT in this final step.

***

Another program in which it happens the same thing:

BOOTICE

- Resolve The USB Drive Wrong Capacity Issue With Bootice (read the HelpDesk link)

****
Then I tried H2TESTW:

Problem is that "VERIFY" option is greyed out (not available), only write + verify. If we try this one it will (if I am not mistaken) take more than 2 days to complete this task. I have no idea if it will take 1, 2 hours (so much less) once it reaches, say, 32 GB.

Another program that I was told to use was AIDA64:


If I put the biggest block size it will end the checking after a while. In the first attempt it said for RANDOM WRITE + VERIFY with a blocking size of 2 MB (insted of 64 KB):

DATA INTEGRITY ERROR AT 140 GB. TEST STOPPED.

Then I tried with the same 2 MB. Again the same config, but look at the new result (after a few seconds):

DATA INTEGRITY ERROR AT 1352 GB. TEST STOPPED.

Now let's look what happen if we use a 8 MB block size:

DATA INTEGRITY ERROR AT 205 GB. TEST STOPPED.

Suffice to say this test isn't saying anything.

AIDA64's website tells us:

The method Linear test + Verify is the most thorough, but it also takes a long time. To speed up the process, select Random Write + Verify, which will try to write data to random memory cells. This way we will see in a few seconds if there are issues with our device. If we type a block size bigger than the default value in Options / Block size, we can further boost the speed.

****
How much time? 55 hours again?

So I repeat these two questions:

1) What's the quickest and most accurate way of knowing the true size of this fake 2 TB pendrive (and what software);

2) How can I adjust this thing to only use the max size it can hold?

If I can't solve 1) and 2) I am going to throw this thing away or give to someone else.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,235
9,994
126
Seriously? Fill the USB port with caulking or epoxy, and throw it in the trash, it's junk. Don't give it to someone else, unless you REALLY hate them.

Who would buy a "2TB" pendrive, nevermind ANY pendrive off of ebay, not from Newegg/BestBuy/Adorama on ebay.
 
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Perene

Member
Oct 12, 2014
163
10
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Seriously? Fill the USB port with caulking or epoxy, and throw it in the trash, it's junk. Don't give it to someone else, unless you REALLY hate them.

Who would buy a "2TB" pendrive, nevermind ANY pendrive off of ebay, not from Newegg/BestBuy/Adorama on ebay.
I wouldn't because I know there is no such thing, as there are not unicorns there are no 2 TB pendrives out there. But before I ditch this thing at least I want to know if it can be salvaged in any way, even if it's to use, say, 8 GB. Of course I would also not trust this as my only source to put files without any backup.

Unless you are implying that only by using this pendrive I am doing some damage or risking somehow my motherboard, I don't get your comment. Someone else gave me this product, I didn't spend anything on it.
 

Jimminy

Senior member
May 19, 2020
336
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Some of us just like to tinker with things for the entertainment value. Sometimes we even learn new things from tinkering with low value or old obsolete gadgets.
 
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Perene

Member
Oct 12, 2014
163
10
81
You're spending time trying to "fix" it, while denying in your mind that it's an irreparably broken (fake!) product.
It's not broken because I am seeing that a file I copied to it it's working. So far I have not seen proof of corruption. When I said "solution" I meant knowing the true capacity of this pendrive and then creating a partition to only use, say, 32 GB, not to show 1.9 TB free for Windows. The pendrive was modified internally to show us more than it can hold. I am assuming there will be no corruption if I only use the (real) max capacity. And even if something gets corrupted this isn't going to be an issue because I keep online copies of sensitive data.
 

Ninjak

Member
Oct 6, 2006
25
16
81
Sounds like a homework problem? A different approach is to disassemble the thing, get a microscope or a jewelers loupe and check the markings on the flash chip(s). Then look up the markings, you might find that there's a single 8 GB NAND flash chip on the board, for example. That's your true capacity.
 
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mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
8,032
1,440
126
^ Unless it's one of the newer micro-sized flash drives that has the controller, memory, everything embedded in a single slug of resin. Sandisk and Samsung both make some models like this (probably others but I've had those brands apart to see it myself), especially the ones where the whole body is metal, or barely larger than the USB plug itself.


Testing, I'd just zip up some files into a 28GB zip, and repetitively copy that to the flash drive. Once you get corruption, note how many times it worked previously, multiply x 28 and round up to the appropriate standard capacity size that flash drives come in.

If it won't even hold 28GB, try 7GB. If you think it is a genuine Samsung product, just hacked to report false capacity, look at their website to see what the smallest capacity is that model comes in. If I were hacking to make fake capacity drives, why start out buying any larger drives than necessary to do that?
 

damian101

Senior member
Aug 11, 2020
291
107
86
I've used f3 on Linux to successfully determine the actual size of the drive. f3 can also automatically fix the drive by creating a partition of the correct size.
 

Perene

Member
Oct 12, 2014
163
10
81
Something really sad happened while I was running these garbage softwares that pretend to do things properly and either take foreverlike H2TestW or stop responding after a while like FakeFlashTest from this list: https://www.iperiusbackup.net/pt-br/5-metodos-para-identificar-armazenamentos-flash-usb-falsificados

While this fake pendrive was in my motherboard I also put a perfectly valid 3 GB one I had here, which never had any issue.

Then the valid pendrive started showing problems with Windows 10 and chkdsk was called for, then some of the files got corrupted. Not all, but some were. Sadly I had deleted these most recent backups from a few TXT files, so I now have to resort to older backups. I also made the mistake of deleting these same recent backups from one iOS app (NPlayer Plus) and will check now if this program will restore them: https://www.aiseesoft.com/iphone-data-recovery/how-to-retrieve-deleted-app-data-on-iphone.html

It's funny, I was wasting time trying to find out what is the real capacity of this crap and didn't bother any file could get corrupted in it, when I had never realized it could damage other pendrives that were inserted in my machine at the same time.

I don't know if this is a direct result of its interference or my new cheap 1150 motherboard (for use with my old i7 4770) that uses the Intel H81 chip did this... which I find very unlikely, because if I put any other pendrive in these USB ports it will behave correctly.

Now look what is going on, my 3 GB perfectly OK pendrive is not even being recognized anymore by Windows. Drive is either inaccessible or only using Apple's USB-3 camera adapter my iPAD reads it. I can't get Windows to read it anymore.

Be careful with these pieces of <Mod Edit> , this is the last time I put something others give to me even for testing. And here I was thinking the worst it could happen was a corrupt file in this false pendrive, I never would have imagined it could corrupt others. These scammers will all burn in hell.

P.S. Chipgenius said this:

***
Description: [E:]USB Mass Storage Device(VendorCo ProductCode)
Device Type: Mass Storage Device

Protocal Version: USB 2.00
Current Speed: High Speed
Max Current: 100mA

USB Device ID: VID = 048D PID = 1234
Serial Number: 8037341082571455075

Device Vendor: USB
Device Name: Disk 2.0
Device Revision: 0200

Manufacturer: VendorCo
Product Model: ProductCode
Product Revision: 2.00

Controller Vendor: FirstChip
Controller Part-Number: FC1178BC
Flash ID code: AD7E285302B0 - Hynix - 1CE/Single Channel [TLC]

Tools on web: http://dl.mydigit.net/search/?type=all&q=FC1178BC
***
But that doesn't help because this site says it could be more than one alternative: https://flashboot.ru/iflash/
 

Insert_Nickname

Diamond Member
May 6, 2012
4,971
1,691
136
I wouldn't because I know there is no such thing, as there are not unicorns there are no 2 TB pendrives out there. But before I ditch this thing at least I want to know if it can be salvaged in any way, even if it's to use, say, 8 GB. Of course I would also not trust this as my only source to put files without any backup.

I wouldn't trust it at all. Not even as far as I could throw it. Especially for anything related to backup.

Then again, why bother going to all these lengths to salvage this thing, when you can get a brand new original 32GB pendrive for less then a pint of beer? Tinkering for fun is one thing, but isn't your time worth anything?
 

bba-tcg

Senior member
Apr 8, 2010
569
277
136
computerguyonline.net
This should do it.

Code:
From an elevated command prompt:


C:\WINDOWS\system32>diskpart

DISKPART>list disk

Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online         1907 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 1    Online         1907 GB      0 B        

;pick the disk from the list.  Make sure you get the right one.

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> clean

DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

DISKPART> create partition primary

DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

;FAT32 partitions are limited in size.  Why not just format w/ NTFS, at least for this experiment?

DISKPART> format fs=ntfs quick

  100 percent completed

DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0         System Rese  NTFS   Partition    100 MB  Healthy
  Volume 1     C                NTFS   Partition   1906 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 2                      FAT32  Partition    100 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 3                      NTFS   Partition    832 MB  Healthy    Hidden
* Volume 4     D                NTFS   Removable   7700 MB  Healthy

;If you don't see your drive w/ a drive letter, it means that automount is not enabled.  In this case, at a diskpart prompt, type automount enable.  
You will either have to remove and re-insert the USB drive OR type assign letter=X, where X is a drive letter not in use in the list above
 (on your system, mine is just an example).

DISKPART> exit

Leaving DiskPart...

C:\WINDOWS\system32>
 
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damian101

Senior member
Aug 11, 2020
291
107
86
Something really sad happened while I was running these garbage softwares that pretend to do things properly and either take foreverlike H2TestW or stop responding after a while like FakeFlashTest from this list: https://www.iperiusbackup.net/pt-br/5-metodos-para-identificar-armazenamentos-flash-usb-falsificados

While this fake pendrive was in my motherboard I also put a perfectly valid 3 GB one I had here, which never had any issue.

Then the valid pendrive started showing problems with Windows 10 and chkdsk was called for, then some of the files got corrupted. Not all, but some were. Sadly I had deleted these most recent backups from a few TXT files, so I now have to resort to older backups. I also made the mistake of deleting these same recent backups from one iOS app (NPlayer Plus) and will check now if this program will restore them: https://www.aiseesoft.com/iphone-data-recovery/how-to-retrieve-deleted-app-data-on-iphone.html

It's funny, I was wasting time trying to find out what is the real capacity of this crap and didn't bother any file could get corrupted in it, when I had never realized it could damage other pendrives that were inserted in my machine at the same time.

I don't know if this is a direct result of its interference or my new cheap 1150 motherboard (for use with my old i7 4770) that uses the Intel H81 chip did this... which I find very unlikely, because if I put any other pendrive in these USB ports it will behave correctly.

Now look what is going on, my 3 GB perfectly OK pendrive is not even being recognized anymore by Windows. Drive is either inaccessible or only using Apple's USB-3 camera adapter my iPAD reads it. I can't get Windows to read it anymore.

Be careful with these pieces of <Mod Edit> , this is the last time I put something others give to me even for testing. And here I was thinking the worst it could happen was a corrupt file in this false pendrive, I never would have imagined it could corrupt others. These scammers will all burn in hell.

P.S. Chipgenius said this:

***
Description: [E:]USB Mass Storage Device(VendorCo ProductCode)
Device Type: Mass Storage Device

Protocal Version: USB 2.00
Current Speed: High Speed
Max Current: 100mA

USB Device ID: VID = 048D PID = 1234
Serial Number: 8037341082571455075

Device Vendor: USB
Device Name: Disk 2.0
Device Revision: 0200

Manufacturer: VendorCo
Product Model: ProductCode
Product Revision: 2.00

Controller Vendor: FirstChip
Controller Part-Number: FC1178BC
Flash ID code: AD7E285302B0 - Hynix - 1CE/Single Channel [TLC]

Tools on web: http://dl.mydigit.net/search/?type=all&q=FC1178BC
***
But that doesn't help because this site says it could be more than one alternative: https://flashboot.ru/iflash/
I am very sure that the fake pen drive didn't cause this. You either used the software on the wrong drive or that pen drive just suddenly died.
You sometimes need a third-party partition manager on Windows to format a drive with a broken or non-standard file system table.
 

Perene

Member
Oct 12, 2014
163
10
81
I am very sure that the fake pen drive didn't cause this. You either used the software on the wrong drive or that pen drive just suddenly died.
You sometimes need a third-party partition manager on Windows to format a drive with a broken or non-standard file system table.
I have been used my 3 GB pendrive on a daily basis and dealing with TXT files and for many months (perhaps a year) nothing happened. Then all of sudden I got 3 corrupted files after inserting in one of the USB 2 ports from the front of the computer case (CHKDSK was called to "fix" this pendrive) only after I ran one of those useless programs that tried to verify the fake 2 TB pendrive.

The corruption for sure happened while at the same time I was checking the fake pendrive. I had wiped the recent backups, one of the deletions in nPlayer, an app from IPAD. So CHKDSK corrupted 3 files from a perfectly valid pendrive that had nothing to do with the fake one, and there was no way to recover app data deleted from the iPAD (Windows programs that promised to do this all failed). CHKDSK changed the TXT file (while fixing the pendrive) and wrote "NUL" in the whole thing.

I was able to recover a backup saved elsewhere (in another pendrive) from February 9, 2021, and after a few days I reconstructed all the missing data based on other sources that I used to write on this TXT. Now I can safely say the damage has been 100% repaired in all 3 affected files.

I was really lucky no more files were affected because otherwise this would have been a disaster. I have no idea what happened. My guess:

- New motherboard (this is the only new change here in my hardware - I went from Gigabyte H97M-D3H (broke) to a cheaper H81-T);

- When the fake pendrive was being checked this caused some sort of POWER SURGE in the nearby USB port, clearly damaging any content from it. Whatever you can think of that can corrupt a file FOR GOOD has really happened here, and this time it was not you checking something and forgetting of asking Windows to remove the pendrive once you are done, or some sort of blackout.

The "power surge" here was putting a lot of stress analysing this crap, somehow this hardware is so bad that caused this. After this event I was done with this thing and don't want anywhere near here.

And here I was thinking the worse it could happen was files getting corrupt if I dared to put them inside the fake pendrive...

Not in a million years I would have predicted a perfect pendrive I tried to use would be affected as well.

This only proves my point that we should never rely on SSDs, hard drives, pendrives, discs and the like for backup, or at least not for sensitive data. Always keep multiple copies, and RECENT ONES. At the same time rely on the cloud, because somehow the chances of a multibillion dollar company with dedicated servers like Google messing things up and losing your content are dramatically lower than you doing your usual tasks.

This is one very strong reason someone would have to hate computers, we just cannot depend on these pieces of equipment to not abandon us when we most need them. They are ALWAYS prone to fail and die. And it was pathetic to realize we simply can't recover deleted stuff from an Apple device or fix a broken TEXT file.

All these softwares are scamming the naive who rely on them, due to rarely any data being recovered.
 
Last edited:

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
7,380
146
This only proves my point that we should never rely on SSDs, hard drives, pendrives, discs and the like for backup, or at least not for sensitive data. Always keep multiple copies, and RECENT ONES. At the same time rely on the cloud, because somehow the chances of a multibillion dollar company with dedicated servers like Google messing things up and losing your content are dramatically lower than you doing your usual tasks.
Cloud storage is simply storing your data on someone else's hard drive/SSD.

The only difference is most of the cloud storage companies have drive redundancy, so if some fail (and everything fails at some point), copies are stored across multiple drives.

People can do the same practices at home by backing up "can't lose data" on multiple devices to take the sudden drive failure aspect causing the loss of all your data aspect out of it.

Plus, once you realized the USB drive was fake/counterfeit, you should have immediately thrown in the garbage and not messed around with something you have no idea of what is in it.
 

Perene

Member
Oct 12, 2014
163
10
81
This! I tried to tell OP...
I know what you told me... but here's the thing: you forgot to explain what kind of damage a fake pendrive could do to a machine.

You were too kind in your warning. Let me explain what I mean by this:

Note the word "DAMAGE" in my first sentence.

We are talking about a scamming piece of equipment doing some sort of damage to OUR computer, we aren't discussing if we can use it properly or not.

The two things are radically different.

When I say damage I mean spreading some sort of virus, perhaps wiping our SSD data or causing a power surge when being checked with the software that promise to tell us the real pendrive capacity.

This is what is concerning.

We are talking about two scenarios, and if a fake pendrive could do DAMAGE (again: DAMAGE) we should NEVER even put in any USB port.

All I interpreted from your warning was this:

- Any file you put inside this fake pendrive would be corrupted anyway, some or all of them, and you would only be able to use 1% of the promised 2 TB space, so toss this in the garbage!

If this was what ALL some users were telling me, then these would be the reasons why I wouldn't follow this advice:

1) If I could use a software to tell the true capacity (one that wouldn't take over 48 hours for this task...) then I would use it. Of course if it could tell with 100% accuracy;

2) Then you would use a partition software to adjust to only use the max capacity;

3) Of course you wouldn't put sensitive data in it and would only put stuff it could get corrupt or lost anyway.

4) At least you wouldn't be losing money (or the person who gave this to you...) and would be using the fake pendrive for something, after all even a fake pendrive isn't free, you know.

There's just one little thing:

There are in the market pendrives that can fry your entire machine.

This one is specially designed for that:

*******
USB Killer, a device that can kill USB devices such as laptops, telephones, consoles, cars, networking equipment via a USB slot by using negative power surge flaw.

From pen drives to hard drives, and from input devices to printers, you can hardly find any gadget nowadays, which do not come with the widely accepted, highly loved USB interface. USB or Universal/Uniform Source Bus is an interface, which allows different types of connections, through a common port. USB is a marvel in the world of technology, which has called it a day for a number of other parallel connectors, and individual connectors for various devices, making our lives a lot easier. I don’t think, the readers here, need any more introduction about the term USB, as, come on, everybody knows about it!

But, how does it kill

But just like a coin has its tail, there is a certain USB device, which can damage your computer, or other devices, with a USB interface, beyond recovery. Yes, that is USB killer. It might be the 1st time you are hearing the term, but such a device exist in the world, which can kill or damage any device beyond recovery, once it is plugged on to your computer, a USB OTG enabled smartphone, or any other device, which comes with a USB interface. It is just a small piece of information, which you should know, if your personal computer is handled by a lot of people, or you are running a cyber cafe, where many people come regularly and plug in their USB devices without letting you know.

But How do USB Killer works!

What happens in the USB killer is that, once you connect the USB killer device to your USB port, the capacitor present inside it starts charging very fast with the 5 Volts, power source, which is available from most USB interfaces used regularly. Once the charging is complete, there is a transistor, which discharges the complete charge at -200 Volts DC or VDC through the data lines, causing a massive power surge, which can be enough to roast your complete system beyond recovery.

Depending upon the component, which has been damaged by the USB killer, it might or might not be repaired. If you are lucky enough, you might have to change the USB port just, and if karma is not happy with you, the USB killer can completely damage your motherboard or an important component on the motherboard, maybe the BIOS chip, which can hardly be replaced or repaired.

The electronics within a USB Killer

The small pen drive sized USB killers come with a small circuit, where there is a capacitor present within it and it plays the most important role of damaging the devices. If you do not know anything about capacitors, they are tiny electronic components, which are found in all the electrical and electronic gadgets, which we use on a regular basis. Capacitors do the function of charging and discharging themselves repeatedly, which turns out to be helpful in several electronic activities from the power supply to storing data, and a lot other things.

What is the purpose of a USB Killer?

Most of the devices except Apple do not protect the power or data lines of devices which let anybody to attack and ruined such as devices. The USB killer is meant to test those components for protection from power surges but people might use it for different purposes too.. USB Killer is available to buy online around $80 on Amazon.

*********

So, if such thing exist, what makes anyone think that a seemingly harmless pendrive with a fake 2 TB capacity can't do any sort of damage as well?

If anyone thinks that it's being really naive, it's a false assumption this crap won't do any harm.

And indeed I proved this to be the case, because for the first time in YEARS I got corrupted files from a perfect pendrive that was just being used while the fake one was being checked. After the corruption the 3 GB pendrive was also not being recognized anymore by Windows 10 and it's only being read/recognized randomly. I will now format it since I recovered the affected files in it. I hope this incident only corrupted the files and didn't damage it for future use.

So, in short: the #1 and foremost reason to never plug a fake pendrive in your machine is not because H2TestW is going to take 55 hours to reveal its true capacity or because you'll get corrupted files copied to it.

If this were the case we wouldn't be overly concerned.

The major reason is that this small piece of equipment will somehow damage your much more expensive machine.

This is what the people that were scammed buying these fake pendrives should be aware of. They are in great danger of THAT happening, and should be warned of the dire consequences of ignoring and using it regardless.

As I said before these scammers will ALL burn in hell.
 

damian101

Senior member
Aug 11, 2020
291
107
86
I know what you told me... but here's the thing: you forgot to explain what kind of damage a fake pendrive could do to a machine.

You were too kind in your warning. Let me explain what I mean by this:

Note the word "DAMAGE" in my first sentence.

We are talking about a scamming piece of equipment doing some sort of damage to OUR computer, we aren't discussing if we can use it properly or not.

The two things are radically different.

When I say damage I mean spreading some sort of virus, perhaps wiping our SSD data or causing a power surge when being checked with the software that promise to tell us the real pendrive capacity.

This is what is concerning.

We are talking about two scenarios, and if a fake pendrive could do DAMAGE (again: DAMAGE) we should NEVER even put in any USB port.

All I interpreted from your warning was this:

- Any file you put inside this fake pendrive would be corrupted anyway, some or all of them, and you would only be able to use 1% of the promised 2 TB space, so toss this in the garbage!

If this was what ALL some users were telling me, then these would be the reasons why I wouldn't follow this advice:

1) If I could use a software to tell the true capacity (one that wouldn't take over 48 hours for this task...) then I would use it. Of course if it could tell with 100% accuracy;

2) Then you would use a partition software to adjust to only use the max capacity;

3) Of course you wouldn't put sensitive data in it and would only put stuff it could get corrupt or lost anyway.

4) At least you wouldn't be losing money (or the person who gave this to you...) and would be using the fake pendrive for something, after all even a fake pendrive isn't free, you know.

There's just one little thing:

There are in the market pendrives that can fry your entire machine.

This one is specially designed for that:

*******
USB Killer, a device that can kill USB devices such as laptops, telephones, consoles, cars, networking equipment via a USB slot by using negative power surge flaw.

From pen drives to hard drives, and from input devices to printers, you can hardly find any gadget nowadays, which do not come with the widely accepted, highly loved USB interface. USB or Universal/Uniform Source Bus is an interface, which allows different types of connections, through a common port. USB is a marvel in the world of technology, which has called it a day for a number of other parallel connectors, and individual connectors for various devices, making our lives a lot easier. I don’t think, the readers here, need any more introduction about the term USB, as, come on, everybody knows about it!

But, how does it kill

But just like a coin has its tail, there is a certain USB device, which can damage your computer, or other devices, with a USB interface, beyond recovery. Yes, that is USB killer. It might be the 1st time you are hearing the term, but such a device exist in the world, which can kill or damage any device beyond recovery, once it is plugged on to your computer, a USB OTG enabled smartphone, or any other device, which comes with a USB interface. It is just a small piece of information, which you should know, if your personal computer is handled by a lot of people, or you are running a cyber cafe, where many people come regularly and plug in their USB devices without letting you know.

But How do USB Killer works!

What happens in the USB killer is that, once you connect the USB killer device to your USB port, the capacitor present inside it starts charging very fast with the 5 Volts, power source, which is available from most USB interfaces used regularly. Once the charging is complete, there is a transistor, which discharges the complete charge at -200 Volts DC or VDC through the data lines, causing a massive power surge, which can be enough to roast your complete system beyond recovery.

Depending upon the component, which has been damaged by the USB killer, it might or might not be repaired. If you are lucky enough, you might have to change the USB port just, and if karma is not happy with you, the USB killer can completely damage your motherboard or an important component on the motherboard, maybe the BIOS chip, which can hardly be replaced or repaired.

The electronics within a USB Killer

The small pen drive sized USB killers come with a small circuit, where there is a capacitor present within it and it plays the most important role of damaging the devices. If you do not know anything about capacitors, they are tiny electronic components, which are found in all the electrical and electronic gadgets, which we use on a regular basis. Capacitors do the function of charging and discharging themselves repeatedly, which turns out to be helpful in several electronic activities from the power supply to storing data, and a lot other things.

What is the purpose of a USB Killer?

Most of the devices except Apple do not protect the power or data lines of devices which let anybody to attack and ruined such as devices. The USB killer is meant to test those components for protection from power surges but people might use it for different purposes too.. USB Killer is available to buy online around $80 on Amazon.

*********

So, if such thing exist, what makes anyone think that a seemingly harmless pendrive with a fake 2 TB capacity can't do any sort of damage as well?

If anyone thinks that it's being really naive, it's a false assumption this crap won't do any harm.

And indeed I proved this to be the case, because for the first time in YEARS I got corrupted files from a perfect pendrive that was just being used while the fake one was being checked. After the corruption the 3 GB pendrive was also not being recognized anymore by Windows 10 and it's only being read/recognized randomly. I will now format it since I recovered the affected files in it. I hope this incident only corrupted the files and didn't damage it for future use.

So, in short: the #1 and foremost reason to never plug a fake pendrive in your machine is not because H2TestW is going to take 55 hours to reveal its true capacity or because you'll get corrupted files copied to it.

If this were the case we wouldn't be overly concerned.

The major reason is that this small piece of equipment will somehow damage your much more expensive machine.

This is what the people that were scammed buying these fake pendrives should be aware of. They are in great danger of THAT happening, and should be warned of the dire consequences of ignoring and using it regardless.

As I said before these scammers will ALL burn in hell.

Still, I am very sure that this fake pen drive of yours js just an ordinary drive with fake firmware on it that makes the drive look like a much bigger one. Those are harmless as long as you know that data you put on them might be lost forever.

USB killers aren't normal pen drives, I am sure they are more expensive to produce than cheap low capacity pen drives (even if it's just because of low production volume) and I have never heard of one that also pretends to be a flash drive.

There is no way a pen drive, with real or fake capacity, can directly cause data corruption on another drive. That is, unless it also works as a keyboard generator, which would make it a hacking tool. Now, I have never heard of these things being sold in bulk as fake pen drives, but this might be possible. In this case you should be able to see a command line window appearing for a short moment before anything unauthorized is done on your system. However, if you are using a recent Windows version I find it unlikely that those kind of hacking tools can do any harm, unless you manually grant them administrator privileges. Still, I find this unlikely.

I have encountered many different fake pen drives in my life, and I was able to "repair" all of them using f3. I'm sure some of them are still used, I just hope the owners followed my instruction to never reformat those drives.
 

Perene

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Oct 12, 2014
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Still, I am very sure that this fake pen drive of yours js just an ordinary drive with fake firmware on it that makes the drive look like a much bigger one. Those are harmless as long as you know that data you put on them might be lost forever.

USB killers aren't normal pen drives, I am sure they are more expensive to produce than cheap low capacity pen drives (even if it's just because of low production volume) and I have never heard of one that also pretends to be a flash drive.

There is no way a pen drive, with real or fake capacity, can directly cause data corruption on another drive. That is, unless it also works as a keyboard generator, which would make it a hacking tool. Now, I have never heard of these things being sold in bulk as fake pen drives, but this might be possible. In this case you should be able to see a command line window appearing for a short moment before anything unauthorized is done on your system. However, if you are using a recent Windows version I find it unlikely that those kind of hacking tools can do any harm, unless you manually grant them administrator privileges. Still, I find this unlikely.

I have encountered many different fake pen drives in my life, and I was able to "repair" all of them using f3. I'm sure some of them are still used, I just hope the owners followed my instruction to never reformat those drives.
You are not following 100% of what I said, so I'll explain further what went wrong here.

I never said this fake pendrive did cause any harm to the other 3 GB perfect pendrive I've been using daily and for a long time without any corrupt data until now.

I said the fake pendrive provoked the cheap H81-T new motherboard into doing it instead. How? While I was checking in one of the front USB 2.0 ports this fake pendrive (using one of the programs I mentioned before) I had the bad idea to insert the normal pendrive in another front port. This caused somehow an overload and believe it or not it made the motherboard to affect the 3 GB pendrive and its files, and trigger chkdsk to "finish" this job.

At least half a dozen of files were affected in the 3 GB flash drive and it took me days to reconstruct, because all of them were and still are impossible to fix. It took me a while because I didn't think of doing a recent backup even though I have other backups located in other flash drives. All the backups were not so recent, only this 3 GB pendrive one had a more up to date (a few months newer).

What do I mean by "overload"? Exactly that, the CPU was dedicating all its efforts in checking the fake pendrive in one of the USB 2.0 front ports, so inserting anything in the 2nd one somehow caused a power surge and I still haven't checked if only the files from the 3 GB pendrive were affected or its hardware was damaged as well.

Because when CHKDSK is called to fix anything in any drive that usually means faulty hardware. The so called bad sectors.

You may be refute me by saying it was 100% the motherboard fault the 3 GB pendrive was corrupted. Still, unless there's evidence this was bound to happen regardless of the flash drive inserted in these USB 2.0 ports or that energy being distributed from this motherboard (or anything from my electrical system/bedroom is erratic), I am blaming the fake pendrive for this incident.

I mean, I don't think the USB 2.0 port in a cheap motherboard like this was meant to be heavily occupied for hours and hours, trying to check a hardware that has been modified to fool customers. I can't believe no malfunction is to be expected from the mere checking of these fake pendrives.

And the front USB ports are never great. These inputs may not work 100% or at all with a few devices and are known to be weaker than the ones in the back.


I expected these programs to quickly identify the real space from this fake pendrive and then fix it for good. Not that it would take several hours and risk anything being used at the same time.
 
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Insert_Nickname

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May 6, 2012
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It took me a while because I didn't think of doing a recent backup even though I have other backups located in other flash drives. All the backups were not so recent, only this 3 GB pendrive one had a more up to date (a few months newer).

I don't usually repeat myself, but just for the record and anyone stumbling on this thread: DO NOT use flashdrives for important or long term backup.
 

mxnerd

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Jul 6, 2007
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All drives, USB flash drive or not, the capacity should be always in multiple of 2. So your perfect 3 GB drive could be fake too.