| Like many relatively cheap high-tech items, the number | | | | There a free program called "h2testw" which will |
| of counterfeited, faked and hacked USB Sticks is | | | | check your flash memory device for you and let you |
| enormously high. If you buy a flash drive from eBay | | | | know sure sure whether you have a faked or hacked |
| and any number of budget internet shops (including | | | | device. |
| some Amazon zShops), and it seems like a very good | | | | How to use h2testw |
| deal, then the chances are you might well have bought | | | | * Before you start, you need to make sure your drive |
| a fake. | | | | is empty before you test it so backup any files you |
| What do you mean by "fake"? | | | | want onto your PC and delete everything off the drive. |
| The two main areas of concern are:Fake USB Drive | | | | * Download the h2testw.zip file and extract the |
| 1. Counterfeit sticks - where you pay for a well known | | | | h2testw.exe file by right clicking it and selecting Extract |
| brand but actually get a cheap knock-off. The reason | | | | Files. Double click the h2testw.exe file to run it. Select |
| the brand (eg. Sony, Kingston, Sandisk etc) charge that | | | | English language unless you happen to speak German. |
| bit more is that their brand represents quality. If you | | | | * Click the Select Target button and select the flash |
| don't get that quality you are being ripped off. | | | | drive you want to test. Be careful you really are |
| 2. Fake / hacked sticks - you buy a 16GB flash drive | | | | selecting the right drive! |
| but it isn't really 16GB. You cannot tell by looking at it. | | | | * Now click the Write & Verify button. This will |
| You cannot tell by relying on what Windows tells you. | | | | start the test. Testing make take several hours for a |
| You might not notice for months...until your data simply | | | | large drive. Let it run all the way through. |
| isn't there. And into the bargain, the stick will almost | | | | If the drive is genuine and healthy, you will just get a |
| certainly fail within a short time making your bargain not | | | | short report like this: |
| such a good buy. | | | | Test finished without errors. |
| Usually the fakers combine the two. | | | | You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them |
| What is wrong with buying a cheap stick if I know | | | | again. |
| what I'm getting? | | | | Writing speed: 585 KByte/s |
| Nothing if you really know what you getting. But the | | | | Reading speed: 1.52 MByte/s |
| chances are you don't. This is how it works: the quality | | | | H2testw v1.4 |
| manufacturers in China etc put the memory chips they | | | | But if your drive is faked you will get a report like this: |
| use through quality control. Since it is impossible to | | | | Warning: Only 16143 of 16144 MByte tested. |
| make memory chips of sufficient quality 100% of the | | | | The media is likely to be defective. |
| time, they dispose of the bad ones. Except that | | | | 1.9 GByte OK (4105737 sectors) |
| dishonest factories and staff smuggle them back onto | | | | 13.8 GByte DATA LOST (28955127 sectors) |
| the market. These faulty, weak, damaged and | | | | Details:10.7 GByte overwritten (22536613 sectors) |
| short-lived chips are what you buy. They are | | | | 7 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 14 sectors) |
| worthless except to fraudsters. Not only will the drive | | | | 3.0 GByte corrupted (6418500 sectors) |
| fail causing complete data loss, but even whilst it is still | | | | 64 KByte aliased memory (128 sectors) |
| working, the files you think you have on it are corrupt | | | | First error at offset: 0x0000000000000000 |
| and inaccessible. | | | | Expected: 0x0000000000000000 |
| Is my memory stick really 32GB? | | | | Found: 0x00000003f0e70000 |
| Simply selling you bad chips at a discount isn't enough | | | | H2testw version 1.3 |
| for greedy con artists who can reap greater profits | | | | Writing speed: 2.81 MByte/s |
| lying about how large the capacity is. They go the | | | | Reading speed: 4.53 MByte/s |
| extra step of hacking the chips so they report a higher | | | | H2testw v1.4 |
| memory capacity than they really have. You plug it into | | | | Ignore the first line as this is quite normal. But look at |
| the computer and Windows reports that it holds the | | | | the 3rd line:- "1.9GB OK" and the 4th line: "13.8 GByte |
| amount of data printed on the outside of the stick. A | | | | DATA LOST". |
| "16GB" drive will often hold only 2GB. You might think | | | | This is my own report from a supposedly 16GB |
| that you'd quickly notice once you try to add more | | | | memory stick. As you can see, it is only 1.9GB! The |
| than 2GB to the stick. But the hackers are cleverer | | | | rest of the data space simply doesn't exist. The drive |
| than that. They need you to be happy with the flash | | | | chip is just cycling through that 1.9GB eight times to |
| drive long enough to get their positive eBay feedback | | | | pretend to be 16GB. |
| or cash your cheque. What happens is that the files | | | | Don't worry about the slight difference here between |
| appear to go on just fine. But what is actually | | | | 2GB and 1.9GB. Even real drives do not contain the |
| happening is that the older files are written over by the | | | | exact amount you might be expecting. For instance a |
| new ones whilst the file and folder names stay there, | | | | 1GB drive will report as 0.95GB due to the way drive |
| making it appear as if all is OK. | | | | manufacturers do their maths compared to how the |
| A sure-fire way of checking the real size of a flash | | | | computer does it. A real 8GB drive will only hold |
| drive or other flash memory device | | | | 7.73GB. That sort of difference is quite normal. |