eBay has lots of cheap stuff that you can buy. The price are normally lower than the retail suggested price to attract buyers but beware! Not all cheap stuff is good and some of them can be counterfeit. I know that almost anything can be copied because when I walk along the night market (pasar malam), I can see fake branded bags such as LV, Gucci, Prada and etc, perfumes, software, games, music CDs, DVD movies and many more being sold there. You name it, they got it.
Anyway, if you’ve ever purchased a second hand USB flash drive from a friend or even a new one from eBay, you should have it checked if it is a fake. Even though Windows might seem to be reporting the correct capacity of the drive, that information might not be sufficiently enough to prove that it is truly a 64GB flash drive. Here is a standard tool called H2testw that a lot of eBayers use to PROVE they have received a Counterfeit USB device from a seller. It is extremely easy to use and provides detailed information. Created by Harald Bögeholz, the default language of the interface is in German but can be changed to English.
H2testw was developed to test USB sticks for various kinds of errors. It can also be used for any other storage media like memory cards, internal and external hard drives and even network volumes. To run the test for your drive, just plug in the drive, format it in Windows, run H2testw, select the target, and click Write + Verify button. H2testw writes files of up to 1GB to the chosen destination and names them 1.h2w, 2.h2w, 3.h2w and so on. If the target directory already contains such a set of files H2testw will offer to verify them. After it is done the software leaves its test files on the medium. You can erase them if you like or verify them again.
If the drive that you tested passes the test of H2testw without errors, then the advertised capacity is correct (minus a small overhead for operating system file formatting). However, if you are seeing a sample output like below, then it is a counterfeit. This is 4GB USB flash drive not a 64GB USB flash drive. As 4GB drive it should be about 3.9 GB not 3.8 GB formatted. This indicates in low level formatting a lot of bad sectors had to be locked out. Usually flash chips like these are rejected for major brands but somehow is being resold and reprogrammed.
The media is likely to be defective.
3.8 GByte OK (8084847 sectors)
58.6 GByte DATA LOST (122921617 sectors)
Details:710.5 KByte overwritten (1421 sectors)
7.6 MByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 15630 sectors)
58.6 byte corrupted (122904566 sectors)
710.5 KByte aliased memory (1421 sectors)
First error at offset: 0×000000003cef8470
Expected: 0xeb7ac43a237c5170
Found: 0xeb7a843a237c5170
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 9.24 MByte/s
Reading speed: 10.8 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
Don’t panic if H2testw detects an error on your USB flash drive. It could be other factors, so here’s what you need to do. Don’t use USB extension cords, make sure you insert it directly to the USB port on your computer. Try using a different USB/Firewire port especially the ones at the back of the case. Try a different cable if you are testing external hard drives. If you still get errors after following the guidelines above, then it’s surely something wrong with the drive.
The executable file H2testw.exe needs no installation and can be directly run. It was developed for Windows XP and Vista but I’ve tested it on Windows 7 32-bit which worked without problems.
Try my new FakeFlashTest.exe which I wrote to quickly test for fake flash drives – it is much quicker than H2TESTW.
Where can u get this new fakeflashtest.exe Steve?
I purchased the following product from AliExpress.
(product)
NEW Corsair 64GB Flash Voyager GT USB Flash Drive
Supplier-lei fang
Order Number:1001904283 Order Date:07 Mar 2011 07:33
Order Number:1001604421 Order Date:04 Feb 2011 19:37
With this product, a trouble occurs.
There is the thing which is not readable at all.
I tried it, too.
If these products become more than 512GB, it cannot record data.
A lot of such complaints come than a buyer.
STFU Stupid Mark!
This is a program designed whether your storage device/s is a legit, durable, strong enough to keep memories, or just a stupid devices that was rejected by any BIG companies and reprogrammed MOSTLY by Chinese like your idea. THIS ISN’T A SCAREWARE DAMNIT!
We sell legit sd cards and flash drives. This software is not 100% right!!!! If their are errors or bad sectors doesnt mean you have been scammed. This software is scaring people and they are accusing people of scamming them when it is not always the case. I wass called a scammer from a couple of people that were having problems with their cards. They both said they used this software and after the test it said this card is most likely to be fake. HMMMMMMMMMM i purchased these cards off a legit wholsaler here in america. So i know they are not fake. Some cards are defective but id does not mean they are fake. Also their are people willing to refund you with no questions asked. So be polite to the person who sold you the card because if they are scammers they will hold on tight to your money and not let go and they are the true scamers not the ones who are willing to refund you because these cards are most likely to be legit people!!!!!!!!
If you are posting this software please make sure that you post that this software doesnt meen you were scammed – Mark
thanks ……… makes me more comfortable knowing i have a real 16gb memory (speacially since i bought it from ebay!)
doesn’t matter. if a lot of people file for it at the same time, ebay will likely just mark it as fraudulent.
buying on ebay is ok, remember that. it’s even more reliable than buying in places like sim lim where u can’t check and get money back if it’s fake.
remember to pay with paypal, then u’re good to go. if the item is fake, more than 10 days after the item closes u can just open a new resolution centre case and get a full refund.
so u still get the item, and u get the refund!
Hi,
Do u know if ebay accepts H2testw as proof in a claim?
Thanks!
Hi,
Do you know if eBay accepts a report generated by H2testw as proof in a claim?
Hi…My name is Fenya…and I bought a USB Flash Drive 64GB from EBAY…unfortunately…:(Anyway, I’ll store some pictures on there then the next day or so it says that it cannot read the file or the extention…Is that a problem…any way to fix it or am I pretty much screwed…? Please let me know if you would know anything…thank you…:)
Wymieniony tutaj program H2testw działa również prawidłowo pod Windows 7 64-bit.
thanks for the information. If it wasn’t for you I would have got my self a fake.
H2TESTW is great for testing USB drives without destroying data but it is very slow on large drives. RMPrepUSB will test a 16GB flash memory drive in just a few minutes (but it will destroy all contents) and you can reformat it to any size.
So if it tells you the true size is say 2GB, you can format it to 2GB and then test the 2GB volume afterwards with H2TESTW to make sure it all works. Google for RMPrepUSB for download (first hit at Boot-Land).
Don’t buy any from ebay, unless from a know seller.. and make sure they are not in hong kong or china…
Most (if not all) on ebay at present are FAKE
This is a great way to check our USB sticks whether it is fake or original because lot of people cheated by E bay as they bought a products from E-bay. Thanks for sharing.
I think this product provides some extra ordinary features like password protection and also there is a USB. so we can use it everywhere.
So i think its good.
try hd tach too. i use it, good for determing fake drives (especially kingston 32 gb’s)
Thank you so much for this.
It says it can be used for internal hard drives, then it says to format drive. Do I have to format my hard drive to check it or does that only apply to flash drives?
If you could respond I would appreciate it.
My comment left obviously did not pass moderation. Please get in touch to discuss. Only trying to help others.
If there is a way to detect that *before* shipment… hahaha
Niway, this is also just like fake China iPods e.g. 4GB is actually 1GB… ppl stil kena conned by that.
Thanks for the tips .. is really a good one
thanks for the post ray……now i can always be sure about my pd
Very useful, thanks Raymond
Raymond, I always test my sticks with Atto benchmarks, see
thanks dude tell me how to use this n y s it
Thanks for this, as always.