Software for checking/validating/optomizing SD cards for WIndows? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 02:57:23 am
content: I used to have this great program that not only fixed your SD and micro SD but told you size and if it was fake like chinese cards that say 64Gb but really are 64Mb. But for the life of me I cant find it on google. It was a free program without annoying pop ups every five seconds. I found a sandisk 64g microSD thats reading 64m in windows. I dont buy counterfeit crap and I would have bought this at staples best buy etc back in the day so I'm trying to figure out the mystery. Never buy kingston they always suck. Good SD card checker software without bloat/malware?

author: Peabody
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 06:02:09 am
content: Are you thinking of H2testw?

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 06:44:58 am
content: +t for H2testw

author: Connecteur
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2022, 04:03:30 am
content: I'm not sure this is it, but it's the one I use:https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/H2testw.shtmlIt takes forever to scan a large card, so I just run it for an hour or so and abort, assuming it's not a fake. Most of the cheap fakes are only 16 GB or so.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2022, 03:18:09 pm
content: there was an batch file who could create empty document text file but at given size ... and adding them up in the usb key to check the real storage size

author: Connecteur
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2022, 04:21:38 pm
content: Quote from: coromonadalix on February 26, 2022, 03:18:09 pmSeems a ridiculously pedantic way to check a memory card, reading and writing every byte. H2testw ran for several hours testing my new 512GB card, and the progress meter showed only a few percent progress. It might have taken days, so I aborted the test. The test left about a hundred temporary files, which I had to delete. Windows 10 refused to format the card (can not format).I'm afraid I can't recommend h2testw for large media. Does anyone know of a better utility for this purpose?

author: Peabody
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2022, 06:08:44 pm
content: There's a program for Windows called FakeFlashTest. From the Youtube videos it seems to be quite fast. Testing is destructive to your data - it will erase the entire card. Then if it's ok, you have to reformat (Quick) the card using the SDFormatter software from the SD Association. I'm told it's not good to let Windows format the card. I don't know why.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2022, 06:38:55 pm
content: Quote from: Connecteur on February 26, 2022, 04:21:38 pmother stuffhttps://www.raymond.cc/blog/test-and-detect-fake-or-counterfeit-usb-flash-drives-bought-from-ebay-with-h2testw/ill try to find the source of this batch, but it was fast enough if you create say 100mb of file size or bigger file size .... not pedantic until YOU try it loll

author: Twoflower
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2022, 07:07:23 pm
content: Quote from: Connecteur on February 26, 2022, 04:21:38 pmThe point is that especially cheap and or fake USB/SD-Cards are extremely slow and report false sizes to the operating system. You have to write the complete media with data you can recognize later during read-back. To my knowledge hat's what they're doing: Fill the drive with specific patterns via normal file access. Nothing fancy. If you try to fill the drive with other data the speed will probably in the same ballpark like h2testw.From what I've heard is that the wrong size will not cause a 'Disk-Full' error unexpectedly early, but by overwriting already stored data. Leading to notice that issue when it's too late. If you fill the data piece by piece the validation of the segments will say OK but the earlier data might be gone unnoticed.By the way. The link to the developer to be sure you got unaltered files:https://heise.de/-2859100(it's German, but I'm sure you'll find it in the list of system tools there)

author: 50ShadesOfDirt
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 10, 2022, 03:18:50 pm
content: Haven't experienced a fake SD card yet, but perhaps the OS boot tools that turn USB thumb drives and SD cards into bootable devices would work. Takes only a few minutes to write out a large OS to them, and it seems they would spot disk geometry shenanigans.Rufus, Etcher (balena Etcher) ...