1TB Pendrive for $5-$20 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2020, 03:57:57 pm
content: 1000GB smaller than your palm pendrive. has anyone tried or played with this? or similar magnitude (of "foolishness")? it sounds dodgy hence in this section, but if its real, now is the future!https://www.amazon.com/Metal-1000GB-Waterproof-Memory-Keychain/dp/B08D781C3T/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=1TB+Pendrive&qid=1607097209&sr=8-4it seems viral now even in amazon, maybe have been for a while not sure what happened while i was in my cave, it just caught my eyes when browsing local online shop, there its only for like $6https://shopee.com.my/%E3%80%90Ready-Stock%E3%80%91Ding-hang-Pendrive-1TB-128GB-64GB-32GB-16GB-8GB-4GB-2GB-1GB-Mini-Metal-USB-Flash-Drive-with-Keychain-Storage-2.0-Custom-Logo-8-Colors-i.327479087.7060322219edit 210116:exe and source code (frm) ver1 for flash size verifier is attached for peer reviewedit 210117:ver2 exe+src are attached...

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2020, 04:58:50 pm
content: This type of scam is quite old. If you aren't aware of it and buy extremely cheap USB sticks you'll lose data. The controller is programmed to report 1TB while the flash is maybe 16GB.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2020, 06:30:22 pm
content: Yes, but these are from the reputable "WangDing" and "DingHang" brands! What could possibly go wrong?

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2020, 10:24:07 pm
content: Quote from: ebastler on December 04, 2020, 06:30:22 pmThat's actually WuXiJiaXianQiCheXiaoShouFuWuYouXianGong. So viel Zeit muss seinCompare to the prices of flash memory, let's say 10 USD for 128GB, that's 80 USD for 1TB. Not considering the premium for larger flash products, a device that costs only 1/5th of the raw flash price cannot be real.*Never ever* buy a "too good to be true" product from a questionabel manufacturer or seller. Buy a trusted brand, buy from a trusted seller. Immediatly check for real size and bit errors, as there are lots of fake products on the market, don't trust Amazon as a seller, too.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2020, 01:19:39 am
content: But its just $6 it wont hurt to buy a keychain the worst it can be.. but i wont into the hassle waiting (i keep and track shipment, so it need some tiny bit of brain power) i just wonder if anyone experienced it. So i guess now is not the future yet.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2020, 07:42:44 am
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on December 05, 2020, 01:19:39 am6 USD is still a good 2 USD profit for the scammer (considering fees and shipping). And you should never ever feed a scammer.And don't ever put your data on it. (It might work for a few GB of data, test with h2testw first. But it's still a trash-graded chip in there, so it might kill your data anyway...)

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2020, 08:28:11 am
content: Quote from: Haenk on December 05, 2020, 07:42:44 amfine... so i just ordered this...https://shopee.com.my/16GB-1TB-Pendrive-Rotate-OTG-Waterproof-Mini-Metal-Micro-USB-Flash-Drive-i.32712682.803428148the reviews are good, one reviewer is a returning customers, said worked ok, and unexpectedly received 2 extra OTG adapters too! nice! things got more interesting, we actually have 2TB stick!... and cheaper too! at $4 in another listing, the customer reported correct 1.9TB capacity..https://shopee.com.my/USB-3.0Flash-Drive-HP-2TB-Pendrive-High-speed-Flash-Disk-i.302458453.6651971883i remember i keep reaching connect disconnect my OTG adapter to transfer pictures phone->PC, so at least if i ended up with a 1GB OTG stick, that $6 should be good enough, probably can save me from some carpal tunnel syndrome. lets skip the USB3 2TB for the moment (i'm going to miss it) i already have few sticks of the same function. Kingston 32GB mini sd card sold locally are priced about the same, i have a few around. if that OTG thing can reach reliable 32GB i will give a thumbs up to those "scammers". let me wait maybe i can tell something about it in this thread, and dont make mistake i'm not the casual reviewer who will go riot it fails miserably, i should see this dodgy thing coming, i wont -ve feedback the seller, they just bunch of clueless middle-man seller you cant blame, they only want to continue life survival. i will do full stress test on this thing when it arrive, cheers.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2020, 08:43:10 am
content: Boring, typical noob online shopper story.

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2020, 08:53:18 am
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on December 05, 2020, 01:19:39 amYes, lots of stories on the Internet about those fake pendrives and SD cards. Somebody even made a fake external HDD by mounting a fake pendrive and some metal ballast inside a USB-SATA enclosure.As others said, they take a low capacity device, reprogram it to report more capacity than there really is and charge a premium for that serviceYou are better off with a legitimate low capacity device.

author: kjr18
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2020, 12:36:05 pm
content: Quote from: magic on December 05, 2020, 08:53:18 amYou mean likethis one?

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2020, 01:16:13 pm
content: Quote from: Haenk on December 04, 2020, 10:24:07 pmHey, you just made that name up!Look at the links in the OP -- WangDing and DingHang are the real brand names. Maybe a native speaker could explain whether those names actually mean something? "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here" or such?

author: AVGresponding
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2020, 02:20:45 pm
content: https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionaryI've found this site fairly useful for translating Pinyin, but it takes some getting used to. Context is everything.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2020, 02:52:34 pm
content: Thanks, AVGresponding!While that dictionary does not know "DingHang", it suggests dǐng​gāng (頂 缸): "to take the blame". Nailed it!

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2020, 03:54:29 pm
content: Sometimes these thumb drives are just a few meg in capacity and only serve the sole purpose of dumping viruses into your computer when you plug them in.Atomic Schrimp has a few of them tested, pretty sure you can find heaps more on YT.Ps:Also what is a Linus' video doing in Atomic Shrimps' YT channel?looks like searching videos on a channel will give results from other channels as well

author: AVGresponding
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2020, 05:27:43 pm
content: Quote from: ebastler on December 05, 2020, 02:52:34 pmIf you treat them as separate words you might have more luck.Ding Hang could mean "most popular", and Wang Ding could mean "dead nail".

author: Cyberdragon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2020, 06:09:26 pm
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on December 05, 2020, 01:19:39 amA "rubber ducky" or a "USB killer" (though more likely the former).

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2020, 12:41:41 am
content: wow! many more responds after i proceed order! eevblog is a great place!Quote from: kjr18 on December 05, 2020, 12:36:05 pmi'm aware of larger external drive with passive paper weight. this is about pendrive smaller than thumb finger, they cant simply put a big hexagonal nut in there. and...Quote from: Cyberdragon on December 05, 2020, 06:09:26 pmi dont call $6 is a premium charge. further there are good reviews that their USB dont get killed. this is just for fun. if its really only like useless 1MB in capacity, maybe time for tear down and hack possibility, the controller is already 1-2TB capable

author: ConKbot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 10, 2020, 06:07:47 am
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on December 06, 2020, 12:41:41 am"Wow this looks great! "'that's a scam'"But its cheap!"'because it's a scam'"I think I'll get it anyway, since its cheap"This thread happens entirely too often for people to really care after the first scam warning or two.Don't get between a cheapskate at their chap ebay/amazon tat when they are only looking for affirmation to their opinion.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 10, 2020, 12:10:16 pm
content: There really is no reason to buy from the scammers, this will only support them (by money and by better sales rank, so these fake products will be more likely proposed to unaware buyers).Even for educational purposes, there is nothing to be learned here - small, trashy flash chip, and a controller with a manipulated firmware. Same way of scamming people, going on for a decade.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2020, 05:13:53 am
content: Quote from: Haenk on December 10, 2020, 12:10:16 pmsimple solution is i can put feedback (since i ordered one) by educating incoming buyers about the fact that we need to aware of... these people wont be reading eevblog, they just read reviewers and friends next to them.... 5 days later...the thumb drive arrived yesterday evening (much faster than usual delivery), so i've been playing with it overnight... reporting 0.95TB, but after write beyond/somewhere around 10GB, the data return FFFFFF luckily as far as i can test, the process didnt overwrite existing files with junk data (buffer over run or wrapped around symptom). try to copy large collection of files and folders at once in Explorer also proved disastrous even if there is more space (less than 10GB usage) some sort of FAT corruption that i have to do disk check to correct and recovered some junk files, much like if power is cut out during copy process (fyi i cancelled the copy process before it reach the 10GB limit). the partition is exFAT. so i think this is comparable to a lesser performer of a 16GB thumb drive which can be had for a little cheaper. for me as i said, its just for fun and i just want to use it to transfer small amount of files from phone to PC without having to reach for my OTG adapter anymore. attached is the (edited to make smaller) picture that i took with phone and transfer with this dodgy thumb drive to PC, i also got the nice hooked chain that is not pictured in advertisement that i can use for other purposeand i left a positive feedback but with warning to the other buyers about the fact. so now without beyond any reasonable doubt, now is not yet the future... fwiw...

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2020, 06:01:07 am
content: Quote from: blueskull on December 15, 2020, 05:26:10 amMost Westerners find Oriental's name abit weird and sometimes funny, but heck, even certain German's names for American are also funny.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2020, 06:23:40 am
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on December 15, 2020, 05:13:53 amSorry, that's the worst you can do. Buyers and the ranking algorithm will only see the positive feedback (no regular buyer reads the feedback, ever) - so you did in fact push the fake stuff further to the top of search results

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2020, 07:56:03 am
content: QuoteIf I were going to get this (and there is zero chance I would), I wouldn't look at any 5* reviews. They won't tell me anything and the chances are they were paid for. Instead, I look at the 3* and 4*. But before that I check the overall rating, and your attempt to be sly wouldn't just push this product higher than a product with genuine reviews.I am with Haenk on this one: either leave a bad review or nothing at all. The worst you can do is leave a good one, regardless of what you write in it.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2020, 05:03:44 pm
content: the shit show continues.. this shit can price from $6 to $1000+https://shopee.com.my/Qianniao-Kuajing-1TB-2TB-Flash-Drive-High-speed-U-Disk-Flash-Drive-i.312589980.5163005539with all kind of price range like this, the market will be flooded with shits and will be very difficult to know which one is true. the same goes with external drive when i look at them... some that are too fishy can priced $250+ such as this...https://shopee.com.my/Seagate-LaCie-Rugged-1TB-2TB-4TB-5TB-USB-C-and-USB-3.0-Portable-Hard-Drive-2.5-External-HDD-for-PC-Laptop-i.358213177.39698493361T, 2T, 4T all same prices, and who is Neil Poulton (Lacie)?i dont mind if they are knock off shit and priced $6-$10, but with this kind of shitload, how we are going to educate everybody, even myself? which one is legitimate which one is shit? some shits use brand name like SeaGate, WD and HP etci cant imagine how much money lost in the industry due to this scam just because some idiots from the origin country think they are moralized enough to do such things (including reseller that put unreasonable margin to this crack hole out of ignorance) just because no one will judge them after they die. and no bloody person, not even the powerful agencies in there dare to take action just because.. who cares? we can get away anyway, its none of our business, they are not us and we will not get questioned for eternity

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2020, 05:17:55 pm
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on December 31, 2020, 05:03:44 pmSo by creating this thread, summarize it (thanks though) and also the dedication you've shown here, not to mention time, energy and money (maybe its nothing for you) that arewastedspent, all of this tells that you're smarter than those idiots ?Or maybe even greater and more noble cause, that you are on a crusade to inform the world about these bad guys ?

author: hojnikb
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 02, 2021, 02:17:54 pm
content: There's one good thing about these scammers. You can "scam" them back. Morally questionable, but you can buy an obviously fake flash drive, test it and figure out it's fake and request for a refund. Very likely you'll get your money back and you got yourself a free 16-32GB flash drive. And since these chinese folks use common off the shelf controllers, it's pretty easy to program them back to their original capacity.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2021, 09:32:11 pm
content: urgh? i dont want to get into hassle just to get back $5 and wasted my time pursuing. anyway, just ordered another 2pcs 2TB "HPSamsung" thumb drive @ $5 both incl shipping, i have something in mindbtw i ordered 30pcs 1GB Stick at around $1 each planning to give away as gift with small data inside it, and they arrived today. i thought it should not be scam right? i mean who bothered to scam 1GB stick? wrong! testing showed it only usefull up to 245MB, i tested 6 of them and they all consistently failed checksum at 245,500 KB. so this scam is all over from 1 - 2000GB, $1 - 2000 price tag...anyway as far as my plan to make them as gift, i think they still can do the job as i will put data only few MB in there which should be ok, this is the cheapest thumb drive i can find online legit or nonlegit, so this scam won the lottery. if i need more for gifts i will not hesitate to buy again, its just for now i wonder if this thing has wear leveling technology active, if so, with repeated write-delete-write circle, one day eventually the drive will write to invalid place even if after format and emptied, i will find out this in not so soon time. again i dont think i'll have the issue for this particular purpose, since i will write once and send as gift. i tear apart one of them to see whats inside, just a potted sheet of plastics. so there need some more work to further dig what kind of flash inside.ps: and also edited my feedbacks to only 3 stars including the first OTG stick i bought earliest, so i will not be so badass scambag.

author: vwestlife
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2021, 01:58:03 pm
content: As AtomicShrimp has discussed in his videos, these drives are likely factory QC rejects, and even if they weren't, the process of hacking them to report the fake capacity wipes off the drive's internal record of bad and unreliable sectors. So even if you reformat them to their legitimate capacity, I wouldn't trust them for data storage. Plus, they're terrifyingly slow, even by USB2 standards!But as for the fear of them containing malware or being a USB killer -- that's not how the scam works. The whole idea is that for most users, at first the drive seems to be perfectly fine because they won't fill it up with enough data to surpass its real capacity until after the seller's return/rating period has expired. So the sellers get tons of positive reviews from buyers who think they've gotten a bargain and don't notice the scam until it's too late. This would not be possible if the drive had infected the buyer's computer with malware or exploded their USB port as soon as they plugged it in!

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2021, 05:32:32 pm
content: Quote from: vwestlife on January 05, 2021, 01:58:03 pmi dont think so since there is no legitimate 2TB Flash Thumb Drive out there. this is hacking the MBR to report false capacity, the best i can guess. write speed test is around 5-10MB/s, read speed is 10-20MB/s, so its not so bad for USB2 standard, at least compared to my other legit flash drives here.btw, just got my hand on AOMEI Partition Assistant (Free version) to resize Flash drive to their reliable size. i resized the 1GB flash to 250MB, and the 1TB flash to 14.5GB, checksum test passed so far. i'm not affiliate, just a happy AOMEI Free user (Backupper and Partition Assistant)https://www.diskpart.com/download-home.htmlafter watching Atomic Shrimp video i thought, he didnt go far, so i destroyed one of the 1GB drive to see whats inside. i believe inside the potting is a thin (0.4mm) 2 layers pcb with some USB + Flash ICs and some passive caps and resistors. but i cannot recover them from the potting (esp the ICs) since they are so badly fused into that, trying to break the pot will break the ICs. so trying to mod (upgrade) this thing from home is just next to impossible or a daunting task to carefully and perfectly remove/separating the potting from the smd components. but at $1 retail, the factory's price is probably like 50 cents? maybe production cost is like 10-30 cents? including the metal body with gold finishing? still amazing in my dictionary (i cannot make such product in such low cost).

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2021, 05:48:42 pm
content: QuoteMore likely it is zero. If these are QA rejects then they would otherwise have been binned, so they are a total loss. Anything they get for them is thus profit, even if that were 1c.But... this is a zero sum game.Someonehas paid the manufacturing and material costs. That someone is everyone who bought a non-reject product. The retail price covers everything: design, materials, manufacturer, shipping, sales, advertising, etc. Rejects would probably come under the manufacturing costs column.The question is not so much how they sell these so cheaply, but who rakes off the profit. It is likely not the OEM but the contract manufacturer that rejects the parts before anything gets supplied back to their client.

author: SVFeingold
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 06, 2021, 01:42:49 am
content: I really don't understand this thread. What are you hoping to achieve here? Obvious scam is obvious. News at 11.Your time can't possibly be worth so little that buying ~200MB flash drives, formatting them, and giving them as gifts is a worthwhile endeavor. A cheap <200MB flash drive in 2021 is what we call "Instant Garbage." Other than as a learning endeavor I struggle to see the use.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 06, 2021, 04:50:44 am
content: the thread has evolved, from curiosity (answered).. to further investigate the usefullness of this dodgy thing as a "hack" to cheap solution. the "gift" will matters if one is to give away hundreds or thousands of gifts, that recipients can use as a fixed data storage like DVDR (write once... or a couple). if reformatting the thousands is not feasible, just give them as isif you can suggest a non scam (legit) $1 200MB thumb drive, please forward, cheers.Quote from: SVFeingold on January 06, 2021, 01:42:49 amso far what i found out is your statement is untrue, but "Garbage" is a relative term, so i cant say that you are absolutely wrongcheers.ps: what the wifey considered as garbage, i mostly keep and recycle them back into the lab, you can consider me as a badass hoarder of the weirdo stuffsit just so happened few minutes ago i just received a bag of broken rack from the kiddo since they learnt anything that can be mechanically or electrically functional, in however condition they are has to go through the lab, if it got signed, only then it can go to the garbage bin

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2021, 09:24:06 am
content: i bought 2pcs drives similar to this at $2.50 each (averaged incl shipping)...https://shopee.com.my/Samsung-Metal-U-Disk-USB-3.0-Flash-Drive-2TB-High-Speed-Reading-Memory-Stick-Pen-i.308717336.9909165828advertised as 2TB USB3, but unfortunately when they came, they only 117GB capacity (128GB drive?) a bit dissapointed because i cannot make a hack intended for them. nevermind... on to the data verification test, took many hours to fill each drive to 117GB (average 3-4MB/s write). at half way at 64GB, they passed verification test, so i continue until they are full. currently verifying all the data at 15-20MB/s read (after unmount and remount of course! to clear up disk caches). checking randomly with hex editor, all data up to 117GB seems legit, so its also a bit surprising to me that they have real 128GB meat in there. 128GB USB2 drive is still worth the money imho. so far my experience is mixed, on all the dodgy flashes that i purchased, but more toward positive side since they are not totally useless, in fact i can make them all really usefull for my need. the price is about right, as long as you look for the cheapest deal and dont go and hope for the price beyond maybe $10-50 nonsense... but this is of course purely my own experience and opinion, ymmv.ps: i have to update my software to ver2 last night, to include filename tag inside the file data, to enable me eyeballing in hex editor, and the software automation ensures wrap around data is not happening (just in case). and "seed" blocks is now interchanging between non-random (sequential integers) and random numbers, just because for the purpose mentioned, we cant verify perfectly aligned wrapped around data on totally random numbers data (as used in ver1) either using SW automation or visual/manual check. and simple xor checksum is upgraded to yet another simple "xor and add 1" checksum to add more bulletproofness to detection of corrupted data "vector"i'm not intending to do running blocks/bytes type of checksum as i think my fixed (cluster aligned) block checksum can do the job without doubt, running block will not be bulletproof from perfectly aligned overwritten (wrapped around) data anyway, so thats why the need for human readable data at the beginning of the first block. the software will make "simulation data" (cluster aligned) until the flash is filled up to the set GB and creates sequentially numbered files (1GB each or until space is zero). following me so far? no?well, i attached the SW + VB source code, ver1 and ver2 in Original Post... fwiw..edit: if one wonder why i waste my time to do this, its the same reason why others wasted their time reviewing T&M tools in youtube and here, except this is to test the limit of this dodgy technology (Dave did the same on some dodgy DMMs, tools and tech). and i wasted not much, since i can do other work while the SW is doing its job. and just typing here, no need hours of editing videos. the developed SW can be used in the future for other verification purposes. fwiw.(ps: the SW is finished verifying, 1st run 117GB passed, i will keep the flash drives offline for few hours or days and make 2nd verification pass later to see if data can survive that long without power. in the mean time i will recompile and upload the SW ver2 (final touch up), retaining ver1 in this thread since i'm not going to keep the compiled exe any longer. here we go!)edit: i tried Flash Tester tools in the net, they work sort of cluster/sector based verification, test is soooo long and no way to interrupt/verify in the middle of process. Windows Scandisk cant detect bad sectors on my previous 1TB drive, bummer! so i will use my own checksum tool for thischeers and best regards.