# My dad's el-cheapo USB flash drive is el-fakeo



## Black Panther (Sep 26, 2008)

Lol I was expecting it, but I thought that if XP said it was 16GB it'd be 16GB and not that the real capacity is so skilfully hidden!

So my dad received his cheap usb pen-drive from ebay... I was going to buy a similar 16GB one from OcUK but he also bought me one off ebay... because they're cheap (duh!) Mine hasn't arrived yet.

We expected that speed-wise it won't be great, however we thought that at least it'd be reliable...

I copied some movies on it, around 12GB. Only 4 worked. The rest either were corrupt, or the actual file was garbage (you know the file-name instead of being written in normal letters it was all lines and squares and symbols).

Now I downloaded Check Flash 1.03 -- the first funny thing is that although I formatted 3 times Check Flash still says that the drive is not empty. On windows it shows that it is empty, and I have set XP to view all hidden & system files...

Now, in the middle of running Check Flash, it only shows one file called $chkflsh.tmp of approx 4GB which I assume is the temporary file the program is using to check the drive.

I came across this on the net, and it kinda sounds familiar, the parts I bolded actually happened to dad's stick:



> # The fake will deceive you by *displaying the 'false/oversize' capacity when you connect it to your PC*, however they will NOT be able to store the data to the stated capacity.
> # So you MUST perform data test by writing a BIG (1GB/2GB/4GB/8GB) file to the usb drive, then READ back the same file from the usb drive to another location on your PC to compare. The READ back process is the only proven way to uncover its 'REAL' capacity.
> # The fake will take an excessively long time (1 to 7 hours) only *'pretending' writing but the data was not actually being written. Hence when you try to read it back, it will claim data as being CORRUPT. Many have reported that many strange files/folders eg. 00000.000 will appear and you cannot delete them*.



Here's a link to the ebay site. Being the nice guy that he is, my dad gave them positive feedback as soon as he got the item...:shadedshu


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## Black Panther (Sep 26, 2008)

I ran Testdrive.exe on the flash drive.

Rather than 16GB... dad got a 4GB stick for his 13 sterling.

I guess this means he can use it as a 'normal' 4GB drive?
Would you suggest lodging a complaint to ebay? My opinion is that it's not worth for the small amount of money... but then should one allow the fraud to go on?


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## JrRacinFan (Sep 26, 2008)

Oh man, nice find, BP. I would give a quick report to ebay, ASAP!


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## CyberDruid (Sep 26, 2008)

Don't cut the scammers slack!!!


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## Kreij (Sep 26, 2008)

The seller has over a 98% rating. I wonder if he is even aware they are fakes?
He may just be buying them bulk from china and not testing them.
He may be getting scammed as well.

Have you tried to contact the seller about the issue?


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## Black Panther (Sep 26, 2008)

I just checked with dad and fortunately he hadn't yet given them positive feedback. He gave me the go-ahead to email the seller... I'm using dad's ebay account after all... 

I sent this to the seller:



> Sir, I noticed that I was getting corrupted files when backing up data on the 16GB usb flash drive I bought from you. I tested the drive using various programs and all gave me the same result -- it's actually a 4GB drive. Being a fake, even if, without any prejudice, one attempts to use it as a 'normal' 4GB drive one will experience problems that will eventually render it useless. The problem is that because of the way the memory in these devices ("NAND flash" memory) works, the flash drive will store data from new files on unused space on the disk. It will NOT reuse previously-used space until it has used all other space. This means that even if you keep your usage to less than the actual capacity of the device, it won't be long before it attempts to store new files in nonexistent memory. Kindly send me a real 16GB drive as I ordered. Hope that you reply soon otherwise I have no choice but to leave negative feedback and lodge a complaint with both ebay and paypal. Thanks.



I'm not too convinced that the seller doesn't know... I checked the item description, he does give extra emphasis that he is "the only ebay seller with genuine 16GB usb drives" 

Nah, I won't be letting the fraudsters get their way. True the amount of money isn't something to lose sleep upon, but they either send a real 16GB drive or get a negative red dot and some reports!

Thing is, I'm nearly sure I'll have to repeat the story with another seller since my dad also bought me an even cheaper (some 11.50 sterling) 16GB pen-drive from another ebay seller in Hong Kong!!


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## spud107 (Sep 26, 2008)

they are cheap for a reason lol, if ya need 16gb of storage buy a decent one, no piont getting one thats gonna crap out soon after.


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## xu^ (Sep 26, 2008)

i was going to buy 1 of those off Ebay ,but after reading this im glad i went for a normal 4gb Corsair Flash drive instead..

GL with getting a replacement or a refund ,cant trust any of these Hong Kong or China sellers imo ,i bought a Game boy Advance game off 1 a couple of years ago (Mario 3) and it was a "copy" altho it did work ok.


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## Black Panther (Sep 26, 2008)

spud107 said:


> they are cheap for a reason lol, if ya need 16gb of storage buy a decent one, no piont getting one thats gonna crap out soon after.



Yeah I know you're right. But try to convince my dad...  Once he also bought me the Shivering Isles expansion of Oblivion, from a Moldovian ebayer... for around 5 euros I think, dirt cheap. It was a cracked copy (made Oblivion work even without cd in drive) and even though it said it was in English I could either get sound in russian or just the sub-titles with no sound in English!


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## spud107 (Sep 26, 2008)

hehe cant resist a bargain, cant blame em,
i got a 4gb one from tesco that wasnt too bad, only a tenner, 20mb/s in hdtach.


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## Mussels (Sep 26, 2008)

just do what i did, and only buy drives with a brand name and model number visible. never buy unlabelled drives - its a lot easier to dispute it that way as well.


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## Black Panther (Sep 26, 2008)

spud107 said:


> 20mb/s in hdtach.



Lol with Check Flash 1.03 this POS gives 2.73mb/s


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## spud107 (Sep 26, 2008)

im running that app on it now an it gives around 7mb/s write, read tests 19.2ish mb/s


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## Pinchy (Sep 26, 2008)

This has been happening for YEARS. A year or two back I bought an mp4 player than was 4GB but "really" 512mb.

As many times as you report it to ebay, they wont do anything. I spent $100 and ebay didnt do anything for me. Upon reading about the thousands of people who complained to ebay and got no where, I realised that what someone said was true; "ebay dont care, they are still getting their fees and charges".

I also did a paypal despute and everything...paypal told me that he had a tracking number so it was all good :shadedshu


BTW if you format it and use its "real" capacity, there wont be problems with it.


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## Mussels (Sep 26, 2008)

Black Panther said:


> Lol with Check Flash 1.03 this POS gives 2.73mb/s



got a link? i'm curious to see how much my OCZ rally rapes my 16GB kingston


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## spud107 (Sep 26, 2008)

http://mikelab.kiev.ua/index_en.php?page=PROGRAMS/programs_en


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## Mussels (Sep 26, 2008)

downloading 1.04 now, lets see how it goes

edit:

write speed only for the 16GB, as i was too impatient.

Kingston datatraveler 100, 16GB - 15MB/s (almost exactly)

OCZ rally (first generation) 15-17MB/s write. 25-27MB/s read speed is  however


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## spud107 (Sep 26, 2008)

teh results of an emtec 4gb


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## Black Panther (Sep 26, 2008)

Pinchy said:


> BTW if you format it and use its "real" capacity, there wont be problems with it.



Yup I had noticed that if I format it before copying stuff all will work well as long as I keep it under 4GB (but I won't be telling the seller that!) After all, he was supposed to send a real 16GB thing. Now it's his problem if he didn't send what was promised.


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## Pinchy (Sep 26, 2008)

Black Panther said:


> Yup I had noticed that if I format it before copying stuff all will work well as long as I keep it under 4GB (but I won't be telling the seller that!) After all, he was supposed to send a real 16GB thing. Now it's his problem if he didn't send what was promised.



My advice is to threaten him with leaving negative feedback, even if you have left positive. Its how I managed to get $40 back off him via paypal.

Otherwise, he will probably ignore your emails. If you take it up with paypal he will say "send it back and we will send you a new one!" ... you send it back and he sends you another dud lol.

I had a program that made my mp4 come up as its real capacity on windows (after a format). It was called mp3 ultility kit or something...


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## xu^ (Sep 27, 2008)

Corsair Voyager 4gb results.


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## Black Panther (Sep 29, 2008)

> Dear Friend,
> 
> Kindly send the item on the given address for replacement .
> 
> ...



My dad wants that he keeps it and gets half refund. He says it's too much of a hassle to ship it back (& pay the shipping) and then probably get a faulty one again. (I don't agree with him but well it's his USB stick...)
The thing is that it was 4.99 Sterling and 9.99 shipping, so if he doesn't also refund the shipping he'll only get very little!


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