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A PSA on cheap usb flash drives

DigitalHermit
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Hey there,

 

Just sharing something that I encountered yesterday...

 

My mother brought home an unmarked 32GB USB flash drive from work (not hers)... I opened up the drive in Linux and I see the files fine, etc. The drive was apparently 'Write Protected', so I went ahead and tried to take the files off for reformatting... As the files were transferring, there were a lot of I/O errors that popped up... I became suspicious then... It's either a loop-write firmware (like what they did on the fake eHDDs) or factory rejects that got into the hands of someone else... I was also unable to format the drive without encountering errors...

The owner apparently got the drive for ~300PhP (approx 6USD) from a sidewalk vendor...

 

I also have this 8GB Kingston DT101 (that's what the device told me) whose R/W speeds are less than acceptable... Same source, but I didn't buy it myself...

 

tl;dr Don't get cheap drives from dubious sources... You might get low quality, outright defective, or fake stuff...

Mutsuki:

CPU: AMD A8 5600K @ 4.2GHz | Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-DS2 (rev. 1.0) | RAM: 2 x Kingston Low Profile 4GB 1333MHz | GPU: Sapphire R7 260X OC 2GB DDR5 2xDVI | HDD0: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 3.5" (SATA II) | HDD1: WD Elements (WD Blue 1TB 3.5" SATA II) connected via USB 2.0 | HDD2: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200rpm (SATA II) | DVD: Samsung DVD+RW combo drive | PSU: FSP Hexa 600W | Case: Aerocool PGS V | Cooling: DeepCool Gammaxx S40 (stock fan), 2x 120mm Aerocool fan 1xDeepCool 120mm fan from a scrapped heatsink

eMachines D732Z | CPU: Intel Pentium D P6100 | GPU: Intel HD 3000 | RAM: 2x Kingston ValueRAM 2GB 1066MHz SODIMM | HDD: Hitachi 320GB 5600RPM

Acer ES13 | CPU: Intel Pentium N4200 | GPU:  Intel HD 505 | RAM: 1x 4GB (unidentified) DDR3L | HDD: (unidentified) 500GB 5600RPM

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Yes, same here in China... Some drives are the real thing, but they have been sorted out because of some defect like a slightly damaged housing. Those are still perfectly fine. But you often find these "500GB" flash drives, that are just some shitty 1GB in disguise... That is why I only buy flash drives in proper stores.

Owner of a top of the line 13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display (Dual Boot OS X El Capitan & Win 10):
Core i7-4558U @ 3.2GHz II Intel Iris @ 1200MHz II 1TB Apple/Samsung SSD II 16 GB RAM @ 1600MHz

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Why would anyone be stupid enough to buy a USB from a street vendor...

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Why would anyone be stupid enough to buy a USB from a street vendor...

 

It's cheap.

Mutsuki:

CPU: AMD A8 5600K @ 4.2GHz | Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-DS2 (rev. 1.0) | RAM: 2 x Kingston Low Profile 4GB 1333MHz | GPU: Sapphire R7 260X OC 2GB DDR5 2xDVI | HDD0: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 3.5" (SATA II) | HDD1: WD Elements (WD Blue 1TB 3.5" SATA II) connected via USB 2.0 | HDD2: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200rpm (SATA II) | DVD: Samsung DVD+RW combo drive | PSU: FSP Hexa 600W | Case: Aerocool PGS V | Cooling: DeepCool Gammaxx S40 (stock fan), 2x 120mm Aerocool fan 1xDeepCool 120mm fan from a scrapped heatsink

eMachines D732Z | CPU: Intel Pentium D P6100 | GPU: Intel HD 3000 | RAM: 2x Kingston ValueRAM 2GB 1066MHz SODIMM | HDD: Hitachi 320GB 5600RPM

Acer ES13 | CPU: Intel Pentium N4200 | GPU:  Intel HD 505 | RAM: 1x 4GB (unidentified) DDR3L | HDD: (unidentified) 500GB 5600RPM

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It's cheap.

"Viruses are free!"

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

Spoiler

Ryzen 3950X | AMD Vega Frontier Edition | ASUS X570 Pro WS | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | NZXT H500 | Seasonic Prime Fanless TX-700 | Custom loop | Coolermaster SK630 White | Logitech MX Master 2S | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB + 970 Pro 512GB | Samsung 58" 4k TV | Scarlett 2i4 | 2x AT2020

 

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"Viruses are free!"

 

I've also run into those... Hahahaha... Get your cheap 8GB underperforming factory reject that comes preloaded with the latest malware for only 3USD!

Mutsuki:

CPU: AMD A8 5600K @ 4.2GHz | Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-DS2 (rev. 1.0) | RAM: 2 x Kingston Low Profile 4GB 1333MHz | GPU: Sapphire R7 260X OC 2GB DDR5 2xDVI | HDD0: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 3.5" (SATA II) | HDD1: WD Elements (WD Blue 1TB 3.5" SATA II) connected via USB 2.0 | HDD2: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200rpm (SATA II) | DVD: Samsung DVD+RW combo drive | PSU: FSP Hexa 600W | Case: Aerocool PGS V | Cooling: DeepCool Gammaxx S40 (stock fan), 2x 120mm Aerocool fan 1xDeepCool 120mm fan from a scrapped heatsink

eMachines D732Z | CPU: Intel Pentium D P6100 | GPU: Intel HD 3000 | RAM: 2x Kingston ValueRAM 2GB 1066MHz SODIMM | HDD: Hitachi 320GB 5600RPM

Acer ES13 | CPU: Intel Pentium N4200 | GPU:  Intel HD 505 | RAM: 1x 4GB (unidentified) DDR3L | HDD: (unidentified) 500GB 5600RPM

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You have to be special kind of stupid to buy 32GB+ for just a few bucks.

That shit is always fake. Maybe 2-4GB real capacity and then hacked to whatever chinese fella think it would sell.

+°´°+,¸¸,+°´°~ Glorious PC master gaming race :wub: ~°´°+,¸¸,+°´°+
BigBox: Asus P8Z77-V, 3570k, 8GB Ram, Intel 180GB & Sammy 750GB, HD4000, W7
PiBox: Rasberry Pi, BCM @ 1225Mhz ^_^ , 256MB Ram, 16GB Storage, pIO, Raspbian

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