New Year is approaching! The old one will end, we will spend it as expected, and ...
With the increase in the number of USB flash drives made in China, the restoration of Chinese flash drives is becoming more and more urgent. Internet sites offer a huge range of these gadgets. At competitive prices, you can order USB drives up to 512 Gb. But most of the owners of flash drives ordered from China face problems in their use. The most common of these is file corruption in the memory of a flash drive.
The reason for the loss of data from the memory of drives from China
The main components of any USB storage device are the NAND chip and controller. The NAND chip is responsible for the maximum amount of data that can be written to the medium. The controller provides communication of the chip cells with the computer. When a flash drive is made, all information about the characteristics and size of the memory is recorded on it. The discrepancy between the data in the controller and the real capacity of the flash drive causes the device to malfunction. When the true volume is full, the information begins to be recorded in a circle, overwriting the previous data. As a result, the files become inaccessible. Often the file system of overflowing media is recognized as RAW. In some cases, it is possible to format such a device using standard Windows utilities, but the solution to the problem will be temporary, since after the actual amount of memory is full, the drive will start to fail again.
The NAND chip of most Chinese flash drives is functional and usable. But to restore its correct operation, you need to make changes to the drive controller, indicating the real capacity. After that, the flash drive can be used without fear for the information on it.
Flash memory analysis
Before you start restoring the true value of the amount of memory, you need to find out. The easiest way is to gradually fill the media with files, waiting for the critical capacity value, after which the failure will begin. But in this way it will not be possible to determine the exact value of the memory and the number of sectors of the microcircuit. It would be more correct to use a program for testing drives. The most convenient free program for this is H2testw. She has a simple and intuitive interface. With its help it is possible to quickly and accurately establish the true size of the media memory.
The algorithm for working with the program is as follows:
- specify the desired device (select target);
- select full data validation (all available space);
- start test writing and reading information (Write + Verify).
Depending on the declared size of the flash drive, the analysis time may take more than 10 hours. But there is no need to wait for the end of testing. Wait until the write speed drops significantly. This is an indication that the drive is full and the shallow overwrite process has started. You can stop the test recording (Abort). Next, select the reading process (Verify) and wait for it to complete. You will receive a value of the following type: "6.7 GByte OK (14162432 sectors)". The value in brackets is the actual number of memory sectors that will be needed to restore a Chinese flash drive. In most cases, the true storage capacity is 5-10% of the indicated, so the amount of usable memory for drives with the declared 32-64 GB will not exceed 6 GB.
Recovering the real size of the capacity of Chinese flash drives
Restoring the real size of fake flash drives requires special utilities. But before using such programs, you must remove other media so as not to format them by mistake. The most convenient program for this is Acronis Disk Director.
Recovery instructions:
- Select the media to be restored, press RMB and start the initialization process. If the flash drive is formatted, skip this step.
- In the operations menu, select "create volume". In the window that appears, indicate the creation of a basic volume and select the required medium.
- Set the volume size to no more than that obtained during testing. The volume type is logical. Choose a file system depending on your needs. Click on the "finish" button.
- On the main page, select the item "apply pending operations". The formatting process begins, after which you can use the media. If an error occurs, go back to step 2 and set a smaller volume size.
In this way, the information about the total amount of memory in the controller will not change, but only its actual size will be available for all readers. This method is fast and safe and should be preferred.
To reprogram the controller, you must use the MyDiskFix utility. This program is developed by the Chinese to change the information about the storage capacity of media. There is only an alpha version of this program, so it may crash. It is more convenient to use its English version.
For the program to work correctly, media recovery must be performed in safe mode. To do this, when booting the PC, you must press F8 and select "Safe mode with loading network drivers."
Algorithm for working with MyDiskFix:
- select the required media;
- check the low-level formatting (Low-Level);
- leave the first field of sectors (Sectors) unchanged, in the second field specify the number of sectors that does not exceed the one that was obtained during testing, for example, 14162000;
- start formatting "START Format".
This method is more time-consuming, but allows you to permanently fix the problem by changing the information about the NAND chip in the flash drive controller.
Regardless of the recovery method chosen, after the formatting process is completed, you must re-run the check using the H2testw utility. After making sure that the USB stick is working properly, you can safely use it.
Good day. I finally got to civilization and I can again please you with an interesting and, I hope, useful article.
One flash drive from China fell into my pens and it was sold for a rather modest price, like 64 GB. But who bought it, doubts crept into its performance, since some of the recorded files stopped opening. Of course, he was not aware that our brothers in communism had long ago learned to flash controllers so that it showed a larger volume than it actually was and recorded files as if cyclically. The system is very tricky and I do not fully know how this is all implemented. I remember at the very beginning, when I first heard about such a Chinese trick, some personalities on Habré shouted that such a controller would cost much more than a flash drive. But today it is found on every second flash drive ordered from China. But let's move on to the most delicious one and today the article will be divided into two parts. The first is about how to recognize a fake (which will make it possible to open a dispute on Ali and get your money back), the second is how to bring a USB flash drive into working condition with its real volume.
We recognize a fake and determine the real volume of the flash drive
- To do this, we need a small utility called h2testw, download it from Yandex.Disk and unpack the archive. Run h2testw.exe and switch to English for convenience (I don't know German). We press the button "Select target".
- We select our problematic USB flash drive. Look not to be mistaken, otherwise you will lose all data on the flash drive.
- Click the "Write + Verify" button.
- The process of filling the flashcard will begin, and then the program will check how much was recorded and how much is actually on the storage media. It took me a little over two hours on a USB flash drive with a true volume of 8 GB (about an hour for writing and an hour for reading).
- Now let's get down to putting the flash card in order so that it can be used without the risk of losing data (as much as possible with a fake Chinese card :) and for this we need one value, which is in the report. So before closing the window, copy or overwrite the number of sectors for the working volume.
Correcting the display of the volume for a fake flash card
I should warn you that since we work with fake flash cards, they can break at any time and you use this method at your own peril and risk. If your fake refuses after this procedure, then thank the Chinese, not me :)
So, download the second utility from the link. And we launch it. This is a Chinese program and do not be surprised at the lack of text on the buttons, the main thing is to click on the correct ones, and for this this site exists. By the way, I had a problem with work until I started it as administrator. The program swore as if the flash drive was being used by something. Therefore, at startup, close all windows that can use the USB flash drive. And if it doesn't help, use run as administrator.
- Launched, at the top, select the desired flash drive. I advise you not to be mistaken, double-check. I would not be surprised if the Chinese are increasing the volume of the same program.
- We rearrange the point to the bottom point, this is a low-level formatting mode - what the doctor ordered, for this Chinese fake g ...
Good day to all readers of the blog site!
What you will learn from the article:
How to choose the right usb flash drive in AliExpress online store so you don't be fooled.
Why and how to find out the real size of the flash drive purchased from the Chinese, what to do if it does not correspond to the declared parameters.
Based on the statistical data, 50% of online trade falls on the Chinese store Aliexpress, which is the most popular in Russia of all the similar ones currently available.
But Russians still lag far behind other countries in online shopping. Everyone is attracted by the huge assortment and cheapness of goods, which sometimes reaches several times the difference in relation to buying the same product in ordinary Markets.
True, this is not always the case, you can buy on Aliexpress even more expensive than a simple store, so you need to navigate the purchased product.
Of course, in most cases, it will still be more profitable to purchase from the Chinese. Also, when buying, in the AliE online store there will always be some risks, however, as well as others like it.
See some of the most common possible examples:
1. The goods will come not the one you ordered (color, model, and the like).
2. From the Russian post you can expect anything you want; loss of a parcel; True, in recent years, the Russian post has been significantly modified for the better, therefore, confidence in it is growing.
3. There is no guarantee for the product, which of course is formally, but there is no sense in it.
4. Returns will also be problematic, most likely at their own expense, without any guarantees that the seller will confirm receipt, send a replacement or refund your money.
There are a number of other possible so-called dangers that may lie in wait for you when buying on virtual sites.
Despite these points I have listed, which are well known to everyone, probably in more than 95% of cases, everything goes well.
Therefore, it is still possible to buy, but naturally not everywhere in a row. Cheapness fascinates all those who do not have money, as well as others who have it. Therefore, people acquire and will always do so, our ranks are only growing!
1. When buying on AliExpress, first of all, you need to be guided by the seller's rating, read the comments about him - of course, everything is clear, logical, but unfortunately, it does not always work.
2. Having found the desired product (my episode is a flash drive) relevant to point 1, in no case be led at a very low price.
Well, a 32 gigabyte drive cannot cost only $ 3, even for this site, a fantastically low price!
Chinese flash drives real size and price ratio
Well, after such a voluminous introduction, I will finally return to the main topic of the article.
I somehow needed a compact flash drive for a car radio, because mine is not very small in size, all of it touches it, and look will break it off.
Naturally, I turned to the Ali site at the same place cheaper and the choice is large, I quickly found what I wanted, which looked like a wireless mouse adapter plus a waterproof one.
The price was generally cheap, for 32 GB only three and a little dollars, and if you paid a little extra, then you could buy 64 GB.
Accordingly, a suspicion crept into my mind with such a volume so little money was worth, I remembered somewhere I read information that very often there are cases of deception.
Still, I decided to take a chance and buy for the experiment, if "bullshit", then I will open a dispute, I will not prove it, well, I won’t become poor from this.
Running a little ahead, I want to say, I did not plan to write this article at all, because after looking for this topic on the Internet I saw a lot of similar information, namely, in my case, the size mismatch of flash drives.
But the thing is, because everything looked a little different for me than other bloggers described. Therefore, I decided to scribble my story so that you, the reader, could immediately recognize a fake, having armed with several real examples.
So, having decided on the size, having paid the cost of the gadget, he began to wait for the so-called small package from the Middle Kingdom.
Interestingly, my wait did not last long, somewhere around only 2 weeks. Having received the parcel, unpacking it, I saw there, in addition to the flash drive itself, a nice bonus to it in the form of a small "pendant" on a string.
He was in no hurry to confirm his arrival, remembering that this could still be a divorce.
The small dimensions of the gadget did not bother me, I think today's technologies can cram gigabytes or terabytes of memory into a pea.
My actions
1. I inserted a USB flash drive into the computer, went into its Properties, where I saw 29.8 GB, a good sign of almost full size.
2. I downloaded more than 10 gigabytes of different files, as you can see in the screenshot, the space has decreased, everything is as it should be, it's also good.
Usually they write that if you have a fake, then its real size is much less than the declared one, therefore it will not work to fill in more than it may contain.
In the best case, new files will replace the old ones by deleting them when the physical size is exceeded, I have not experienced these problems.
3. Files can be displayed, the size of the storage device will decrease as they increase, but only some of them will be able to be played, most of them will have an error indicating that they cannot be played.
For me, everything that I downloaded successfully got up and worked as needed, be it music or video.
Well, I think the Chinese did not deceive everything honestly done well done, respect to you brother!
Immediately confirmed receipt of the order, wrote a good review, thanked for the bonus, put five stars.
Then he formatted the flash drive, pulled it out of the computer, having successfully forgotten about it so far.
Until the other day she caught my eye, mustering his strength decided to score it with music as I had previously assumed.
After a while, everything was ready, having inserted it into the car radio, I did not find many musical discographies, which is why I suspected something was wrong, as it turned out later, I was right, but with a great delay.
The "trick" was this, on this flash drive it was possible to install files for all 32 gigabytes and all this content, whether it was music or video, worked successfully.
That's just for as long as Yuesbishka was on the computer, but as soon as it was removed from the USB socket of the PC, a significant part of the files miraculously immediately "evaporated".
Reconnecting it to the computer showed that there was as much information as the flash drive had its real size. I got it, according to the calculations of the weight of working files, only 5 out of 32 GB!
It was already too late for me to present something, so never rush to confirm receipt of a particularly expensive item.
Make it a rule for yourself, before you start unpacking a more or less valuable item, film your actions or at least make a detailed photo report on unpacking and retrieving the goods. And also record a video review or photograph the performance, integrity, non-compliance with the order requirements.
If all is well, then just post your review on youtube video hosting, as many do, or in a bad scenario, open a dispute by providing evidence that will increase your chances of winning.
How to find out the real size of a Chinese flash drive
In order to find out the true size of the drive, you can use it empirically, as I wrote just above.
Or with the help of special programs, one of them, H2testw, which we are currently using.
I will also show you how to flash a USB device to correctly display its true size using another program, MyDiskFix alpha2.
The download will start, the program will be in the Zip archive, unpack it to any convenient place, run the h2testw.exe file
A window will open where the default language is German, for me it will be more convenient to English, so I switched to it, unfortunately, there is no Russian. Then press the Select target button.
Find your USB drive, press the OK button.
Here we click on the Write + Verify button.
Alas, safe mode did not help me, the error was repeated, and I did not try other methods.
In principle, I know the size, so I did not bother if anyone has, what additions to the article I will only be glad to your comments.
class \u003d "eliadunit"\u003e
Chinese online sites, for example AliExpress, offer a huge selection of goods at reasonable prices, and sometimes at unrealistically cheap ones. But very often there is a catch behind the cheapness. Today we will analyze how not to be deceived when buying Chinese flash drives on the Internet. The classic scheme of divorce, this is how it can be called, consists in the sale of cheap flash drives with large sizes. Outwardly, everything looks good, when you insert such a flash drive into a computer, the size is displayed as on the website for sale. The buyer sees that the flash drive is working and gives the go-ahead to transfer the money to the seller. Don't trust Chinese flash drive sellers - never! Trust should always be checked.
Divorce scheme by Chinese flash drive sellers... Now let's take a look at why you shouldn't immediately confirm receipt of the goods. In most cases, it will not work correctly and this is fraught not only with lost money for a low-quality flash drive, but also with the loss of important information. The Chinese inflate a smaller flash drive to a larger one and sell it for the price of a larger flash drive (for example, 8 GB, fan it up to 64 GB and sell it at a discount at a price of 64 GB - very profitable). But don't blow it up, an 8 GB flash drive will not store 64 GB of information in itself and this flash drive will not work normally without certain operations.
Determining the real size of the flash drive.You cannot believe the inscriptions and stickers on the flash drive, as well as the display size on the computer. For this we need a small, but extremely useful program for Windows h2testw_1.4 ... Download, run. We choose the language: German or English, there is no Russian, but the program is extremely simple that no Russian interface language is required. Next, insert the USB flash drive into the computer and select it Selecttarget(preformatted if not empty) . Next, click Write+ Verify.
Now you can turn on the movie and watch it. this operation is quite long (depending on the write speed of the flash drive and its size).
How h2testw works.During this test, the size of the flash drive is completely filled with small files, which are formed into 1 GB files until they are full. After filling the entire size of the flash drive, a report will be displayed and verification will automatically proceed. If the flash drive is "bloated", then it will be visible after getting the correct size, and it is inappropriate to wait for the end of the test of the entire memory (waste of time).
Analysis of results h2testw.After the definition of a "good" size is completed (in the screenshot, the second line is "7.4 GByte OK ..."), there is a definition of the "lost" volume. If there is no change in the second line with a "good" size, you can stop the test with the "Abort" button. Of all the results, the most important indicator for us is the second line, where the real size (number of sectors) of the flash drive is indicated.
class \u003d "eliadunit"\u003e
Restore the real size of MyDiskFix.After auditing the size of the flash drive, we return it to its real size with the program MyDiskFix ... Do not be afraid of incomprehensible symbols in this utility, it is connected with Chinese characters, apparently, this is the native language for the program. Next, we set the settings (numbers in the screenshot):
1) choose a USB flash drive;
2) we set low-level formatting;
3) we indicate the real number of sectors for the flash drive (we take from the h2testw report, the second line, for my flash drive the correct number of sectors was 15618999);
4) run, click yes / ok in the subsequent windows.
Error at work MyDiskFix.In my case, after launching and agreeing to restore the flash drive, an error popped up: « Can NOT open drive H: [ Mass Storage Device]! Please close the program which is using the drive and try again. "Its meaning is that the MyDiskFix program cannot complete its operation due to the use of a flash drive by another application.
I did not notice the use of this flash drive by another application, so I had to restart the computer and start the system in safe mode with loading network drivers (it is worth pressing F8 when starting the computer). There MyDiskFix also "cursed", but did its job.
Final verdict.That's all. MyDiskFix will suggest format already the "correct" flash drive, what needs to be done, and then for especially accurate people I recommend to audit this flash drive again in the h2testw program . After unidentified problems, you can use the USB flash drive for its intended purpose.
Chinese flash drives: how to find out the real size, restore and return the real volume of a Chinese memory card or flash drive
If you are reading this text, then I dare to assume that you have become the proud owner of a Chinese flash drive. If so, then you've come to the right place.
The cunning yellow-faced brothers make the firmware of the Chinese flash drive so that the computer sees 16, 32, 64GB, etc. available memory on the flash drive, although the actual size is much smaller.
A large amount of information is copied onto it, but you will not be able to read all of it later. These are the Chinese USB flash drives, and not only USB, but also all kinds of memory cards.
Why are Chinese flash drives bad?
Cheating with Chinese flash drives may be due to rejected NAND memory.
How it's done: they buy discarded memory chips from factories or landfills. They are sold by weight, and the price turns out to be about $ 0.5 per chip after the selection of completely dead microcircuits. It can be not only 16 Gb chips - any capacity will do. There may be two by 8, or one by 64, but with a bunch of defective pages. Everything goes into "production" - cutting off large chips, combining several small chips inside one device, combining cut off large chips
Cheating with Chinese flash drives may be due to the NAND memory being less than the declared capacity:
How it is done: they buy chips with a small amount of memory, and increase the capacity to the required one through the passport, that is, by the command "get ID" the flash drive will give as much gig as is written on it. So that the deception is not revealed immediately, the recording on such a device is either looped (out of gigabytes - we start writing again), or emulated (gigabytes out - we pretend that we are writing, but we do not write anything).
Such flash drives can be used for everyday needs: music in the car, watching a movie on TV, and the like. The main thing to remember is that in some moment a Chinese flash drive recovered using the method described below, may refuse.
So how do you restore the real size of a Chinese flash drive?
In this case, you need to do the following:
1. Determine the real volume of the Chinese flash drive.
For this we use the program h2testw ver 1.4 ().
The verification process consists of two stages: - writing to the USB flash drive special files 1.h2w, .h2w, etc., each 1 GB in size until the entire volume is completely filled and the written data is read.
The media is likely to be defective.
7.5 GByte OK (15924224 sectors) - we memorize these figures somewhere.
7.9 GByte DATA LOST (16776192 sectors)
Details: 0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
7.9 GByte corrupted (16776192 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x00000001d5fa2000
Expected: 0x00000001d5fa2000
Found: 0x0000000000000000
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 3.97 MByte / s
Reading speed: 10.2 MByte / s
H2testw v1.4
We see that 7.5 GByte OK Is the actual size of the Chinese flash drive.
2. formatting of Chinese flash drives for real size.
Programulin will help us with this. MyDiskFix (MyDiskFix download from the link at the bottom of the page). It has problems with encoding, so the steps are as follows.
In the upper window, select your Chinese flash drive.
On the left, move the point down (means low-level formatting).
In the window on the right (where 0) enter the sector number - in my case 15924224
Press the top button to the right of the "Debug" button - the button (YOG and & Ryueg)
