What’s the deal with these stupidly cheap flash drives? Unreliable? Malware? Lying about capcity?
What’s the deal with these stupidly cheap flash drives? Unreliable? Malware? Lying about capcity?
47 Comments
They’re lying about capacity. Once you hit the real capacity limit, it’ll just start overwriting files. Pisses me off that those companies don’t get punished more.
All 3
They’re scams
[Amazon Continues Selling Fake Flash Drives and SSDs – Datarecovery.com](https://datarecovery.com/rd/amazon-continues-selling-fake-flash-drives-and-ssds/)
“Most operating systems will show the drive with a false capacity. This is possible due to modifications to the small amount of writable space located at the beginning of the flash storage.
However, if the user tries to write a large file — or multiple files exceeding the actual available storage space — the data will disappear. **The operating system may not provide any error notifications**. That’s because the drive is working as intended (as far as the operating system is concerned).
And while most “manufacturers” offer a warranty, data storage warranties generally don’t cover data loss. It’s likely that the sellers will simply replace the scam drive with *another* scam drive. “
The speed is shit says so right in the ad.
is there anyway to actually use this? find the real capacity, etc?
They are all scams, especially when the seller is offering some obvious bullshit like a 1 terabyte USB drive for $20.
Do not buy! I lost a couple of years of my digital life due to the 128gb flash drive that was actually a 16gb drive. It basically overwrites previously copied data and I was young and proud I had a 128gb Chinese garbage. I repeat, do not buy!
I think you answered your own question.
They spoof the controller to report incorrect capacity and will overwrite the files when they reach there true capacity Whitch is often very low 100mb or so
Yes
I hope the 32GB one I ordered is real… I saw the 1TB thumb drives on Amazon and knew there was no way they were legit.
Cé dla colice de marde
https://youtu.be/QOhLlvNlI20?si=0ATeiOcyMERdqg_a
Tl;Dw It would cost more to attempt keeping these listings off the site than it does refunding products to scammed customers and letting the seller get away with it. Drives are often fake capacities or at least speeds. They can take weeks to be discovered thus giving the seller weeks on months of selling the scam product and making money. Only a small percentage of customers will file complaints, the ones that don’t are profit.
Yes to all of the above.
It’s called amazon.
Never buy IT stuff from them due to this and poor packaging. Scan.co.uk overclockers.co.uk ebuyer, ccl and box.co.uk are the only reputable websites that sell reliable it items.
There was a video about amazon not to long ago https://youtu.be/y83BS_mK9GE
Wait, shit scam products on Amazon? Say it ain’t so!
Today I bought the Amazon branded one that is 128gb for like 10 dollars. Does anyone have experience with that one?
Just buy a trusted brand like SanDisk or Kingston and don’t buy this crap that belongs on wish.
Dumb useless post. This sub is trash
They behave like they have the capacity. The ones I had simply erased everything inside. Too bad I realised after trying to get all my things out of my laptop.
I don’t know, but I recently bought a cheap usb c extension cable for my soundblaster g3 DAC. As soon as I plugged it in, it made my computer go on the fritz. I’m not sure if it was the DAC or the cable being one of those spoof ones that has hack software in it. Thanks amazon.
They lie about the actual capacity. They take a 32-128gb drive and change the data that gets reported to the device it’s plugged in to. You overwrite data when you exceed its real capacity.
For flash drives and other storage always go with a trusted brand and generally you’ll be fine on Amz. Anything like this dirt cheap and high capacities are scams and reviews are most likely bots or hikacked from a different product or just people who think it’s legit.
Yeah they is fake my man.
I reported a bunch of fake SSDs to Amazon a few months ago, (like 16TB SSDs for £20) and they eventually removed them, and the dodgy sellers.
I sent them links to the products, names of the sellers, and told them which search terms would bring them up, but they still wouldn’t do anything until I gave them the ASIN number of each product.
It’s like they aren’t smart enough to figure out for themselves which items are fake and which aren’t.
But it *did* work in the end, and for a while there were very few fake SSDs on the site.. but of course the sellers, usually Chinese, just create new profiles and start all over again.
It’s worth reporting them when you see them though, because you will save some non-techy people from getting scammed.
no way thats 60MBPS or 1000GB or 1TB
also 1000GB != 1TB
I basically don’t look for any sort of PC peripheral on amazon anymore. I go directly to the website of brands I know. Amazon is FLOODED with chinese crap. Like seriously if you are going to buy these brands, just go to ali express to buy them, at least then you will get them for cheaper.
They are fake lol.
8gb flash drives formatted to hold 1000gb 😜 so when your computer reads it – it says “1000gb available”. But it DOES NOT have that much physical flash memory.
Look for reviews with people who run crystal disk. There are people who make a hobby or buying and reviewing all storage solutions and post reviews with screen shots of crystal disk results.
That way they are exposing products that are slower than they claim to be, or falsely advertising in any way.
That said…. A 4$ 8gb flash drive is still a 4$8gb flash drive 😛 format it properly and it’s a functioning piece of hardware.
> high speed
> 60Mb/s
bruh
All of the above
There’s one easy way to find out: [Validrive](https://www.grc.com/validrive.htm). Most likely, the latter, which correlates with the former.
Always go with a reputable brand.
Probably all of them
Fakes. Amazon became like a washed up celebrity that end up on Dancing With The Stars. They just don’t give a crap about quality anymore.
You can’t say “why are they so cheap” and then not show the price…
Yes, all of the above.
Like other have said, laying, it will show the big capacity but everything you insert after the real capacity becomes unusable and corrupted
Why would you trust your data to something like this?
Straight up fake.
They probably have 16GB or less of actual storage that is programmed to report 1TB and just discards data after being written past a certain point
Slow as dirt.
999 GB unusable
The one I got just straight up didn’t function.
Fake capacity, don’t buy it.
Usually options 1 and 3. With stuff like this, just read the 1 star reviews. Usually thatll spell out the actual problems with it.
If you find an item and most of the negative reviews are about packaging/shipping issues, its probably a decent product.
I’m not even mad at the company. I’m mad at the people who buy them. Because regardless of what you tell them and why they need to return it they swear up and down it’s real and get mad at you for saying it’s not.
Damn, I was just looking at the exact same one. Thanks for saving me from potentially buying some bullshit.