Did You Manage to Reprogramme a Fake Flash Drive Bought on eBay?
Posted by KittyFireFlash on October 23, 2008
Are you a person who bought a fake flash drive on eBay and were able to find a way to programme it? Make it return to it’s real capacity size? If you have successfully managed to de-FrankenFlash a counterfeit drive on eBay, we want to hear from you! Why?
You have no idea how often we are asked at SOSFakeFlash if there is a way to return a counterfeit drive back to it’s real size!
The problem is…how! There is not one method that will do the job. There are a few programs that are pretty good, but in restoring the drive (when possible) they overwrite information that change the drive from a dynamic plug and play into a static drive. Or programs like Acronis Disk Director or Partition Magic will refuse to see it once it has been been restored.
So the only true way appears to identify the controller chip of the drive and then the flash drive chip. Depending on the controller, a different program has to be used to do a low level format to fix things. Usually the only way to identify the controller is to take the drive apart. Some fake drives can be taken apart easily, some not. In some cases the flash drive is secured with a jelly epoxy and so wiggles about after the taking apart.
Sadly there is no magic solution. One solution for all drives.
We would like to hear from anybody who has been able to return a drive back to it’s original size. We will publish your receipy.
To ensure safety for those who might like to follow your steps, and info to the download software you used, please review our mug shot report. We will need the following from you:
- eBay Item number of the drive you bought
- eBay Seller id
- Any information you have on the controller the drive has
- Any information on the flash drive (chip,real size)
- Steps you used to fix it.
- The software you used and any links you have to it.
please sent your receipy to sosfakeflashdrive@gmail.com
We will try to examine the ebay item listing, and then write up a post for everyone on what they need to do. You can also chose a nom de plume, that is the name you would like to be called on this site. We don’t use our real names and we discourage disclosure of our ebay id’s too. Privacy is important at SOSFakeFlash and we respect this.
Figuring out how to fix a drive is not easy. I am kittyfireflash and it was not easy for me to fix some of the fakes I got. I killed a lot of them in my rescue attempts and as I probed for solutions. This is why I know there is no one recipey for all fakes. I experimented to find one for everybody and learned the hard way there isn’t one. I did successfully repair the classic fake. But that was a long time ago.
We already have one person submitting a solution and hope to publish it soon for a drive. We would like to post by seller and the drive model listed. This would be a fabulous way to help fellow eBayers who would settle for the true size of the drive.
Frankly SOSFakeFlash is against trying to restore a drive as it is risky. It should only be done if the seller refuses to refund or has settled and a person wants to be adventurous.
If you found a solution for a fake flash drive, please share with your fellow eBayers
Update 20091023: Please consult the new FAQ at FixFakeFlash Inspectortech for important information on repairing fake flash memory items before you attempt to repair.
SOSFakeFlash 
Luis Fernandez said
I have to withdraw my previous message.
At the first time, HP Utility recover the real 4GB. However, after copy several large video files, I notice that some of them become corrupted.
Some time the pendrive was not recongnizable from my Windows Vista Laptop.
I remove the pendrive, I take from Windows XP PC. The pendrive was recognized (hardly), I apply again the HP Utility recover. The pendrive was again recovered.
However after remove the pendrive and inser again in other PC (whatever be the Windows), the pendrive was not recognized. When, I connect the pendrive, the PC hangs-up.
I think that right now the pendrive has had a physical fault or the firmware become corrupted.
Bye-bye pendrive.
Randy said
Out of curiosity, I used HP Drive Key Boot Utility to format a fake 16GB USB drive that had a real capacity of 2GB as reported by H2TestW and by visual inspection of the memory chip. The HP utility formatted the drive as 3.91GB. Windows Vista recognized the drive as 3.91GB and formatted it the same.
Based on other post on this site, the HP drive utility, may only work for a few people. Also, in cases when the utility cannot recognize the drive I expect it may default to approximately 4GB, which when this application was developed (2005), GB size drives were not common.
InspectorTech said
I have also used the HP Tool on some usb flash drives that were fakes. H2TestW reported 2GB real capacity in testing. Opening the drives showed 2GB quality control stickers.
The HP Tool reformatted to 3.9GB just like Ranny observed. I did this on a number of flash drives, same model, different flash drive chips but all with the same controller. Rerunning H2TestW continued to report 2GB good and the balance bad. When I found the correct low level format tool, I got 1.9GB flash drives.
So what is going on?
There are just too many combinations – the controller chip and the flash chip drive(s). HP Tool is able to deal with some but not most – if it was able to repair any flash drive it would have been chosen as the standard suggestion.
Much depends on how the flash drive was reprogammed to become a fake – the tools used in conjunction with the controller chip and flash drive chip. There are just too many variations.
So that is why at my site I publish the solutions people send into the SOSFakeFlash site. I also have information on the controller families. But again the possibile combinations are just too many. That is why the article “About VID PID Repairing Counterfeit Flash Drives – Steps To Succeed” was written. To try and give people a basic understanding and the things they need to look for. The Russian site mentioned is pretty good for software and they have done a lot of work trying to keep it up to date and current.
In worse case senario, depending on whether you have gentle hands or not and do not have a leather stiching cased fake, you can always try to take the drive apart to see exactly which controller is used and also the flash drive chip involved. The most important is the controller chip.
Samsung has just improved their site and the article on nand flash memory chips has a link to where you need to go. You can now put in the letters for the chip serial and it will tell you the real size! Much nicer then using the decoder charts. Pay attention though to the reference about bits verses bytes. A 64 bit is really 8GB – as 8 bits is one byte.
I wish people would send in their solutions sosfakeflash. It would give me more material for new posts to help people.
Repairing fake flash devices is a real challenge. There is also risk involved – especially if the wrong software tool (low level format software) is used. Flash chips do not like repeated low level reformatting. It is normally only done once in a flash chips life – when it is being prepared in the factory. We have seen people lose their drives because the ECC was opened in the software. Everyone should check the manual settings before trying a repair to make sure it is NOT open. If it is, close it! This affects the controller chip and why some people start reporting the famous ECC error message of can not download information message. When people upload tools to sites – the last settings are in effect for the software tools it seems – what the last person had (so now you know why vid and pid can also change after sucessful reflashing). Just make sure that ECC is closed before you begin with a tool!
On a final note, SOSFakeFlash says they get a lot of hits for CCM3110 C*Core This is an obsure chip and company. I have done a lot of research but the sites are in Chinese. I am not getting anywhere finding software or a solution and have spent several months hunting for information with a tool that has an english interface. No luck and a lot of fakes seem to use it. Anybody found anything? There are a lot of people who desperately need a software tool for this controller chip.
Randy said
Partitioning with Linux Command FDISK.
Since it is not a easy process to partition a removable drive using standard windows tools I decided to try some Linux options.
This test was done with a fake 16GB flash drive that H2Testw reported as a 1.9GB drive.
My first attempt was to use GParted, which can be booted from a DVD. This was not successful as GParted would not recognize flash drives.
My next attempt was to try the Linux command FDISK. I was able to create a single DOS partition. The size of the partition was set slightly smaller than the useful size as reported by H2TestW. Windows recognized the drive as a 1.8GB drive and multiple write / verity test with H2TestW were successful.
If you know someone that is a knowledgeable Linux user you may want to ask them to partition your fake flash drive.
This is not meant to be a guide, but an overview of the test I conducted.
Build a bootable DVD with Puppy Linux. This version was selected as the download size is approximately 100MB and runs from memory.
Booted system using DVD.
In the command/console window
Used fdisk –l command to determine device names for existing hard disks.
Inserted Flash drive & waited for device to automount and appear on desktop
Used fdisk -l command to determine what new device appeared in the list. The flash drive was mounted as /dev/sdf, which may not be the case on all Linux distributions.
Entered fdisk /dev/sdf command followed by the following opton
1. o to create a new empty DOS partion table
2. n to create a new partition
3. p to make it primary
4. 1 for starting cylinder
5. +1800M for a 1.8GB partition size
6. w to write out the partition table.
I then rebooted to Windows (Vista) and formatted the Flash drive, removed drive, reinserted drive and then ran H2TestW.
Some links to information on the Linux fdisk command
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Flash-Memory-HOWTO/verifications.html
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Flash-Memory-HOWTO/ext2.html#partition
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Flash-Memory-HOWTO/mixed.html
Randy said
Partitioning FAKE flash drive by Deleting Partition Table and Re-Partitioning Flash Drive on Vista
To be able to partition a fake flash drive on a Microsoft XP/Vista system you will need to remove or zero out the existing partition table on the flash drive. This can be done using a tool that is able to rewrite the MBR on the flash drive. TestDisk is such a tool.
Details on the tool is available @
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Running_TestDisk
Steps to zero out partition table.
Insert Flash Drive & Run TestDisk
->create
->select your flash drive (should be listed as USB2.0 Flash drive) (be careful you do not want to delete info on your hard drive).
->proceed
->Intel
->Delete
->y
->y
->ok
->Quit
In the process of creating the fake flash drives data may have been written in into the MBR-Partition Table that confuses some of the commercial partitioning software. Zeroing out the partition table eliminates this problem and also allows you to partition the flash drive or in Microsoft terminology add a volume to a drive.
A flash drive with an empty or zeroed out partition table can now be partitioned on a Windows system with standard windows tools.
Following are the basic steps to add a volume to the Flash Drive on Vista (must be done from an account with administrator rights)
Start Menu->Right Click on Computer->Manage->Disk Management->
Find your disk in the lower right pane. It should show as removable disk with unallocated space that corresponds to the fake size of the flash drive. Right click on the box that shows xx.xxGB unallocated and select “new simple volume” to launch the wizard. Enter the size that H2TestW, in MB, indicated for the drive and do a quick FAT format of the drive and you are done.
You can now verify your work by running H2TestW on the flash drive.
Comment
You should treat a fake flash drive as “untrustworthy” and mark and/or label the drive so that you will remember that it is a fake flash drive. You should also consider only storing data on the flash drive that you have saved copies of on other computers or media. Also, consider saving data on the fake flash drive using a utility that verifies data when reading. 7Zip is such a program
Randy said
FAKE FLASH DRIVE MBR Analysis
Out of curiosity, I analyzed the contents of the Master Boot Record (MBR) of a couple of 16GB Fake flash drives. The MBR contained valid standard or extended version 3.4 BIOS Parameter Blocks (BPD). The partition table, also contained in the MBR, was invalid.
The BPD information on the total number of sectors in the volume corresponded to the fake size of the Flash drive (16GB). This was to be expected, when the drive was turned into a fake flash drive the volume size was set to be the same as the size that the counterfeiters set for the drive (16GB). The overall size of the fake drive is not stored within the MBR or on an accessible area of the flash drive. The overall size is contained within a “hidden protected area” of the flash drive. Changing this value back to the true size will require re-flashing the drive. How to do this is documented on this site.
The volume size can be set to match the real size of the flash drive by partitioning software.
Windows Vista or XP does not recognize multiple partitions on removable media such as flash drives , or allow you the capability using standard Microsoft tools to repartition the removable drive. The flash drive can be partitioned by non-Microsoft tools. Microsoft tools (diskmgt.msc and fdisk) can be used if all volume and partition information is deleted from the flash drive before adding a volume to the drive.
If you partition a fake flash drive the current Windows limitation on removable media does provide you some protection against accidently increasing the size of the flash beyond that of the real size. Currently Microsoft Windows (Diskmgt.msc) will not allow you to expand or delete a volume (partition) on removal drives. This is not the case in Linux.
Partitioning a fake flash drive may be solution for Windows. It may not be a solution if you plan to use the drive in media players, Apple Mac, or Linux systems.
Stephen1424 said
The media is likely to be defective.
1.9 GByte OK (4109958 sectors)
13.6 GByte DATA LOST (28623226 sectors)
Details:12.9 GByte overwritten (27262758 sectors)
26.5 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 53 sectors)
664.2 MByte corrupted (1360415 sectors)
64 KByte aliased memory (128 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x0000000000000000
Expected: 0x0000000000000000
Found: 0x00000003e6e50000
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 2.61 MByte/s
Reading speed: 4.80 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
PnP Device ID: VID = 1221 PID = 3234
Serial Number: 10000000000007FB
Revision: 2.40
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: micov
Chip Part-Number: MXT8208
Product Vendor: (N/A)
Product Model: (N/A)
Tools on Web: http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php?tid=72332
I was getting an error when using udtools 1.2.0.3.
I used udtools 1.2.0.8 with no problems. (Found here…)
The Flash chip was a Samsung K9GAG08U0D.
Good Luck.
Ranus said
I’ll tell you how I’ve just fixed 4 MP4 players bought as 8GB and 16GB but in reality having only 2GB.
This is the important info from Chip Genius:
PnP Device ID: VID = 10D6 PID = 1101
Chip Part-Number: ATJ209X/ACU75XX
1) Format the flash drive completely
2) Use h2wtest v1.4 and find out the amount of real “working” memory you have (mine was 1.8GB)
3) Download MP3 Player Utilities (http://www.s1mp3.org/files/3rdpary_software/MP3%20Player%20Utilities/update_prog_v4.00.7z)
4) Install it and start MP3 Player Disk Tool
5) Go to “Partition and Encrypt” tab
6) Slide the “Setting encrypted disk capacity” button to a place located in the total amount of space displayed at the top minus the amount found at h2wtest as being correct (Total capacity of mine was 8231MB and the real working memory was 1800MB, so I slided the button to 6431MB)
7) Now press start
8) Once it’s finished your MP4 player will have 2 partitions, one at the real capacity of the drive and another one with the fake space.
9) Format the REAL capacity drive to FAT32
10) Name the fake capacity drive something like “don’t use” or “fake” so you don’t transfer any information to that drive
11) Transfer all the information to the other drive, the “good” one, and you’ll end up having a fully working 2GB (in my case) MP4 Player.
I hope it works with all of you, as I received yesterday 4 players and it worked in absolutely all of them.
Good luck to you all
Misprogrammed Fake Flash/Thumb/USB Drives That Misrepresent their Size to Windows are Rampant on eBay, Slipping Into Legitimate Supplies - Massive Data Loss is Result - Officer Resource said
[…] the controller has been reprogrammed I'm thinking a disk partitioner probably won't do the trick alone. […]
MT23 said
This what i did to fix my unknown fake usb.
1.First follow randy’s intruction on clearing the partition table.
2.remove ur usb.
3. download the hp utility http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=US&swItem=MTX-UNITY-I23839
4. format and partition ur usb.
5.voila ur usb is now fixed.
MT23 said
by the way,thanks for all the info that i got.
ufo said
Is it possible to fix a fake 32GB SDHC card?
Real capacity is 3.5GB.
Zombie_Flash_Eater said
Kingston Data Traveller 200 64GB USB Key – Fixed(kinda)
Purchased on Oct.5th 2009 from eBay seller 24hour_openstop67
No Longer Registered as of Oct.6th 2009.
Multiple Negative Feedback ref: Fake 64GB Kingston Products received.
Easy to take apart using a blunt round ended table knife. Pop off the black Kingston embossed base and pull outward towards the end. It has 4 small clips holding it in place. The PCB merely sits in the tray secured by nothing other than 2 plastic pins locating the 2 pcb holes. Just lift it out.
Controller
MW6208E IUYHT9M7 IPM142261-1
Memory
29F64G08CAMD2 092017 (9LGP) Intel 8GB – Confirmed 8Gb on Intel website.
Other
VID 1221
PID 3234
Micov MKT8208
All the above chip info confirmed with ChipGenius
h2testw v1.4 (9hours) reported 7.5GB OK & 56GB Data LOST
This agrees with the Intel website data. I have a defective/rejected 8GB memory module with bad sectors.
I tried numerous variations of iFlash, Alcor, UDTools etc but non would recognize my device.
Spotted Supermans post (Nov.4th 2008) and hadn’t heard of the HP utility before so tried it. Nothing to lose.
——————————————————————————
Superman Nov.4th 2008
Download the program cp006049
(http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?
lang=en&cc=US&swItem=MTX-UNITY-I23839)
and install it.
Then select the usb flashpen to fix, and then the option “create new or replace existing configuration”, then the option “hard drive”, and “create new file system”.the program will format the USB flashpen.At the end select the option “HP Firmware Flash package”.Then close the program and go thru XP to format normally the device.At the end you will find the fake USB Flashpen fixed to its real capacity.
——————————————————————————
After the 45MB download the program installs to C: by default.
Whole process takes about a minute.
As with the other programs mentioned above I had to boot into XP. None of these appear to work in Vista 64.
I now have a 4GB Flash Drive albeit with marked out bad sectors. XP & Vista Disk Management both report a 3.55GB Active Primary Partion (FAT32) and 60 GB Unallocated section. Nothing can be done within Windows to the unallocated portion.
OK so that’s where the ‘kinda’ comment comes from.
It’a an 8GB memory chip but as suggested by Linnet Oct.25 2008 it appears thatthe HP program does indeed default to 4GB.
Have been testing the new configuration for 4 days and all is well. Copied 3.5GB of mp3 onto the key and then from the key back to HD. Then queued them up in Winamp & all are still playing well. Have done this multiple times successfully.
The HP utility has obviously flagged the bad sectors hence the 3.55Gb instead of it’s default 4GB.
If only there was an 8GB version of the utility from HP.
—————————————————————————–
I find it quite worrying that among the unscrupulous manufacturers dumping the rejects onto the market I should find Intel and many others have found Samsung.
This practice enables the whole scamming fiasco to flourish.Furthermore, has anyone looked at the cheap microprocessors and turbo memory units available cheaply from China ?
And will it be safe to purchase an SSD Drive now that the availabilty of these devices 32GB – 320GB is becoming common ? The potential of these for scamming is quite scary in financial terms.
InspectorTech said
To Zombie_Flash_Eater
The problem with HP tools is that it seems to have a 4GB limit. The other problem is that it does not correct the real issue – information on the usb flash chip controller. That is why you see a second unallocated partition. Basically what HP Tools did was put up a “fence” to keep you in the safe area. Did you test with H2testw after using HP tools? This is important.
At one time we had a serious concern for SSD flash drives. Our investigations for the last year reveal that fakes are made from certain usb controller chip families that have flaws – weaknesses that can be manipulated to change the reported size. If you visit the fixfakeflash site you will see the families with issues on the left menu. It is always the same ones being used for fakes. The industry is aware of the problem and the controllers used for SSD flash drives most likely have the issues fixed. At this point SSD flash drives are just too expensive for fake flash reprogrammers to consider manipulating. Most chips used in fakes are 2GB at the moment.
Right now it is not an issue for SSD, but at some point in the future? That remains TBA.
Randy said
To Zombie_Flash_Eater
Steve posted that the program RMPREUSB could be used as a replacement for the HPtools. Not sure if it works under Vista64. Give it a try it may be able to partition your drive to 8GB. You can find the program by doing a google search.
I had a quick look at the program and have not tested. THe key enteries to fill in on the main screen are Size (from h2testw) and Volume label, select set partion as non bootable, then click on prepare drive.
Will be interest in knowing if this works.
Your other option is to use a partition manager software to split the drive up into good and bad sections.
There was also a posting that indicated …
hooray!
did the ‘h2testw’ program to get the right size. then used ‘Active@ Partition Manager 1.3.12′ a free partition managing software from
http://active–partition-manager.smartcode.co/info.html
Zombie_Flash_Eater said
Firstly, Hello to InspectorTech & Randy. Pleased to meet you.
Yes, tested the unit with h2testw afterwards and the results concur with Windows Disk Management so my ‘4GB’ is OK. Dumped 3.5Gb of Divx movies on it last nite and watched 2 of them from the stick with excellent results.
BTW The item & it’s packaging are letter perfect copies of the genuine Kingston device. Compared it with 1 on the shelf @ PC World. It really is spot on. This is the Black & Yellow DT200 for reference. The listing did not state Kingston presumably to maintain a lower profile.
I realise what the HP Utility has done and can live with that IF it ends that way.
eBay refunded me Instantly ! I hadn’t even asked for a refund yet. Merely enquired as to what had happened to the seller and within 12 hours I received a reply saying I would be immediately refunded via Paypal, this appeared on my account then and there. Was amazed at this response. In previous experiences it’s always been a long winded, drawn out, hassle. Credit to eBay on this one. Hence my nothing to lose comment.
Will procure the 2 programs mentioned in Randy’s post today if possible and try both (in XP) today. Like I say “Nothing to lose”. Knowledge & possibly an 8GB stick to gain.
Will advise the results either way.
The_Flash said
“I find it quite worrying that among the unscrupulous manufacturers dumping the rejects onto the market I should find Intel and many others have found Samsung.”
Do forgive me if I have misunderstood your above quote, but I’m fairly sure that neither Intel nor Samsung are unscrupulously dumping rejects into the marketplace. My understanding is that rejects are being smuggled out and sold on, before eventually ending up in fake flash media. (Can anyone confirm if this is even close to correct?)
Zombie_Flash_Eater said
To Randy.
Was unable to find RMPREUSB and non of the search engines gave me alternates as is often the case. Looked hi & lo. Put it on the back burner and went for active-partition-manager. The link you found appears to be dead but located it easily and downloaded from Softpedia.
At this point I still have a fake 32GB now performing well as a 4GB but using an 8GB memory module.
Fired up APM, looks to be a very useful program but unfortunately either it killed my unit or the unit had had enough.
APM didn’t recognize my device initially but a ‘ReScan’ found it.
It was displayed as a 2TB (1.9TB) unallocated space. Yes, that’s not a misprint, those are ‘T’s where you would expect ‘G’s).
So now I have the largest USB Key on the planet. And only £30. Life can be good sometimes.
Oops. Was an Ok 4GB a minute ago.
Attempted to recreate the 4GB partition as originally done by the HP utility and here it all went wrong.
Everything appeared to go well and the software went through all the motions expected then reported all was well.
Another ReScan and now I have an 8MB RAW partition and nothing else. Yes the ‘G’s & ‘T’s are now ‘M’s.
Tried everything I could think of but neither APM, HP, ERD, MMC or Windows Command Prompt (XP) will alter the final product. Diskpart recognises the volume but any attempts to manipulate it result in various ‘Duplicate Blocks’ errors.
APM appears to go through all the procedures, even when I tried writing a new Partition Table & eventually an MBR, but after the little green ‘all is OK’, no changes have actually been made to either. I’m not blaming APM as the ‘Duplicate Blocks’ messages show that as would be expected the Partition Table was false in the first place. (Interesting note, the APM editor shows that my device contains info relating to 4 partitions & these include several very large negative numbers).
Am I correct in thinking that the 8MB is a significant value. I ask because I have several other smaller 2G/4G keys and some of these also display an 8MB unallocated section although genuine perfectly working units.
Now located RMPREPUSB (note the E) by accident but it to reports ‘Duplicate Blocks’ and refuses to proceed.
Short of finding a Flash Utility matching my controller & memory combo I think thats all for now. At least buffer underuns CD’s used to make decent coasters. Can’t think what you do with these.
One more question if I may. Am I right in thinking that the HP utility did actually perform some sort of Flash Operation ?
Reason I query this is because prior to running HP, Windows,MMC etc reported a 32GB Media & Explorer even showed the details of the 65 files supposedly written by h2testw. After the HP utility ran all these displayed a 4GB device. Is not this information stored within the controller chip, if so it obviously altered somehow ?
To The Flash.
Your understanding was correct. I had assumed that this was the case. Your theory is news to me and I sincerely hope your right. Thinking that companies such as Intel were acting irresponsibly is as stated, what worried me.
Whatever the real story behind this, I feel that killing defective modules at birth would make life a lot harder for the counterfeiters and help to preserve the respect earned in the past by such market leaders. I realise they probably cannot be recycled and such policies would carry a cost but having a whole load of uninformed people running around saying things like ‘Kingston stuffs no good’ or the like has got to be bad for the industry in general.
Zombie_Flash_Eater said
Edit on above post. All references to 32Gb should read 64GB.
Even Im getting confused now.
InspectorTech said
Hi Zombie_Flash_Eater,
Do you mean all references to “32Gb” should be “64GB”? Or did you mean “32GB” ? those bits and bytes differences. It is very confusing sometimes.
Congradulations on 2T, TechChips group only did a 1.5T so far. Memory cards still appears a tough one.
Think your update correction should be clear to all.
Yes the bad chips should be destroyed. But there is a lot more to the issue of faking size. It has to do with the usb controllers used in a lot of these devices (don’t think it applies to memory cards though) – there are some with design flaws that allow the digital manipulation to occur. They should be dispatched to the trash bin as well. It is not likely to happen, the companies who make those controllers know about the flaw(s).
The more we dig the more shocking things we find….
Perhaps, instead of a punishment of a “thousand cuts”, it should be a thousand bites, for those who engage in this devious practice.
The best defense at the moment is to try and reduce victims by promoting public awareness. It’s time this dirty secret become public knowledge.
Anyone who wants to know what usb controller families are always involved should visit the fixfakeflash site. The honour role is on the left menu bar just scroll down to Flash Chip Vendor.
Just a thought, since eBay doesn’t want to patrol, if they would make it a requirement for a seller to list the usb flash controller chip used along with the flash storage chip in the device, we would start to see progress. They would be caught very quickly.
Randy said
To Zombie_Flash_Eater
A quick answer to your questions
Individual results to attempting repairs to fake flash drives varies. The reasons are:
some fakes contain substandard NAND memory chips with contain “bad blocks” which could explain some of the problems you found
the partition tables that were created during the manufacturing of the fake are “invalid”
some partitioning programs trust the partition table (bad assumption)
windows and some programs cache information for the device
Not sure if this is the cause of the duplicate block message.
Some partitioning programs offer the option of deleting the partition table before repartitioning. This gets around the issue of a bad partition table confusing “repartitioning” of the drive. I’ve used the http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk program to delete partition tables. Warning – make a typo and you can delete all the info on your hard drive.
Why you see the details (directory info size etc) of the(65+) files written by h2testw is that this information is stored within the File Table that was created when the drive was formatted. When the initial FAT/NTFS table was created there was room for a number directory entries for files. The space allocated to the FAT table was allocate on valid memory on the flash drive.
If you are interested you may want to experiment with some of the open source disk partitioning software such as gparted. This is a large download and it did not work for me. If you have access to a linux system you may find that it’s partitioning tools will work. They have for me.
My understanding is that the HP tools do not reflash the drive. I will have another look at the program and see if I can determine what it does – beyond formating a drive (up to 3.8GB) and copying some image files to it. If I have some spare time I will do a detailed look at the program.
Yes things can get confusing as not all programs use the same data sources to report information on a flash drives (and get confused by data written during the creation of fakes).
Randy said
To Zombie_Flash_Eater repeat of a previous comment.
Partitioning FAKE flash drive by Deleting Partition Table and Re-Partitioning Flash Drive on Vista
To be able to partition a fake flash drive on a Microsoft XP/Vista system you will need to remove or zero out the existing partition table on the flash drive. This can be done using a tool that is able to rewrite the MBR on the flash drive. TestDisk is such a tool.
Details on the tool and download link is available @
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Running_TestDisk
Steps to zero out partition table.
Install TestDisk utility as documented on the above wiki
Insert Flash Drive & Run TestDisk
->create
->select your flash drive (should be listed as USB2.0 Flash drive) (be careful you do not want to delete info on your hard drive).
->proceed
->Intel
->Delete
->y
->y
->ok
->Quit
The counterfeiters, in the process of creating the fake flash drives may have written invalid information into the MBR-Partition Table. This can confuse some of the commercial partitioning software. Zeroing out the partition table eliminates this problem and also allows you to partition the flash drive or in Microsoft terminology add a volume to a drive.
A flash drive with an empty or zeroed out partition table can now be partitioned on a Windows system with standard windows tools.
Following are the basic steps to add a volume to the Flash Drive on Vista (must be done from an account with administrator rights)
This was done on Vista and may not work on XP.
Start Menu->Right Click on Computer->Manage->Disk Management->
Find your disk in the lower right pane. It should show as removable disk with unallocated space that corresponds to the fake size of the flash drive. Right click on the box that shows xx.xxGB unallocated and select “new simple volume” to launch the wizard. Enter the size, in MB, that H2TestW indicated for the drive and do a quick FAT format of the drive and you are done.
You can now verify your work by running H2TestW on the flash drive.
Zombie_Flash_Eater said
To Randy.
Thanks for your input. Much appreciated. Seems I have aquired a new hobby.
I have Ubuntu 9.04(persistent) with Gparted(bundled) on a bootable key and had tried but same results. Keys recognized OK but this one again shows the 8MB(7.84MB) Unallocated area(Im not gong to call it a partition anymore). Again untouchable.
Downloaded TestDisk as you suggested. Works well in both XP & Vista 64. Again, same results, it goes through all the motions but nothing actually gets written. It did however inform me that there was no end signature for the ‘partition’ I supposed the 2TB episode stretched it a little too far and it fell of the end.
Seems that my device can no longer be written to.
Not to worry, I can always go here 270473384896 and buy another.
Prices appear to have crashed in the last 4 weeks. I paid £30. This kind person is doing the same DT 200 64GB for £15. Full tech details, lovely picture of my key & packaging, 26 sold, excellent feedback and no postage to boot.
And how considerate, it’a private listing, so no follow up spam or the like.
Theres another offering them at £19. 74 sold in 4 months. 100% rating.
Think theres a few more coming your way in the near future.
To InspectorTech.
Well spotted. Yes a typo there. GB
I’m born again converted. Your right. I see where your coming from now. My idea of binning duff memory would probably only result in QC passed small 1/2 GB modules being used perhaps bumping up the cost slightly.
It is as you say the controller that needs to be controlled. Back in the Middle Ages we would write an EPROM or the like & then burn out the write enable effectively producing a ROM device. On the plus side that would prevent tampering by second parties but presumably these items although fakes are actually first party. On the minus side, upgrading or repair flashing would be impossible.
Change of subject slightly but looking at my device I believe that not even the Japanese could fit more than 4 of my 8GB memory modules in this housing. Leads me to presume that Kingston are using 16GB modules as a minimum. And the new 128/256 GB models MUST be physically larger devices. That would make the falsies easier to spot.
ITGuy said
To Zombie_Flash_Eater
In response to your comment about size being a way of dectecting falsies. In the case of the 32GB and higher sizes this is a very good indicator. A number of the high capacity fakes are sold in the “swivel” mount package similar to to the Kingston DataTraveler 101 which has a maximum capacity of 16GB
Dimensions – 2.19” x 0.68” x 0.36” (55.65mm x 17.3mm x 9.05mm)
The high capacity (64GB -> 256GB) DataTraveler 200 & 300
Dimensions — 2.77″ x 0.49″ x 0.89″ (70.39mm x 12.52mm x 22.78mm)
Dimensions — 2.78″ x 0.88″ x 0.65″ (70.68mm x 22.37 mm x 16.45mm)
No surprise here. Higher capacity drives require more chips and a bigger case.
You may ask the question. Since a SDHC card is smaller than the memory chip in a usb drive, and you can get 32GB SHHC cards,why are USB Drives so large. The reason is cost, the smaller packaging and high capacity chips are expensive.
Randy said
To Zombie_Flash_Eater
Since you have a live Ubuntu you may want to try the imbedded unix FDISK command. This sequence worked for me. (extract from comment dated 19 May #55 above)
In the command/console window
Used fdisk –l command to determine device names for existing hard disks.
Inserted Flash drive & waited for device to automount and appear on desktop
Used fdisk -l command to determine what new device appeared in the list. The flash drive was mounted as /dev/sdf, which may not be the case on all Linux distributions.
Entered fdisk /dev/sdf command followed by the following option
1. o to create a new empty DOS partion table
2. n to create a new partition
3. p to make it primary
4. 1 for starting cylinder
5. +1800M for a 1.8GB partition size
6. w to write out the partition table
Zombie_Flash_Eater said
To Randy.
Tried Fdisk in Linux Ubuntu 9.04 & Pupppy Linux 4.3.1 as suggested. (Highly Recommend Puppy Linux to any hardened Windows users thinking of trying Linux – It’s a great intuitive introduction)
No joy. Same problem.
Went through the procedure OK excepting that any +xxM entry was rejected as out of range unless smaller than 8MB. Allowed the default. Any DOS partition would be better than RAW I think.
Last command w(rite) results in LED flickering on the device and then Linux, unlike any of the utilities tried, Automatically rescans the Partition Table.
Response is “Re-reading the partition table failed with Error 13: Permission denied.
Later Responses to other commands are :This device does not have a valid Partition Table” or similar.
Seems that the 8MB(7.8) RAW area is untouchable & unkillable.
To InspectorTech
Do you know what became of the 1.5TB creation you mentioned earlier ?
Did it subsequently Starburst into another dimension as mine or was it recoverable in any form ?
Twins said
To Raven2000
I tried your recommendation – C:\mkdosfs -v -F 32 -n ONLY2GB H:4136944 on my fake 16GB SD with only 1.9GB, it shows 1.8GB. But when I checked it in Window.Disk Management it still shows 3.62 in primary partition and 12GB unallocated, as formatted with HP tool.
I tried others before which not quite right:
Using chipgenius didn’t work,(the VID and PID were matching with my SD card reader not the SD card)
Using UDtools didn’t work (showed up but can’t fix it)
The HP tool formatted it to 4gb, my other fake 16GB SD with only 3.9GB is OK.
Steve said
Hi
RMPrepUSB always tests the whole flash memory drive. H2TESTW only tests the formatted volume as it writes files to the volume.
So you can partition and format the USB flash drive using RMPrepUSB to a lesser partition size (say 16GB) and then use H2TESTW to test the volume. Then re-run RMPrepUSB and adjust the size or the partition depending on whether it passed (increase size) or failed (decrease size).
The duplicate blocks locations will give you a clue as to what size you can use.
H2TESTW normally gives a clue about what size it thinks the device might be (but not always).
HTH
Steve
cskoog said
WORKED FOR ME. I skimmed most of this thread, and saw how much hassle seemed to be involved, tried a few things, and then decided to try something else.
I cleared the fake of files, ran hwtest14 to find the true size. Then in Linux made sure the drive was not mounted and used GParted. First I deleted the partition, and applied that. Then I gave the unallocated space a DOS disk label. Finally I set up a 1895 Mb FAT32 partition at the beginning of the unallocated space (hwtest had shown 2GB). I next removed and then mounted the pen drive. Finally, I ran hwtest again to check if the new smaller storage was OK, and it is.
Good Luck.
Steve said
That is the same as I suggested above. For Windows users:
1. Run RMPrepUSB to format to maximum detected size
2. Run H2TESTW to get true size
3. Run RMPrepUSB to partition and format the USB pen to that true size (or just under)
4. Re-test with H2TESTW to check it is OK
ITguy said
If you use the partitioning technique to repair a drive you should be aware that sometime in the future you may get errors on the drive and loose data.
The reason I say this is that the firmware in some of the fake flash drives have been hacked in a way that after a certain number of uses of the real memory the fake memory will start being used. The clues to this is how logical block to physical block translation and wear level alogrithms interact on fake flash drives. FYI: on flash drives there is not a direct / permanent one to one relationship between logical and physical blocks.
If you are going to reuse a fake flash drive consider protecting your data bu having a compressed or zip folder on the falsh drive and copying files to / from that zip folder. Windows compressed folders and 7Zip use CRCs to detect data corruption.
Dedes said
I have successfully fixed three of the USB flash drives however the time it took to locate the programming tools was not worth the money it cost. The only thing that made it worth it was success. I first used a magnifying glass to accurately record the numbers from the flash chips then began my google search for the programming tools. My first drive was fixed after the third program was found. The other two I was not so lucky. The good news is that I could probably reprogram 90% of chips on the market with the collection of software I have. Also, I don’t know which program did it but I have a triple boot system which had critical system files deleted on the day I downloaded and used 4 of the programs. Good luck to all and I hope you can read Chinese, Japanese and Russian.
ITGuy said
The statement
“Also, I don’t know which program did it but I have a triple boot system which had critical system files deleted on the day I downloaded and used 4 of the programs”
Supports the warnings in this posting.
InspectorTech said
To Zombie_Flash_Eater in response to:
The 1.5TB is back to being 2GB. The chip is 2GB capacity. Working. No need to build a partition fence, for the 1.9GB (formatted capacity) that H2testw orginally reported.
Tortured many times to become false capacity sizes it is resting. Repeated low level reformating of flash memory chips reduces overall life span of the chip.
The purpose of the many tests? To validate what we learned. The flaw in the usb flash drive chip, the controller family involved. The only hint, one of the most used in fake usb flash drives.
Our group received a trail of bread crumbs to point us in the right direction from someone in China. We followed the trail and learned.
The software used was clean. It did not come from an internet site. A person who bought a large quantity of usb flash drives, chose the wrong menu. There are two available from most wholesalers. Genuine, at fair market prices. Upgrades, at cheap unrealistic prices. The upgrades are chips super sized beyond their real capacity. Skipping to the end of the story, the project received the software. My group set to work.
Everyone should read the article:
Should You Repair A Fake USB Flash (Pen) Drive?
at TechChip’s site.
Dedes’s adventure is a summary true life experience of what the article talks about. If you are interested in repairing a usb flash drive, please read the article first.
Roger said
Last night I came across a listing on ebay for a book of instruction on fixing fake USB drives for $2.00 and decided to try it. It was emailed to me in pdf form and gave step by step instructions as well as links to the free software. I was able to restore my drives to their real (4gb) capacities. I do not know if it will work on all drives, but for $2.00 how can one go wrong. I don’t have the eBay link handy, but if you do a search for scam book, you should find it. I also might note that the software works on VP and Vista 32 bit.
Roger said
That was XP, not VP, sorry.
TechChips said
Hi Roger,
We know what you are talking about. It was reviewed. Very little escapes us. The only real problem is the repair method. It does not repair the fake. It builds a wall around the real capacity of the flash memory chip and moves the fence in conservatively for additional safety.
The partition for the good space is helpful. It does not remove the real problem, the reprogramming of the flash usb chip controller. It still has the wrong information. The software mentioned does not clear this. It can’t. That is why a parition is used.
You end up with a second partition, the fake space. It is not formatted and if somebody does at some point some day, the trouble will return.
There a number of tools that will create a partition for the good space you calculate after using H2testw.
Some are free and pretty dangerous (you better make sure that you chose your usb flash drive and not your harddisk – a few even remove the removable flag making it appear like a fixed disk).
Other products such as Acronis Disk Director can do it too, provided the flash memory stick was not tortured with the wrong low level software tools first.
It goes without saying that if anyone chooses the “build a fence” option to hold in the real space of the flash memory chip they need to:
1) Retest with H2testw
2) Label the usb flash drive as a fake semi repaired (so they never forget and another person won’t either)
It is a potential quick fix, but it carries with it risks, for the future and for the data that is stored on the flash drive.
Those of us part of the technical group in the FrankenFlash project, do not recommend this repair path. It is not the real corrective to the problem. The only real corrective is to restore the usb flash controller chip to report the true size of the flash memory storage chip onboard.
This is the reason the site http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com/ was set up by InspectorTech.
Unfortunately repairing a fake can be a real challenge. They now have a warning our guys wrote. It can be an interesting and fun adventure, learning about technology.
The goal is to have the flash drive be the size it was meant to be. For H2testw to confirm it is now good and safe to use. No cheating with a partition. The usb flash controller chip fixed, the flash drive storage chip fixed.
InspectorTech should know. He made the mistake in his early experiments.
It’s good you found a solution Roger, just remember you only put up a fence, you did not repair or correct the usb flash drive. Label it and make sure nobody else plays with it, thinking there is more space available to be used…
Roger said
Hi Techchips,
If I’m understanding you correctly, you are of the thinking that the chip is capable of higher capacity than H2testw indicates as usable space after it’s initial test and that the controller needs to be reprogrammed to have increased capacity?
In the procedure I first mentioned, the first step is to format the drive and then run H2testw. Upon getting the indicated usable test info from H2testw, In my case, all 4 devices were indicating they were really 3.8 to 3.9gb and not the 16 and 32gb they were supposed to be. The next step was to delete the bogus partition and then create a new partition based on the H2testw results and then format the partition. The final step was to retest the drive with H2testw and check for errors. In my case, all 4 drives formatted out to be 3.8 to 3.9gb and the retest by H2testw showed no errors. I have filled one to capacity and all the files seem to be good. I guess there is still a failure possibility but neither retest by H2testw nor spot checking several actual files have uncovered failure yet.
I do not profess to be and expert on the behavior of memory chips, but I have 30 years of experience in the business at BB and then TI much of which was at the wafer and chip level, not that this applies to the technical aspects of the discussion, but in that time, I know how chips that just don’t make the final cut find other places to live.
It seems that most fake drives are actually showing that 4gb or the formatted value of that, and I base that on what I have been reading and my own experience plus the responses I have gotten from eBay members I have contacted that also bought drives and did the H2testw test. It could be possible that since most of the assembly of these devices take place in China that a good number of them are finding their way out the door. Some may be perfectly good devices and others may just not be meeting all the final QC test parameters.
As I have said, I’m no expert by any means and would appreciate any and all enlightenment this forum can give me.
TechChips said
Hi Roger,
After you delete the partition and create a new one,is there another partition of unallocated space that remains and can be seen by an operating system.
For example, if using the popular windows operating system, control panel, adminstrative tools, computer management, storage, disk management (order dependent on os version).
For the usb flash drive, do you see your partition created and do you see an unallocated section afterwards on the usb flash drive?
Roger said
Hi TechChips,
Yes, I do see that, I guess that is what you want to fix or get rid of by reprogramming the controller then, correct? Am I also correct in assuming that if the “fenced partition” is filled then you run the risk of running into the unallocated partition? How safe is the data in the good partition assuming it is not at or near it’s limit? Thanks for pointing that out to me.
TechChips said
Hi Roger,
No, the fenced partition is safe. If it is filled to the max, you will not be able to add new files until you delete some old ones. It will behave as any other partition or drive does.
The danger is, if someone goes into the operating system tools and tried to allocate and format the unallocated partition. The unallocated partition is the pretend non existent space.
The fact you can see it in the system tools, shows you have a semi repair. The solution provided to you in the guide did not deal with the true issue, the reprogrammed controller chip.
So yes, the objective in fixing a usb flash drive, is to correct the information on the usb controller chip. For that a low level formatting tool for the chip vendor controller family is needed. If it is the right one, then it restores the controller chip and also the flash storage chip to the correct size.
So if you used the recommended repair path, and H2testw confirms all is well, when you go into the operating system tools for storage you will only see one partition. It will be of the true size. There will be no unallocated partition of fake size lurking in the dark.
This is why we are not keen on the fence solution. The fence solution contains a hidden problem, hides a danger.
If someone using say…Acronis for example sees the fence partition and the unallocated space. They might say what is this? All that free space not used? And resize. Or attempt to allocate and format the unused partition. If that is done, it is the end of the usb flash drive and it’s existing data.
We did a lot of testing on fakes. InspectorTech tried all sorts of crazy things to understand what was going on. He killed a lot of usb flash drives in the quest for potential solutions to offer the public.
You are lucky to have had an opportunity to be involved with the manufacturing of flash memory chips. It is interesting and some of us wish we had more time learn more.
The strict QC testing, is a large part of the cost factored in to a flash memory chips final price to ensure it meets the needed standards. Something most people are unaware of.
You are correct that chips that don’t meet standards find another life. Most of them find their way into the items people buy on eBay and products from wholesaler internet sites in the Orient, specifically China. It is a hugh market.
From confidential reports received by the Project, it is NOT a priority of the Chinese government to address.
Have a look at this article:
How Can You Spot Fake Flash Memory Chips? What Is the Key Factor That Determines If MP3 MP4 Players, USB Flash Drives Or Memory Cards Are Fake Capacity?
The short video presented by blueloyalpromo is very interesting too. As you worked in the flash chip manufacturering industry, what your opinion?
It is clear to all in the project, education and increased awareness at a global level is needed to help consumers protect themselves against acquiring fake memory products.
ITGuy said
I will add a few additional comments to the subject of “fixing / repairing” fake flash drives via partitioning. I would not recommend this a repair method unless you are willing to accept the possibilty of have your data corrupted some time in the future. You roll the dice and take your chances.
The reason I say this is the following:
-substandard chips are used in some of the fakes
-some of the methods of altering the chips involve disableing error detection
I seen a case with a partitioned fake flash drive, where the first test with h2testw showed the main partition to be OK. The second test showed the main partion to be bad. I then “safely removed” the flash drive and repeated the test and received the same result. Confusing? Not if you understand how the fake drive was created and “wear leveling algorthims”.
Roger said
Hi TechChips,
You misunderstood my comment about my past experience, it did not have to do with memory chips per’se, our circuits were much more complicated and were used with many other types to produce a product comprised of many chips and involved die attach, wirebond, laser adjusting parameters and final assembly, test, burn-in and environmental testing.
That said, I have viewed the short clip you referred me to and I agree with for the most part, however, I have actually had some good experiences on eBay. I have 2 32gb Sandisk cruzers that I got for less than $40 and they are authentic and full capacity, so that is to say that there are some good buys there. The stuff from China is pretty much all fake and as of late, I don’t quite know how they are doing it, are from USA locations, however if you ask questions of the sellers, you get email from someone with very bad english and obviously asian. Check out the 512gb usb drives now on ebay…512gb??? I called Sony and found out that they are fakes originating in Hongkong. When I questioned one of the sellers, he became irate when I pointed out that according to Sony, they had no such product, and the he went on to say that they did exist in his country….keep in mind, the item location was in California. I’m just waiting for some feedback to show up for his item so I can contact the buyer and ask them to test it.
Anyway, I do appreciate your enlightenment on the controller issue. For me, I’m probably pretty safe as nobody but me messes with my computers and peripherals, so I can deal with not trying to use the unallocated partition. I kind of look at is as free 4gb drives since I have been refunded on all of them and got to keep the drive. I will of course continue to follow the subject in hope that someday there will be clear cut procedures for correcting the controller. In the meantime, thanks to sosfakeflash and the information shared by you and others, I have become more educated and cautious in the matter.
JumpinJackFlash said
Ive was victim of over 50 MP4 players on Ebay from various unscrupulous sellers. What I have done with these to make them at least usable is to take the output of H2testW that states what is ok, for example 1.8GB OK I take 1800 x 1024 and use that number for my new partition. Since Windows is unable to deal with the partition I use Active Partition Manager, a freebie. Some players it can work on but others cause it to crash. For those that it works on I delete then recreate using that formula for the correct size in MB then reformat. They seem to work OK like this, Im just wondering if this is a real fix or a mask. I cant figure out how to reprogram the chip to the right size.
Thanks to all for your efforts, I am definitely part of the crusade now.
JumpinJackFlash said
As I stated in previous post, some of the MP4 players with the fake memory cause Active Partition manager to crash. Every partition manager Ive tried so far crashes including Gparted. Does anyone know of another that may work? Even after running a low level format on the memory it seems to not have done anything to it. Very strange. Appreciate any reponse.
Randy said
To JumpinJackFlash
MP player repair requires more than just pattitioning. The solution depends on the chipset.
The tool Chipgenius can be used to determine the chipset and thereby the family. In some cases it may be necessary to partially disassemble the device to visually identify the chipsets and obtain the board ID. For some players the board ID is critical to finding the correct system software and repair techniques.
How to Identify your player as S1mp3
http://wiki.s1mp3.org/Identify_your_player_as_S1mp3
How to identify your player as ANKYA
• CHIPGENIUS indicted AK3221/3222/3225
• Device included a camera
How to identify your player as Sigmatel
Supports SMV (SigmaTel Video) format
http://www.dansdata.com/usbmp3.htm
How to identify your player as RockChip
Chipgenius or connect it to the PC it says ROck mp3
How to Backup MP3 MP4 Player System software Links
http://mympx.org/forum/firmware/44464-easy-backup-ur-anyka-2-8-touchscreen-pmp.html
How to Repair MP3 MP4 Player Links
Format ANYKA http://bbs.mydigit.cn/simple/?t112276.html
Links to sites for futher info..
http://mympx.org/
Refer to sites…key sequence….to get into systems mode.
Ricky said
Hi,
My friend gave me a usb stick he got from ebay, anyway i ran H2testW and it said it has a capicity of 31.7GB as opposed to the 64GB written on the case and also advertised.
here are the details of the stick
PnP Device ID: VID = 0001 PID = 7778
Serial Number: 75DD499F
Revision: 8.00
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: Alcor
Chip Part-Number: FC8308
Product Vendor: (N/A)
Product Model: U
Writtne on the chips themselves
M166AAMDB3 M16M (BIG CHIP)
FC8508-1
A602859 (SMALL CHIP)
0950A3
Could some please help me out, my emails is rickyc_1988@hotmail.com
Thanks,
Ricky
The_Flash said
31.7GB? Are you sure it wasn’t something like 3.17GB? 😛
Seriously, now, though: I’m not a member of the team here, but I know that they are exceptionally busy, and I’m pretty sure that they probably don’t have the time to coach victims individually via e-mail. The resources on this site are provided so that people can help themselves.
Before you try anything, read this first: http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com/faq-read/
If you’ve read through that and still want to proceed, then read below…
You said your chip vendor is Alcor? You may want to read this: https://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/where-to-download-alcor-tools-to-fix-fake-usb-flash-drives/
I hope this helps you on your way.
Eldon said
Hi, I have a “16gB” mp4 player w/touch screen, camera, speaker, recorder etc. Seems to be an “Actions”? chip? and i can’t find the right software to reprogram it. It shows up in chipgenius as ATJ209X/ACU75XX/ATJ2063 chip but the REAL model (Printed on chip) is ATJ2237T and if anyone can help or has solved succeded with these I would appreciate it.
It also shows up as having vid-10d6 and PID-1101(In ChipGenius shows up as 2300 in windows properties)
so I am completely lost as to what if any fix there is and where to download it. I am inclined to belive that 2300 is the REAL PID, but would that mean that the VID is wrong too?
It seems to work perfectly but h2testw shows it is “likely to be defective” with less than 4GB.
Also found? firmware at this site: http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php%3Ftid%3D142970&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php%253Ftid%253D142970%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhjxliHYyfZF2HKOOWvYS_Ng8YfMkg
One last thing, does anyone know if JUST using it can wear it down until it is unusable? I.E. if I just use the radio or just boot it and don’t actually STORE files on it, will it be accessing the disk while operating and thus wear out? Oh, and if that DOES occur, CAN it still boot and let me use an SD card for mem?
This stuff sure gives me a headace so anybody that can has this problem or knows the solution please let me know. (And don’t buy from luohui84102010 on ebay- i think he probably has other aliases though.)
Thanks.
Farrside said
I used ‘ChipGenius’ to determin my flash key’s make and model etc which gave me the VID and PID along with the Chip part number so I could then download the right software to reformat my key. It turns out I needed UDiskTools 1.0.4.6. I’ve downloaded this software and included all my information here for anyone else who needs it. My only problem now is… I don’t know how to use UDiskTools.
Device Name: +[G:]+USB Mass Storage Device(USB2.0 Flash Disk USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 1221 PID = 3234
Serial Number: 1000000000000975
Revision: 2.40
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: micov(???)
Chip Part-Number: MXT8208
Product Vendor: USB2.0
Product Model: Flash Disk
To Download AMECO MXT8208 UDiskTools 1.0.4.6ols on Web: http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php?tid=72332