Repairing Counterfeit Flash Drives
Posted by KittyFireFlash on October 25, 2008
SOSFakeFlash has been asked by many victims of fake flash drive purchases – how to restore to the original true capacity? Electrostorm has provided excellent information to the tools you would need to deprogramme FrankenFlash.
See Repairing Counterfeit Fake MP Players For MP Players.
Mentioned previously (see: Did You Manage to Reprogramme a Fake Flash Drive Bought on eBay?), to repair a drive you need to know about the controller and the flash chips. To do this you need software that will provide this information. Once you have it, you need to find the right software to reflash the chip and perform the low level formatting of the drive. We are providing the links and steps submitted by Electrostorm. Understand that this could repair a fake – but not in all cases. You could lose the drive in attempting to repair – especially if you chose the wrong tool. Not all drives can be rescued and returned to their real capacity – but many have been.
electrostorm Says:
October 25, 2008 at 4:31
To restore most fake capacity USB flash memory devices.
Step 1:
Download chipgenius, this program will automatically detect an inserted flash drive and read out the 4 digit VID code and 4 digit PID code.
http://www.mydigit.cn/mytool/ChipGenius.rar
If you don’t have a software that can unzip the “rar” format, please get the software 7-zip from:
Step 2:
Go to the iFlash website and search for a matching VID and PID, download the corresponding software from the site.
http://www.flashboot.ru/index.php?name=iflash
Translated to English (recommended)
In most cases I have been able to use the software provided to reflash the controller chip and do a low level format and restore correct capacity.
Once you have repaired the drive using the steps and software above – you need to format the drive in your operating system. After operating system formatting you should once again test the capacity of the drive to ensure that you have truly succeeded. Use the tool H2testw 1.4 once more again. If you are able to write, read and verify without errors – you now have a flash drive you can store data on. It may be a lot smaller but the capacity will be real.
If you chose to try and repair your drive using the information presented here, please return and leave your feedback indicating your success or failure in returning a drive back to it’s original capacity.
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 
Paul said
Following a recomendation from somewhere else on this site, I found that by removing my laptop hard drive and using the Windows XP installation disk to boot I was able to reset both SD Memory cards and USB memory sticks to their true size previously determined by the h2testw. Window XP will not allow the memory to be formatted. To do this, once I resized the memory devices I then reinstalled the Hard Drive and reformated the memory using Windows XP. I’ve done this with 7 Devices and all pasted h2testw without error.
InspectorTech said
To Paul,
Glad to see the brute force approach worked. You’ve been struggling to repair a lot of fake flash devices for months. You managed to repair most of them with reflashing programmes. Only for some no reflashing software was available to do the job. And for those if this method worked, we have a potential solution now for the hopeless cases (no software to be found that will work).
Have you been able to do the balance of the outstanding?
If so I think we could write up a solution to post at the fixfakeflash site. The instructions you followed were left by another reader who wrote things up very nicely in detail.
Has anyone else tried it for the hopeless cases (no reflashing software to be found)?
The instructions are comment #78 on this post.
Paul said
To InspectorTech,
Yes I’ve been able to reformate all remaining drives with the approach above. Somehow it feels wronge to use this method as the drives are still basically fake. Windows XP only really partitioning the area of false memory out of use. If the SD cards were reformated in a digital camera they would again be back to their fake size. Until I have experience of how these drives work in use then I’m reluctant to say this method is the answer for all hopeless cases. For example, on one SD card I found I had to reformate the card serval times in Windows XP before I stopped getting write errors in the h2testw. I’ve tested this card serveral time since and it now passes without error. I still lack confidence that this card or some of the others with remain good. The C*core USB memory stick reformated without any problems.
In all my efforts over the last few months I’ve kill a number of devices so trying to reformate does runs risks but once done the drives then work fine.
Credit for the this method must go to another but I cant find his post to leave thanks.
As a warning, opening PC’s of Laptops runs the risk of their damage and/or electric shock so should not be tried unless you know what you are doing!
casper said
Hallo, everyone
Paul, can you explain more clearly how I should format my 2 USB disks on key (both 64GB, and both CCore). I have a usual PC (not laptop). I tried to use CCore utility but it is in Chinese, so I was unable to do with it anything.
Please help.
Thank you in advance.
Casper
kpkamath said
HI everyone,
I hav used a tool ONBELAY V2.exe demo version works very well.formatted new fake kingston 32GB (actualy sales Udisk with c*core ccm3108 controller)After formatting windows recognised it as 2gb.The 2GB available works very well.
Paul said
Hi Casper & kpkamath
In asnwer to Casper question, the guidance instructions are in Post No.78 above. This gives an excellent and detailed set of instructions. If you have any questions I woud be happy to help.
After a Google search I tried Kpkamath recommendation of ONBELAY V2.exe, (free demo download), this appears to work very well and was very easy to use on both SD memory cards and USB memory sticks. It appears from first impressions to be able reformate the drives partitioning the fake section out of use. Having tried it on a number of drives, again testing with h2testw it does the job. Well done kpkamath for finding the tool. The tool does not isolate bad sectors so if your drive has these then its still may not be usable but once you know from the h2testw where these are then you might be able to reformate the drive to a lower capacity to miss out the bad sectors using guidance in Post No 78. I’m not sure about bad sector issues as I dont know how windows read/writes to these.
From experience, if you can find the correct tool, such as those for Alcor, then these do appear to section out bad sectors. This may not be correct for all cases just the 10 or so drives I’ve tried then these do not appear to have any bad sectors.
Paul said
I’ve just had a further thought about the ONBELAY V2.exe programme. All the drives I formated ended up as 2GB even the 4GB SD cards that previously were good so there might be a 2GB limit. As fakes mainly come in two sizes 2GB or 4GB then possibly for 2GB drives use ONBELAY V2.exe and for 4GB drives use the HP tool.
InspectorTech said
About ONBELAY V2.exe and HP tool
These tools are an option when it is not possible to find or identify the right software reflashing tool to do a proper low level format to bring a flash drive, memory card or even an MP Player back to it’s real size.
The comment #78 is the solution option when there is just no other solution. It is advised a laptop be used rather as it is easier to get inside – PC machines take a lot of work to open and find the right cable to unplug for a hard drive.
As Paul said there may be limitations on the first to tools, but if you use H2testw 1.4 to find out what the real size is, that will help you decide on which of the two tools to try. Important to remember, though is that they just build a fence around the “good size” to prevent you from using the “fake size” – it is really a “reprogramming” of the reprogramming.
For counterfeit Sony Microvault – we haven’t seem many bigger than 1 GB in true size, most are really 512MB before formating. For countefeit Kingston – generally 1 GB to 4GB, nothing higher.
However, some no name brands – especially those alterned to appear, 32GB abd 64GB can really be 8GB drives (often two 4GB chips working together to behave and give 8GB true capacity).
Deciding which tool to try if you can’t find something should depend on what the real size is.
casper said
I used ONBELAY v2.exe. It formated the “64GB” usb to 2GB. After that I successfully copied a 800MB movie to the disk but I failed to watch it. Then I formated the disk back to 64GB in linux and checked it with h2testw. Test results were lamentable: 200MB are Ok, the rest is LOST DATA. I have 2 such usb and I think I won’t be able to use them safely.
Paul said
Hi Casper, what size did the h2testw give? that is the true size of disk. For the 16GB C*core drive I owned this was found to be 2GB, I then used Post 78 above to reformate it to 2GB and this again past the h2testw test. When I saw the post about the ONBELAY v2 tool I then tried again with this and again was reformated to 2GB and past the h2testw without problem. You should ignore Windows or linux size reading as the drives have been programmed to look larger than they are. Once you have reformated the drive to its true size found in h2testw (using whatever the most appropriate tool) it should be safe to use but should be use it with care until you have gained experience.
Achal Singh said
Device Name: +[F:]+USB Mass Storage Device(Generic Flash Disk 2.0 USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 5136 PID = 4678
Serial Number: 5&&21E739F&&0&&6
Revision: 2.30
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: micov
Chip Part-Number: MW6208
Product Vendor: (N/A)
Product Model: U
Tools on Web: http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php?tid=72332
Unable to download tool, the site requires registration (which is in chineese) before permission for download.
What do i do now??
Paul said
Hi Achal have you ckecked:
http://www.flashboot.ru/index.php?name=iflash&pagenum=24 for right tool. If still a problem
suggest download H2testw to determine size, then possiby use tools in Post 78 or 105 above.
huzaifa said
Device Name: +[H:]+USB Mass Storage Device(Generic USB Flash Disk USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 058F PID = 1234
Serial Number: 5&&23E2DC35&&0&&3
Revision: 7.76
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: Alcor
Chip Part-Number: AU6981~AU6983
Product Vendor: (N/A)
Product Model: (N/A)
Tools on Web: http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php?tid=48340
huzaifa said
I have a 32 GB kingston Data traveler,please help me out i cant format it coz it shows disk is write-protected.i downloaded the files required it shows ‘no flash disk’ what to do now
Wordsmith said
Hi,
Here is the report form the H2testw
The media is likely to be defective.
241.7 MByte OK (495053 sectors)
30.9 GByte DATA LOST (65008179 sectors)
Details:713.1 MByte overwritten (1460578 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
30.3 GByte corrupted (63547601 sectors)
241.7 MByte aliased memory (495053 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x0000000000000000
Expected: 0x0000000000000000
Found: 0x0000000600000000
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 13.0 MByte/s
Reading speed: 7.51 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
and the one from Chip Genius:
Device Name: +[E:]+USB Mass Storage Device(Generic USB 2.0 USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 0000 PID = 7777
Serial Number: AEC1A156D849
Revision: 8.00
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: Alcor(??)
Chip Part-Number: AU6983
Product Vendor: Generic
Product Model: (??:????U????????)
Tools on Web: http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php?tid=48340
I opened up the drive to see that square chip had AU6893HL wriiten, and the rectangular chip had
HVPC4F2
0646
in successive rows.
I tried Alcor releases of 081208 and 08092401, but none seemed to detect my drive. Any suggestions for how to proceed.
Wordsmith said
Update: I tried, Alcor, UDtools and mkdos methods, though these did not repair the drive but one of these seems to have disabled the Autoplay and also my devices are not showing up in system tray 😦
Wordsmith said
Here’s another update: Autoplay was perhaps a Windows Update thing, but devices not showing up in System tray is not soo cool 😦
Jayadeep said
hi
I have a kingston 34 GB data traveler .i found it is fake as files more than 1 GB get corrupted.I cant format it.If i use H2testw it says “Error accessing target”.
If I use chip genius then
Device Name: +[I:]+USB Mass Storage Device(Sales UDisk USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 0DD8 PID = E203
Serial Number: 6CBEF34612CC
Revision: 2.10
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: C*Core
Chip Part-Number: CCM3108
Product Vendor: (N/A)
Product Model: (N/A)
Tools on Web: http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php?tid=29232
well i cant understand anything in the chinese web site.
I hope someone will help me out soon
Thank you.
InspectorTech said
To Jayadeep
see: https://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/2008/10/25/repairing-counterfeit-flash-drives/#comment-763 there is a download there.
also for chinese, you can use google to translate a site.
Chip Vendor: C*Core
Chip Part-Number: CCM3108
Is very painful. Now all I found for flash drives and sizes connected to it through translation is:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://www.bdtic.com/DownLoad/Tech/00026.pdf&ei=I0C1SeCCOYSsMszHoccE&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DCCM3108%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dopera%26rls%3Den%26hs%3DpOi
If you can carefully open a drive and see if you have one of the chips – that will confirm the size reported by testing.
This is a very nasty one that needs solving. See the comment link for the software to see if it helps.
Paul said
Hi Jayadeep I’ve been waiting for some months to find the right programme to reflash my C*core drive, in the meantime I’ve got it work using post 78 and/or 106.
InspectorTech said
To Jayadeep and Paul
A tool was just send in for C*core – but it is only in chinese. It will need testing and will have to be posted at a share site. It needs testing. Paul, are you interested in trying it out based on info sent to SOSFakeflash, to see if it is the tool that would help solve. It might be the answer but for people to use, we need C*core drives for testing and how to interpret the chinese. Just the basic, press this, select that…and don’t go beyond. It worked for the person, but he found it difficult to use…
Paul said
Hi InspectorTech I’ve already tried one chinese tool “mpt 2.151” which saw the drive but was unable reprogramme, if you have another I will give it ago. There has been one around on a chinese web site for sometime but I’ve been unable to download because you have to register.
Kiran said
I bought a Kingston Data Traveler of 32GB from an unknown person & found it to be fake.
I have used check drive and found the size to be 4096MB.
Also used Chip Genius for finding the details and got them as below
Device Name: +[F:]+USB Mass Storage Device(Generic USB 2.0 USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 0000 PID = 7777
Serial Number: 2A5DBB070818
Revision: 8.00
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: Alcor
Chip Part-Number: AU6986
Product Vendor: (N/A)
Product Model: (N/A)
I opened up the drive to see that square chip had AU6893HL written, and the rectangular chip had
HVPB3F1
0607
I have tried
MPTool-2007103-Fix-Usb-key, AlcroMP-080829, AlcorMP(080424)_AlcorMP_AU698X, AlcorMP 6.18 & UdTools1.0.4.0B_20080714 but couldn’t succeed as none of them recognized.
Guys please help me out if some has any solutions for the same.
Wordsmith said
Any updates for me InspectorTech ?
Paul said
Hi Kiran and wordsmith, it clear you both have alcor driver chips, from experience of reprogramming a number of these, if one Alcor tool does not work try another until you find the right one. From memory I think there are upto 10 reprogramme tools in the alcor range. This can take quite sometime and can be very frustrating. You will find the right one in the end just keep going!
Paul said
Hi fightflashfraud, after I bought a number of these drives and then finding out later they were fake I had the option of throwing them away (at a total loss) or making best use by fixing them. When I started to fix them I enjoyed the challenge and the sense of achievement when the drives then became useable!
Wordsmith said
I agree with your idea FightFlashfraud, and have begun the pursuit too almost 2 weeks back, I marked two adverts on two seperate classifieds(buying/selling) Indian sites as misleading or related.
Jayadeep said
Thnkx to InspectorTech and Paul for your help.
I tried the software in the first link
though it is in chinesse i found a remark of 512MB and also the list in the second link also confirmed that my drive had a capacity of 512MB.But when i format using the HP tool it says “Failed To Format”.
I also tried the post #78 method but the windows CD shows a unformatted partition of 64MB.Moreover H2testw tool isn’t working on this drive so i cant even know whether it is working.
when i format the drive to 512MB using method 78 i cant copy a file of 200MB.
acura said
I have two flash disks I need to try an figure out the actual size:
This one is supposed to be a 16GB USB device:
Device Name: +[I:]+USB Mass Storage Device(USB2.0 Flash Disk USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 1221 PID = 3234
Serial Number: 000000001D7D
Revision: 2.20
And this one is supposed to be 1GB:
Device Name: +[I:]+USB Mass Storage Device(Generic USB Flash Disk USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 3538 PID = 0054
Serial Number: 20071500000026
Revision: 0.00
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: USBest(??)
Chip Part-Number: UT163
Product Vendor: aigo(???)
Product Model: ????????
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: Ameco(???)
Chip Part-Number: MXT8208
Product Vendor: USB2.0
Product Model: Flash Disk
I could not find specifics on how or where to do this. I found several versions of UDTools, but they seemed to detect either nothing or always the same answer no matter what was connected. There was no button for my drives.
InspectorTech said
To acura
For MXT8208 please see: http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/mxt8208-vid-1221-pid-3234-repair-fake-flash-drive-solution/#more-35
For the other two we don’t recognize them. So that means if you can, take the drives apart carefully. Look to see what the little square flash chip is, that is the controller – write down then full information. Then look for the long black chip, this is your flash drive chip, write that down. The controller will tell you what software you must look for. Let us know what you find.
Marcelo said
Hello, I bought a Kingston Data Traveler of 32GB and sadly it is a fake;(
I used Chip Genius for finding the details and got them as below
Can u guys help me?
Device Name: +[K:]+USB Mass Storage Device(No Name Flash Disk USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = DC08 PID = EF0B
Serial Number: 69258DC2A1B2
Revision: 2.40
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: (No match record)
Chip Part-Number: (No match record)
Product Vendor: No
Product Model: Name Flash Disk
Tools on Web: (N/A)
acura said
Ok, thanks. I have another one which is supposed to be 8GB. UDTools did not recognize it.
Device Name: +[H:]+USB Mass Storage Device(Generic USB Flash Drive USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 1043 PID = 8012
Serial Number: 5&&2F8CEB14&&0&&3
Revision: 1.00
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: iCreate(??)
Chip Part-Number: i5128
Product Vendor: Generic
Product Model: USB Flash Drive
acura said
Ok, I have another device. This one was an MXT6208, so I tried UDTools (the one for the MXT8208). It seemed to detect it, so I tried formatting it. However, it seemed to detect it improperly formatting it with nearly half errors. Now I know that is what it does when formatting with the incorrect format information. So now it ruined the drive. Thanks.
Device Name: +[H:]+USB Mass Storage Device(USB2.0 Flash Disk USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 2008 PID = 2018
Serial Number: 001419
Revision: 2.10
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: Ameco(???)
Chip Part-Number: MXT6208
Product Vendor: USB2.0
Product Model: Flash Disk
acura said
Yes, I was going along.. Getting excellent, factuated… building wonderous results. Then all of a sudden, it seemed to miss-detect a drive. Is there anyway to restore it, other than breaking it open?
Device Name: +[H:]+USB Mass Storage Device(USB2.0 Flash Disk USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 2008 PID = 2018
Serial Number: 001419
Revision: 2.10
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: Ameco(???)
Chip Part-Number: MXT6208
Product Vendor: USB2.0
Product Model: Flash Disk
InspectorTech said
To have a flash drive shrink to have of it’s size is not unusual. If the quality of the chip is bad, very possible.
MXT6208 is is a fun one. I had 19 to fight with. I got final sizes of anywhere from 512Mb to 1.9 GB. The controller may be the same for all, but not the flash chip used. Remember, fakes use grade C and grade D. They are sold on black and grey market by the pound not by the chip.
When in doubt you have to open the drive and decode. There are cases where the reprogammer put in any old VID or PID info. They are not all smart or careful counterfeiters.
MXT8208 and MXT6208 are controllers in a family. Normally the lastest tool can detect which one and also the latest has a larger list of flash drive chips it can recognize.
Micov and AMECO are the same. Micov is earlier and now it is AMECO.
The best thing is to use the http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com/ site and go through the categories etc and use the search box to see what is there. That is why the site was created, for known solutions. Solutions that people sent in.
Otherwise you have to go the Russian site and begin searching for information and tools.
Attempting to repair involves risk. There is no guarantee of success. Most succeed but some do not. That is why it is important to try and find the correct tool.
Anyone who accepts the repair challenge needs to pursue it from the point of view – the drive is no good, ready for the trash bin. Useless. So with nothing to lose for a junk item, giving it a try might lead to having a useable flash drive.
Everyone needs to be very clear on something.
A repaired flash drive is not like a flash drive that has never been tampered with – digitally alterned
It should NEVER EVER be fully trusted again, even if you can repair it and it passes H2testw. Always make sure you have a back of of files transferred to it.
Also using the wrong tool can cook the flash drive. Reflashing and reflashing the drive is a no no. Flash drive chips are not like hard disks. They don’t like being reflashed and reformatted at a low level over and over again. They are normally only low level formated once in their life time when they are being prepared in the factory so they can receive a high level format. High level formatting can be repeated as needed, but remember…it also causes wear leveling.
For chip vendors other than: Micov and AMECO – they tend to have very specific tools for the low level formatting. Also these tools take into consideration the flash chips produced in the time range the controller was also released on the market.
Only engage in the repair adventure if you understand the above and are in the frame of mind – you have nothing to lose and maybe something to gain.
InspectorTech said
To Marcelo
Your only hope is to try and take it apart carefully. Little square chip is controller, long chip is flash drive. The most important info is the controller, that will tell you what software you need to try and locate.
Marcelo said
It says:
C*Core
CCM3110
acura said
Ok, so I have been getting wonderous productivity. However, I am still missing checks for the following, and UDTools conviently does not recognize them.
Chip Vendor: USBest(??)
Chip Part-Number: UT163
Chip Vendor: iCreate(??)
Chip Part-Number: i5128
InspectorTech said
To Acura
Proceed to google and begin researching UT163. Let us know your findings and the results of your hunt.
For i5128 do visit the http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com as I asked. The information is there – by a fake flash victim who took the time to write up and share his solution.
InspectorTech said
To Marcelo
You have the dreaded chip.
C*Core
CCM3110
VID=DC08 PID=EF0B
Checked and we might have something. Will ask the webmaster for your email address and will send you something to try if you are brave. The software is in chinese only. One of the reasons it has not been posted anywhere. Stand by to be contacted soon. If the tool works if you could document so we can share with a nice solution post at the fixfakeflash site a lot of people could be helped with this one.
Marcelo said
It didnt work ;/
I’ve tried 9832587 fu*ing times and nothing :S
acura said
What ever happened to the FORMAT utility? I’ve been around a long time, FULL FORMAT used to always FORMAT/VERIFY and mark BAD BLOCKS. Should a drive pass the FORMAT, then it was usually usable and BAD BLOCKS were marked off limits. It would also report “TRYING TO RECOVER” where it found anything severe. As several BAD BLOCKS meant it was probably time to replace the HDD. We always used FULL FORMAT to determine if the drive was even usable. Another utility was used to visually report where the BAD BLOCKS were to determine drive REPLACEMENT. Basically, UDTOOLS does that now on CERTAIN USB MEMORY DRIVES. However, for the average computer operator that seems like more work than necessary.
InspectorTech said
Hard disks, that was a technology easier to understand. Or so I would seem to think, it’s been many years since, bits, bytes, sectors and blocks.
Flash based technology works differently and I am struggling to catch up on the subject. At the moment I don’t have the time, to dig in deep. I can say it works differently and depending on the chip there is something called “reserved cells” and banks and so on.
What is clear is that the quality of the chip matters – Grade A or B? Or those nasty C and D that end up in fakes. Also the controller chip for the flash drive chip(s).
The low level formatting used by udtools etc…should take care of things. However, it depends on how well it understand the flash drive chip it is working on. The fact that the chips are grade C and D don’t help. If grade D, there is no guarantee that the identified chip is really the chip used. Not funny.
What I have also seen, is that flash drive chips don’t like being subjected to repeated low level formats. Using the wrong tool or having the ecc (error correction) open can destroy the flash chip and I think mess the controller chip too.
I am guilty of having tortured my fakes in many experiments to see what is going on. Many died and some are very healthy.
Trying to repair fakes is a challenge. The results of high level formats depend on how good the low level reformatting was.
What is clear is that flash drive chips are NOT like the old traditional hard disks. Different pricipals seem to operate. Information is being collected on the subject and it is interesting to see that genuine brand name sites for usb flash drives in FAQ’s in response to people asking for a recovery service for a usb flash drive, they all say there is none. Hmmmm…
The last thing to point out, hard disks wear out and flash drive chips can too. They have a life expectancy. FlashChipTutor will have to write some more articles on the subject but everyone is very tired right now. The day jobs in difficult times.
We could use help on info collection for the subject of flash chips, usb flash drives and so on. People are welcome to help out, find the internet sites and url addresses and send them in to sosfakeflashdrive@gmail.com Articles too if you have a tech slant…
acura said
I actually find memory drives easier to understand than HDDs. However, having been around a while I know HDDs fairly. Stepping back, however, looking at the overview I find memory drives easier to understand on general principal. There are still BAD BLOCKS on a memory drive which even UDTools marks as BAD or FUZZY.
The format command still writes blocks on the drive (only structural) and should verify that after written. Therefore I would think it would find it. However, I know of fast format utilities that would format without verify for speed. My only question is that what Microsoft has done to format? That is dangerous, people who have been around a long time relied on FORMAT to find and mark BAD BLOCKS/SURFACES… Memory should be no different, it still has file system blocks like NTFS or even FAT (uggg). Of course, it may be possible for the controller chip to report everything ok to FORMAT even though it is not. Which is obviously what it does (this is easily determined by copying a file, the files system thinks it was copied and everything is fine – not verified though). Again, I would think the verify (in the FORMAT operation) would attempt to read the BLOCK and find it non-functional, unless of course there is no verify. With no verify, FORMAT would get “OK” from the controller and move on to the next block.
Akutra Cea
acura said
Worse, many of the drive will test fine by the basic test of copying a small file. It’s when one gets to the higher memory addresses (or lower depending on the controller) were the errors begin. When one tries to actually read the file stored in high memory locations (fictitious ones) lots of errors. Then one is like, ok I guess that file wasn’t really up there.
Paul said
From comments and own experience, reprogramming fake drives just make best use of something that would be thrown away. I use mine for making MP3 music files to play in the car, if they stopped working its not the end of the world. Its very annoying to think about how much these cost in the first place and what they are now worth but thats life. Reprogramming offers some satisfaction in that you have match the pirates in being able to recover something useful. I’ve reprogrammed a number of drives so far and once done they are all still good so I thinks its worth a try. Some are harder to reprogramme than others. In my view those with Alcor control chips are the easist the rest get harder but can still be done if you keep going.
As a note of warning, one reprogramming tool I found for C*core contained a virus which brought my PC to a full stopped and left me with having to do a complete reinstall to get up and running again.
RUNWAYMODEL5 said
Hello, Eeveryone!
I am a Ebay victim of fraud from a Hong Kong seller who sold me a Kingston 32GB USB drive traveler. After having it encrusted in expensive Swarovski crystals and removing 3 GB from 2 memory cards from my camera and moving onto the USB drive. The ONLY photos that were available for viewing were the first 35 photos and videos I moved from 1 of 2 camera memory cards.
I saw that all my other 300 photos and videos were GONE! It showed my files and titles, but there was BLANK PAGES. I cant view my photos or videos. I pulled everything off the drive and placed it on my hard drive and I’m still unable to retrieve any data that was saved/moved to the drive. Everything looks as though its been erased. All my folders/ files showed that it had the same size, 16KB. HOW CAN THAT BE? 10 Folders, each with about 35 to 50 photos in each one, all be the same size and Im unable to retrieve and view any?
Does anyone know how I can retieve all my original photos that I moved from my memory card to the flash drive or if I can retrieve the photos I pulled of the flash drive and placed back on my computer? I just want my phots and videos back. I precious moments and memories that aare now lost/erased. VERY VERY important family photos that I have NO COPIES OF. Can someone PLEASE, PLEASE help me?
Thanks.
Tomy Joseph said
Hi I m trying to fix the issues with a kingston 32 GB which i believe a fake as working improperly
Below is the out put I received on chipgenius. I m confused which one i ahve to choose from these aas none of them matches its size 32 gb / actual size. Could you please help me on this.
Device Name: +[J:]+USB Mass Storage Device(USB2.0 Flash Disk USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 1221 PID = 3234
Serial Number: 100000000000037B
Revision: 2.30
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: Ameco
Chip Part-Number: MXT8208
Product Vendor: (N/A)
Product Model: (N/A)
Tomy Joseph said
Sorry I missed one thing. I tried in Iflash site with Chip part no MXT8208 and got some results and is got confused which software i have to download and test. Below is the search result
Device Name: +[J:]+USB Mass Storage Device(USB2.0 Flash Disk USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 1221 PID = 3234
Serial Number: 100000000000037B
Revision: 2.30
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: Ameco
Chip Part-Number: MXT8208
Product Vendor: (N/A)
Product Model: (N/A)
InspectorTech said
To RUNWAYMODEL5
Your story is why we are here and why we fight the issue with the websites! Your loss is the issue!
If you first copied everything from the memory card to your computer, did you then do a move of the files from your computer to the usb drive or did you do a copy to the usb drive and then later delete the files from your hard disk?
If you did a move, trying to recover the files from the hard disk is not very promising.
If you copied from your hard disk to the usb drive, and then deleted from your hard disk – see your recycle bin to check if the files are still there. If so do a restore. If they are gone, stop using the computer immediately and get somebody techie to help you. Ask them to see if they can run forensic software to find the deleted files on the hard disk, they might be able to recover some.
If you copied directly from the memory card to the usb drive, they are gone for good.
This is very sad. The whole thing about fake flash is this:
The flash chip has a real size. Perhaps 1GB or 2GB. When it is reprogrammed, to lie about it’s size it appears larger. What happens is that space is reserved to record information about the files. So yes, you see folders and directories and you see file names. It looks like everything is there. It is only when you try to access a file you get an error.
The reason you get an error is because the file is NOT on the usb flash drive. Once you exceed the real capacity – there is no place to put the file. It was never copied to the flash drive. It only “Looks” like it was copied. So this is not a data corruption issue really. You can’t make the usb flash drive chip restore the photos and images. They are not on the flash drive. So there is nothing to recover from it.
You have only two potential sources: The memory card or the hard disk depending on the situation. You need to get someone who is very technical to try and help you find out if there is anything that could be recovered from either the memory card or the hard disk. The usb flash drive of no use since the files never went there.
You are not alone RUNWAYMODEL5, many eBayers have suffered your situation. It is horrible!
Let us know if you can find someone to help you see if there are files you could save.