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[omega2018]

h2testw is the standard test for a fake ssd.  not heard of any fake being the right volume but just poor quality memory, could happen i suppose but i doubt fakers have the manufacturing capacity to make memory do they?

[aaronjb]

Thanks for that, STEMO - I must get into good habits for a change and empty my camera onto better storage media! I sometimes remember and transfer things onto my PC's hard drive, but as I have had failures there in the past, would DVDs be a better idea?

Ron.

Most media (DVD, flash, hard disks, tape (probably the most reliable)) is relatively unreliable, so if its important, hold multiple copies

A nice RAID6 array backed up to another RAID6 array with a copy in the cloud for good measure.  If it's really important.

Should only set you back about a grand..

(He says, with two 8-bay RAID6 arrays sitting in a rack at home  )

[TheBoy]

h2testw is the standard test for a fake ssd.  not heard of any fake being the right volume but just poor quality memory, could happen i suppose but i doubt fakers have the manufacturing capacity to make memory do they?

Its not THE standard test.  All it can do is ascertain if a device can store the data it claims it should be able to for a couple of minutes.  Virtually all fake flash now is the correct size (as cheap flash is so cheap), if you're buying fake memory that's only 8Gb now, its really old.

[TheBoy]

Thanks for that, STEMO - I must get into good habits for a change and empty my camera onto better storage media! I sometimes remember and transfer things onto my PC's hard drive, but as I have had failures there in the past, would DVDs be a better idea?

Ron.

Most media (DVD, flash, hard disks, tape (probably the most reliable)) is relatively unreliable, so if its important, hold multiple copies

A nice RAID6 array backed up to another RAID6 array with a copy in the cloud for good measure.  If it's really important.

Should only set you back about a grand..

(He says, with two 8-bay RAID6 arrays sitting in a rack at home  )

I'm back on local storage of the servers here. External iSCSI arrays, RAID 5 using hardware and battery backed accelerators, were just too slow 


I thought I had a pretty solid regime here....   ....right up until the day the flames were licking the house and was seconds away from losing the house.  In that very moment, it dawned on me that storing the LTO's about 3' from the server actually was quite a dumb thing to do

[zirk]

I use Crystal Mark on my own hard drives if there getting on a bit, must admit never tried to see if it works well on SD storage.

Most of the fake SD's on eBay range from, 'am I really that stupid to buy a upgraded 128gb card for £2.99' right up to some really good copies, namely SanDisk, Kingston, Samsung etc, which look really convincing in its fake retail packaging and will pass H2 testing as there the correct storage size, normally selling for around 30% cheaper then the original stuff. We don't too much of the good fakes over here due to the cost of exporting them compared to the easy Tourist Market over there, which is big business in Asia together with all the other counterfeited stuff that changes hands for a lot higher rip off value compared to sending it half way around the World.

[omega2018]

h2testw is the standard test for a fake ssd.  not heard of any fake being the right volume but just poor quality memory, could happen i suppose but i doubt fakers have the manufacturing capacity to make memory do they?

Its not THE standard test.  All it can do is ascertain if a device can store the data it claims it should be able to for a couple of minutes.  Virtually all fake flash now is the correct size (as cheap flash is so cheap), if you're buying fake memory that's only 8Gb now, its really old.

no it shows read and write speeds as well as capacity.  all the fakes i have found are fake capacity - which is the biggest problem as it means you will definitely lose data when trying to fill up a card. 

[zirk]

h2testw is the standard test for a fake ssd.  not heard of any fake being the right volume but just poor quality memory, could happen i suppose but i doubt fakers have the manufacturing capacity to make memory do they?

Its not THE standard test.  All it can do is ascertain if a device can store the data it claims it should be able to for a couple of minutes.  Virtually all fake flash now is the correct size (as cheap flash is so cheap), if you're buying fake memory that's only 8Gb now, its really old.

no it shows read and write speeds as well as capacity.  all the fakes i have found are fake capacity - which is the biggest problem as it means you will definitely lose data when trying to fill up a card.

Think your missing the point, the fake cards you seem to have come across are, updated, modified, upgraded, etc, what ever the current named cards eBay seems to allow fakers to dream up and get away with, ie, you buy a 64gb SD Card only to find it fails after a time when loaded with data, mainly due to it being a true 8gb card for example that is tricked formatted to say its more than 8gb.

That's in its very terms a very basic fake card, which eBay seems to allow, these can be H2 tested to tell you this, or a simple Windows format, then a reformat in fat16, 32, NTFS, or eFat will tell you other wise what the card should be formatted to the correct capacity.

As said, in an earlier post, that's the idiot buyer problem, the real problem is buying fake cards as in counterfeit cards, these are cards that look and are manufactured to the real deal, with the correct capacity and artwork details, your H2 test probably wont detect these cards as fake, and in all fairness the cards may work as described, but compared to high end manufacturing technology of the original manufactures are either, misfits, poor copies, rejected material etc.

As to your question of can they manufacture fake cards, yes they can, most of it comes out of Asia anyway, be it a proper iPhone 6 to a Nakamoki 2000 fake, interestingly go back 15 years, when fake DVD's where all the rage, some good some poor, some excellent, after a Global clampdown on Film Rights, turned out a lot of the good fake copies were actually coming out of the same factory as the originals, be it, back door, doggy hand shaking, lost or rejected material. 

[omega2018]

point is h2testw will show you the read and write performance of the memory as well as the true capacity.  defo there are fake capacities out there - this is the most common problem and most dangerous (if you try to fill the card you WILL lose data).

if the card is true capacity but still a fake (and i have to ask myself why would a faker bother with the true capacity when he can double his profit by using half, and i've never seen such a fake, but leaving that aside)

then h2testw will show you the memory is not original spec because it will perform slowly on the read and write figures that the test shows

now if you are saying someone out there is faking memory sticks but using the correct capacity of memory AND the correct read and write performance, and he's printing the packaging and the stick to match the original, then maybe you need a paranoia check.  you may be right but it seems a bit unlikely to me. if you are right then the only downside of the fake is reliability.  but then i wouldn't trust my data to any usb stick even a patriot without having a backup.

incidentally a format or formats will most often not show up a fake capacity, you need to physically read and write the data which is what h2testw does.

[05omegav6]

People choose the wierdest shit to argue the toss over...

[zirk]

point is h2testw will show you the read and write performance of the memory as well as the true capacity.  defo there are fake capacities out there - this is the most common problem and most dangerous (if you try to fill the card you WILL lose data).

if the card is true capacity but still a fake (and i have to ask myself why would a faker bother with the true capacity when he can double his profit by using half, and i've never seen such a fake, but leaving that aside)

then h2testw will show you the memory is not original spec because it will perform slowly on the read and write figures that the test shows

now if you are saying someone out there is faking memory sticks but using the correct capacity of memory AND the correct read and write performance, and he's printing the packaging and the stick to match the original, then maybe you need a paranoia check.  you may be right but it seems a bit unlikely to me. if you are right then the only downside of the fake is reliability.  but then i wouldn't trust my data to any usb stick even a patriot without having a backup.

incidentally a format or formats will most often not show up a fake capacity, you need to physically read and write the data which is what h2testw does.

Paranoia check, hmm, don't think its that bad, lets face we all like bargains, but sometimes can be a bit of a false economy, I'm sure with all been there at some point. 

You be surprised what the little burgers get up to in terms of faked goods, its not just one guy in a tin shed either, normally quiet largely organised. If they can make a few pennies on a 99p toy and go to the trouble of faked CE packaging without scruples, then I'm sure their happy enough to make 10/20 quid on fakes SD Memory. 

   

[zirk]

People choose the wierdest shit to argue the toss over...

Oh shut up,  , by the way Al, those lovely authentic Irmscher alloy wheels you sold me, turns out they where made of plastic. 

[05omegav6]

People choose the wierdest shit to argue the toss over...

Oh shut up,  , by the way Al, those lovely authentic Irmscher alloy wheels you sold me, turns out they where made of plastic. 

Best keep them out of sunlight and away from heat sources then

 

[Andy H]

point is h2testw will show you the read and write performance of the memory as well as the true capacity.  defo there are fake capacities out there - this is the most common problem and most dangerous (if you try to fill the card you WILL lose data).

if the card is true capacity but still a fake (and i have to ask myself why would a faker bother with the true capacity when he can double his profit by using half, and i've never seen such a fake, but leaving that aside)

then h2testw will show you the memory is not original spec because it will perform slowly on the read and write figures that the test shows

now if you are saying someone out there is faking memory sticks but using the correct capacity of memory AND the correct read and write performance, and he's printing the packaging and the stick to match the original, then maybe you need a paranoia check.  you may be right but it seems a bit unlikely to me. if you are right then the only downside of the fake is reliability.  but then i wouldn't trust my data to any usb stick even a patriot without having a backup.

incidentally a format or formats will most often not show up a fake capacity, you need to physically read and write the data which is what h2testw does.

Paranoia check, hmm, don't think its that bad, lets face we all like bargains, but sometimes can be a bit of a false economy, I'm sure with all been there at some point. 

You be surprised what the little burgers get up to in terms of faked goods, its not just one guy in a tin shed either, normally quiet largely organised. If they can make a few pennies on a 99p toy and go to the trouble of faked CE packaging without scruples, then I'm sure their happy enough to make 10/20 quid on fakes SD Memory. 

All these memory cards (and USB sticks) have a microcontroller inside that manages the memory allocations and do useful things like wear levelling.

The programming in these microcontrollers isn't made public (and definitely isn't made public in the fake cards). If the fakers are prepared to tweak a few bits to make the card lie about it's capacity then they won't be slow to add other features if they can (hidden self installer for Stuxnet anyone?)

Remember - just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you 

[TheBoy]

this is the most common problem and most dangerous (if you try to fill the card you WILL lose data).

I'd suggest the most dangerous is very low quality flash, rather than the capacity.

Fakers know its easy to test capacity quickly, even if they've programmed the flash controller to misreport size, and as cheap flash costs sod all, its not worth their while.

So they'll happily shove 64Gb of nasty flash (and a poor controller - why bother with intelligence on it), as it only costs pennies for the nasty stuff.

And because of the widespread myth that h2 can "detect" fake flash, and they can easily pass that test, this is the route they mostly take. Christ, some of them even include the tool preinstalled on the flash (unlike 2 or 3 years ago where some used to include a modified or lookalike version to hide the lack of capacity when flash was more expensive).

So I'm rapidly filling up my bin at work on a regular basis with supposed Sandisk and Kingston "branded" SD and USB sticks as people are begging me to recover their critical data on them.

No flash should be used as a medium/long term storage of important data, but educating people that is impossible until its too late.

So, no, I'd say the most dangerous is poor flash that does write and verify OK, but is incapable of storing it for any length of time, and/or with shitty controllers that wear out some of the flash cells prematurely (or both).

[Bigron]

TB, may I ask a question on an assocoated subject please?
A couple of years ago, my son bought me a 1.5 TeraByte Western Digital external hard drive for my birthday, which was great for a while - all that capacity! Then it failed, still under warranty and WD replaced it with an upgrade to a 2 TB version. This one also failed, but out of warranty and it cannot be read to extract data to transfer to another medium.
My son has read that it might be possible to go into the drive and connect it via a SATA lead directly? I know nothing of this, but if it's possible, how do I/we do it and what are the likely chances of successfully retrieving data fom the drive?
Sorry to intrude on this topic, but it would be great to get what is at present an expensive doorstop back!

Ron.