Page 1 of Fake Britain (memory sticks)

Quite an eye opener this week with fake memory sticks.

Memory sticks that have less memory than that advertised.
Quite a lot found on Ebay, selling cheaply at 32GB but really only 8GB or even 4GB.

Your computer is even fooled by its software into displaying 32GB on screen, but once you add data, it just overwrites what's on it.

Also and is even more expensive to your pocket, fake portable hard drives.

Showed a guy bought over the internet a  half priced (£64) 4inch by 4inch portable hard drive, it was found to be the correct heavy weight when it was in his hand, but once the case was physically opened it was actually a 4GB memory stick with two large metal bolts glued in to give it weight.

So the moral is when buying memory sticks or drives, is to get it from a reputable store or source.

Quote:
bandicoot says...
" two large metal bolts glued in to give it weight."
The Chinese have been doing that for years




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Writer`s Release

I bought an unbranded USb stick from ebay via hong kong. I was a "victim", as they say if it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

I think I bought a 32gb stick for what 8gb usually cost here from reputable sellers. so when it stopped working after not long, I put it down to experience.

I seem to remember being more annoyed with myself than anything else, 'cos I had filled it up with tv shows to watch in the evenings when I had to go away with work for a few days, when I plugged it in, all the file names were corrupt :(

Look on the bright side .....The two large bolts might come in useful for something 

All you need is the nuts.

so if I see this on eBay for a fiver I should avoid then?

Quote:
bandicoot says...
"All you need is the nuts."Look closer at Pete's picture - they're often included.

Ste

To be fair, this should really be filed under 'No sugar Sherlock'.







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Quote:
Chris Gould says...
"To be fair, this should really be filed under 'No sugar Sherlock'."
Actually, not quite so obviously fake!

I bought a 32GB micro SDHC card last week off ebay, from a UK seller (http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/rocky_189), Samsung branded for £9. I deliberately bought a branded card rather than a generic one.

That isn't insanely lower than prices elsewhere from reputable retailers like Dabs.

It looks Samsung branded, it even has a hologram type sticker on the card itself. So I thought it would be ok.

The first 8GB was ok, after that not so good! Heres a test I did on it with a utility the moment I noticed odd behaviour:

Quote:
Warning: Only 18497 of 31991 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
1.0 GByte OK (2165504 sectors)
17.0 GByte DATA LOST (35716352 sectors)
Details:0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
17.0 GByte corrupted (35716352 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x0000000000000008
Expected: 0x0000000000000011
Found: 0x0000000000000000
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 3.19 MByte/s
Reading speed: 9.02 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
If you want to test a card this is a good utility:
http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/h2testw/

It basically writes data to fill up the drive and verifies it, so if the card really isn't the capacity it says it is, you'll know by the time it is finished.

DO NOT use this on a card with data you haven't backed up, some fake cards will overwrite existing data once you go over the actual real limit.

Reported to ebay, I suspect they'll refund the money. In the meantime, I've gone to Dabs and spent another £4 for a Kingston.


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Someone posted a 64gb usb flash drive on HotDealsUK last night that was listed on eBay for £2:99. I clicked the link & it was £2:99.
Didn't order one, losing my data is more important to me than saving a few quid.
If anyone is looking for a usb flash drive, MyMemory are selling an own brand 128gb usb 3.0 for around £25.
The price has been yo-yoing a bit in the last few times I've looked, anyway here's the link-http://www.mymemory.co.uk/USB-Flash-Drives/MyMemory/MyMemory-128GB-USB-3.0-Flash-Drive---Red

The words 'eBay' and 'memory sticks' just don't work for me. Too many Asian knock-offs sold on the site and some of the fakes look pretty convincing.







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