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32 GB fake stick example

Today, a rather interesting flash card was entered into the work - USB PEN-drive ADATA 32 GB. The device is remarkable in that it is practically new, bought just a few days ago, and after writing data to it, it stopped working. In the system, a USB flash drive is defined as a Generic USB Flash Disk USB Device, but when trying to access a device, its capacity is determined by the system as 0 bytes.

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Identification in the system of our fake flash drive

A close acquaintance with the device showed that it is a rather crude fake of the famous brand ADATA. Let's look at all the signs of "fake" of this flash drive.

Let's start with external signs. Pay attention to the print quality of the inscriptions on the case of the flash drive. Even a small increase is enough to see how carelessly the inscriptions are made. My particular attention was attracted by the print quality of the number “0” in the model name - a small “tail” is clearly visible near zero, which makes it look like the letter “Q”. At first I thought it was rubbish, but when I zoomed in, it turned out that it just flowed paint when printing the label.

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Appearance fake flash drive, with enlarged fragments of inscriptions

Another point that you need to pay attention to is the quality of the black rim between the case of the USB flash drive and the USB connector. The photo clearly shows that it is uneven, as if crumpled.

The original flash drive inscriptions on the case will be made clearly and without flaws, and all the plastic elements of the case will be smooth and even.

Let's look inside the flash drive. Here everything becomes even more obvious. First, the marking is erased from the NAND chip. Accordingly, it is impossible to recognize by marking which chip we are dealing with. Secondly, the controller of the flash drive is filled with a compound - accordingly, on which controller the flash drive is built, we will not know visually. And thirdly - the quality of the soldering. The elements are planted crookedly, the solder is applied unevenly, the flux is not completely washed off - the soldering obviously has nothing to do with the factory one.

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NAND chip fake flash drive. All markings erased

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The controller of our fake flash drive and the general form of soldering electronic components

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Enlarged images showing poor quality soldering of electronic components of our fake flash drive

Well, the control in the head. On the flash drive - the only NAND chip. We take it, unsolder, put in the NAND-reader of the PC-3000 Flash complex. We read the identifier of the microcircuit - this is TC58NVG5D2FTA00. 4 GB chip. 32 GB here and does not smell =).

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Identification of NAND chips from our fake flash drive using the PC-3000 Flash system

Choosing a flash drive, pay attention to any little things, especially related to the quality of the performance of its body, inscriptions, used plastic or other material. To run into a fake is very easy now, what will be inside is a lottery. Well, the life of fakes noticeably reduces optimism when using them.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/437460/