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A few sellers on eBay are honest Description: This item is upgraded by 32 GB Pen Flash Drive to 2TB 32GB-2TB, the actual capacity is 32G, the computer di

A few sellers on eBay are honest Description: This item is upgraded by 32 GB Pen Flash Drive to 2TB 32GB-2TB, the actual capacity is 32G, the computer displays 2TB, the detection is also 2TB, more than 32G things can be stored, but not displayed. https://www.ebay.com/itm/234810575961 That's not bad. Most counterfeits I get are just 2GB so hardly useful. Still, the counterfeit firmware makes compatibility issues more likely, so better to buy one without the counterfeiting.

p51-remorse 2y ago
Is there any reason I would deliberately purchase one of these over a standard 32GB drive? Trying to think of if there’s a case where I would want to trick some hardware into thinking it has a 2TB drive when it really doesn’t?
- floam 2y ago
  btrfs unable to accommodate further writes but not logically full, needs more space to start deleting stuff. YOLO
dns_snek 2y ago
> more than 32G things can be stored, but not displayed. That's certainly an interesting way to phrase it. I use /dev/null for a similar purpose with the added benefit that it can store petabytes of data, but sadly we don't have the technology to display it yet.
- betagammaxyz 2y ago
  Lol. That's up there with the [1-bit Bloom filter](https://www.xkcd.com/2934/ https://www.xkcd.com/2934/)
KomoD 2y ago
But why would anyone want a fake 2TB though? Surely they write this to cover their ass when people don't read the entire listing.
- BuildTheRobots 2y ago
  Makes backups cheap and easy. Also if you _know_ it won't restore, you stop worrying about whether it might or not.
- dwighttk 2y ago
  what you are buying is a piece of paper with a picture of an XBox360 on it
hex4def6 2y ago
The issue is that if you exceed the (invisible) limit, you start overwriting the existing data. That's Bad (TM), since there's no indication that it's happening, until you attempt to retrieve the data and discover it's corrupted.
- axiolite 2y ago
  The subject of this topic, f3, will quickly probe the drive, determine the true size, and create a partition on it of the actual usable size. Using that partition, you will never lose any data. If you try to create a partition in the rest of the drive, it will be immediately corrupted, no tools will show it as good, you won't ever be able to get around to putting data on it to lose it.
  - dspillett 2y ago
    > will quickly probe the drive Some scam SSDs are smaller drives with hacked controller firmware that is bright enough to avoid detection with quick scans - you have to write beyond the real capacity then re-read to confirm corruption.
    - axiolite 2y ago
      Have you found cases where "f3probe --destructive" didn't work for you?
      - dspillett 2y ago
        Not first hand, though I've used tools of similar intent and found the quick heuristics, while usually very good, not 100% reliable, and for storage I want to be sure not almost certain. Note that I was warning about quick tests, I'll have to try “f3probe --destructive” on something next time I have some playtime to see whether I'd consider that quick! Of course, it could be much quicker than the full capacity write some tools use to find a defective or deceptive drive¹² but quicker and quick aren't the same. If a quick test says the drive is fake then it is, and many fakes can be detected these ways, but it takes more to convincingly state a drive isn't fake. -- [1] Only a little over true capacity should be needed for that, in the case where writes to anywhere up to capacity will work (which is common as creating a filesystem more complex than FAT/exFat often requires activity similar to what quick write/read heuristics do).
fsckboy 2y ago
>A few sellers on eBay are honest no, that's not honest, farthest thing from it, that's what makes it an actual scam. by having that in the fine print, you can't return it, and they won't be flagged.
- axiolite 2y ago
  You can certainly return an item if the title of the listing was inaccurate. In my experience, eBay won't "flag" dishonest sellers of counterfeit storage products, anyhow. I tried to get a listing selling counterfeit Samsung micro SD drives taken down, but eBay did nothing. I was refunded, but the unsuspecting will continue to be duped.
- bzzzt 2y ago
  I don't think buyers of these SSDs want to return it. The only reason to buy such an SSD is to resell it. Effectively they are enabling other scammers.
dataflow 2y ago
In what world is a title that says 2TB for a 32GB drive "honest"? Is your view that a lie becomes honest as long as you add some truths after it?
- axiolite 2y ago
  It's a fact of life that titles can't always be a fully accurate description of the whole subject. Otherwise we wouldn't need the part that comes after the title...
  - dataflow 2y ago
    > It's a fact of life that titles can't always be a fully accurate description of the whole subject. It's also a fact of life that there is a gigantic amount of room between "not fully accurate" and "blatant lie"
PhasmaFelis 2y ago
> more than 32G things can be stored, but not displayed "Honest"?
cjbgkagh 2y ago
They’re suppliers to other scammers
marcosdumay 2y ago
> 2GB so hardly useful I used to buy 2GB drivers all the time. The only reason I stopped is because it's hard to find anybody selling them. It's plenty of space for a portable drive, it's enough for a Linux installation, it has lots and lots of uses. But I wouldn't buy a 2GB driver that pretends to be larger. At least not willingly.
- axiolite 2y ago
  > It's plenty of space for a portable drive, it's enough for a Linux installation RHEL9 installer is 10GB.

p51-remorse 2y ago

Is there any reason I would deliberately purchase one of these over a standard 32GB drive? Trying to think of if there’s a case where I would want to trick some hardware into thinking it has a 2TB drive when it really doesn’t?

floam 2y ago
btrfs unable to accommodate further writes but not logically full, needs more space to start deleting stuff. YOLO

dns_snek 2y ago

> more than 32G things can be stored, but not displayed. That's certainly an interesting way to phrase it. I use /dev/null for a similar purpose with the added benefit that it can store petabytes of data, but sadly we don't have the technology to display it yet.

betagammaxyz 2y ago
Lol. That's up there with the [1-bit Bloom filter](https://www.xkcd.com/2934/ https://www.xkcd.com/2934/)

KomoD 2y ago

But why would anyone want a fake 2TB though? Surely they write this to cover their ass when people don't read the entire listing.

BuildTheRobots 2y ago
Makes backups cheap and easy. Also if you _know_ it won't restore, you stop worrying about whether it might or not.
dwighttk 2y ago
what you are buying is a piece of paper with a picture of an XBox360 on it

hex4def6 2y ago

The issue is that if you exceed the (invisible) limit, you start overwriting the existing data. That's Bad (TM), since there's no indication that it's happening, until you attempt to retrieve the data and discover it's corrupted.

axiolite 2y ago
The subject of this topic, f3, will quickly probe the drive, determine the true size, and create a partition on it of the actual usable size. Using that partition, you will never lose any data. If you try to create a partition in the rest of the drive, it will be immediately corrupted, no tools will show it as good, you won't ever be able to get around to putting data on it to lose it.
- dspillett 2y ago
  > will quickly probe the drive Some scam SSDs are smaller drives with hacked controller firmware that is bright enough to avoid detection with quick scans - you have to write beyond the real capacity then re-read to confirm corruption.
  - axiolite 2y ago
    Have you found cases where "f3probe --destructive" didn't work for you?
    - dspillett 2y ago
      Not first hand, though I've used tools of similar intent and found the quick heuristics, while usually very good, not 100% reliable, and for storage I want to be sure not almost certain. Note that I was warning about quick tests, I'll have to try “f3probe --destructive” on something next time I have some playtime to see whether I'd consider that quick! Of course, it could be much quicker than the full capacity write some tools use to find a defective or deceptive drive¹² but quicker and quick aren't the same. If a quick test says the drive is fake then it is, and many fakes can be detected these ways, but it takes more to convincingly state a drive isn't fake. -- [1] Only a little over true capacity should be needed for that, in the case where writes to anywhere up to capacity will work (which is common as creating a filesystem more complex than FAT/exFat often requires activity similar to what quick write/read heuristics do).

fsckboy 2y ago

>A few sellers on eBay are honest no, that's not honest, farthest thing from it, that's what makes it an actual scam. by having that in the fine print, you can't return it, and they won't be flagged.

axiolite 2y ago
You can certainly return an item if the title of the listing was inaccurate. In my experience, eBay won't "flag" dishonest sellers of counterfeit storage products, anyhow. I tried to get a listing selling counterfeit Samsung micro SD drives taken down, but eBay did nothing. I was refunded, but the unsuspecting will continue to be duped.
bzzzt 2y ago
I don't think buyers of these SSDs want to return it. The only reason to buy such an SSD is to resell it. Effectively they are enabling other scammers.

dataflow 2y ago

In what world is a title that says 2TB for a 32GB drive "honest"? Is your view that a lie becomes honest as long as you add some truths after it?

axiolite 2y ago
It's a fact of life that titles can't always be a fully accurate description of the whole subject. Otherwise we wouldn't need the part that comes after the title...
- dataflow 2y ago
  > It's a fact of life that titles can't always be a fully accurate description of the whole subject. It's also a fact of life that there is a gigantic amount of room between "not fully accurate" and "blatant lie"

PhasmaFelis 2y ago

> more than 32G things can be stored, but not displayed "Honest"?

cjbgkagh 2y ago

They’re suppliers to other scammers

marcosdumay 2y ago

> 2GB so hardly useful I used to buy 2GB drivers all the time. The only reason I stopped is because it's hard to find anybody selling them. It's plenty of space for a portable drive, it's enough for a Linux installation, it has lots and lots of uses. But I wouldn't buy a 2GB driver that pretends to be larger. At least not willingly.

axiolite 2y ago
> It's plenty of space for a portable drive, it's enough for a Linux installation RHEL9 installer is 10GB.