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Amazon's problems with fraudulent memory products were well documented in 2023 when GRC published their test results for a dozen such drives purchased from the

Amazon's problems with fraudulent memory products were well documented in 2023 when GRC published their test results for a dozen such drives purchased from the site. In response, GRC developed a free program, called "ValiDrive", to scan and test drives for this growing problem. ValiDrive performs a quick, random-sequence spot-check across the drive's entire declared storage space. At every location it verifies the successful storage and retrieval of random (unspoofable) test data. https://www.grc.com/validrive.htm https://www.grc.com/validrive.htm The program has been extensively tested, is freely downloadable and comes from a well respected site with a long history in the security business. Steve Gibson announced this development in 2023 and it has been downloaded over 600,000 times. https://www.grc.com/freepopular.htm https://www.grc.com/freepopular.htm In addition to this effort, Steve has been creating an in-depth weekly podcast called "Security Now" for over 20 years. An archive of all 1039 podcasts and transcripts can be found online where they are freely downloadable. https://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm https://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm

pipes 1y ago
Excellent! I wanted to check a new SD card I bought from Amazon. It's pretty much the best as card available for use with a steam deck, yet often it needs to be reinserted which is making me suspicious
accrual 1y ago
I know Steve Gibson as the author of "Trouble in Paradise", a tool for validating and testing zip disks and drives back in the day. He even aired on one of G4 TV's tech channels once. This guy knows and loves testing storage.
p1mrx 1y ago
ValiDrive is Windows-only and closed source. Does it have any advantages over https://github.com/AltraMayor/f3 https://github.com/AltraMayor/f3 ?
- morninglight 1y ago
  ValiDrive was designed to be fast and nondestructive - In a random, non-repeating sequence, at each of 576 separate evenly spread locations on any drive, ValiDrive reads the current contents of that region. It then fills that region with random “data noise” then reads back the region's contents to verify that the “data noise” was actually stored. ValiDrive then always rewrites the region's original data to restore whatever data may have been originally stored there. For in-depth analysis, Gibson's "SpinRite" can be used - The two programs are complimentary but very different. ValiDrive quickly checks for the presence of any storage at 576 locations across a drive's storage media. SpinRite thoroughly, deeply and fully examines, verifies, and exercises any drive's storage media, while also performing comprehensive data recovery if necessary. So, ValiDrive is a “quickie” test to see whether any storage is present, whereas SpinRite is the heavy hitter that verifies every byte of a drive's storage to verify its integrity and reliability. SpinRite is a data professional's tool at a hobbyist price - inexpensive, but not free. https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm Validrive is less than 100K bytes! You could download and test it in 10 minutes. That should answer any questions you may have.
  - multjoy 1y ago
    But it's also windows only...
    - lazide 1y ago
      Yeah, though for non-windows (assuming you don’t mind nuking any disk contents), various permutations of dd, md5sum, and pipes work pretty well. Windows is….. significantly more challenging.
    - criddell 1y ago
      SpinRite is not a Windows application. Or were you talking about ValiDrive?
  - tomxor 1y ago
    Spinrite is for HDDs, sure you can use it on SSDs but that's fairly useless in the best case and actively destructive in the worst case. The whole point of Spinrite is exploiting the magnetic nature of HDDs for recovery, that's the only thing that distinguishes it from other generic block device analysis and data recovery software. For SSDs there are plenty of open source software that will work just as well for reading raw data (but what you get for unallocated blocks is at the whim of proprietary SSD controllers anyway). Spinrite had utility for combating data loss inherent to the HDD medium... I don't like the idea of ValidDrive because it's a paid user tool to fight fraud, that's a bad incentive, you don't want to benefit from that, it should be free and open.
drfuchs 1y ago
Steve Gibson? Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time… Maybe 30 years? SpinRite?
- p_ing 1y ago
  Steve “RAW sockets Will Destroy the Internet” Gibson
- atlanta90210 1y ago
  Steve Gibson also does a show called Security Now with Leo. One of the best IT security podcasts out here. He knows so much about IT and IT security it is amazing. https://twit.tv/shows/security-now https://twit.tv/shows/security-now Long Live Steve Gibson

pipes 1y ago

Excellent! I wanted to check a new SD card I bought from Amazon. It's pretty much the best as card available for use with a steam deck, yet often it needs to be reinserted which is making me suspicious

accrual 1y ago

I know Steve Gibson as the author of "Trouble in Paradise", a tool for validating and testing zip disks and drives back in the day. He even aired on one of G4 TV's tech channels once. This guy knows and loves testing storage.

p1mrx 1y ago

ValiDrive is Windows-only and closed source. Does it have any advantages over https://github.com/AltraMayor/f3 https://github.com/AltraMayor/f3 ?

morninglight 1y ago
ValiDrive was designed to be fast and nondestructive - In a random, non-repeating sequence, at each of 576 separate evenly spread locations on any drive, ValiDrive reads the current contents of that region. It then fills that region with random “data noise” then reads back the region's contents to verify that the “data noise” was actually stored. ValiDrive then always rewrites the region's original data to restore whatever data may have been originally stored there. For in-depth analysis, Gibson's "SpinRite" can be used - The two programs are complimentary but very different. ValiDrive quickly checks for the presence of any storage at 576 locations across a drive's storage media. SpinRite thoroughly, deeply and fully examines, verifies, and exercises any drive's storage media, while also performing comprehensive data recovery if necessary. So, ValiDrive is a “quickie” test to see whether any storage is present, whereas SpinRite is the heavy hitter that verifies every byte of a drive's storage to verify its integrity and reliability. SpinRite is a data professional's tool at a hobbyist price - inexpensive, but not free. https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm Validrive is less than 100K bytes! You could download and test it in 10 minutes. That should answer any questions you may have.
- multjoy 1y ago
  But it's also windows only...
  - lazide 1y ago
    Yeah, though for non-windows (assuming you don’t mind nuking any disk contents), various permutations of dd, md5sum, and pipes work pretty well. Windows is….. significantly more challenging.
  - criddell 1y ago
    SpinRite is not a Windows application. Or were you talking about ValiDrive?
- tomxor 1y ago
  Spinrite is for HDDs, sure you can use it on SSDs but that's fairly useless in the best case and actively destructive in the worst case. The whole point of Spinrite is exploiting the magnetic nature of HDDs for recovery, that's the only thing that distinguishes it from other generic block device analysis and data recovery software. For SSDs there are plenty of open source software that will work just as well for reading raw data (but what you get for unallocated blocks is at the whim of proprietary SSD controllers anyway). Spinrite had utility for combating data loss inherent to the HDD medium... I don't like the idea of ValidDrive because it's a paid user tool to fight fraud, that's a bad incentive, you don't want to benefit from that, it should be free and open.

drfuchs 1y ago

Steve Gibson? Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time… Maybe 30 years? SpinRite?

p_ing 1y ago
Steve “RAW sockets Will Destroy the Internet” Gibson
atlanta90210 1y ago
Steve Gibson also does a show called Security Now with Leo. One of the best IT security podcasts out here. He knows so much about IT and IT security it is amazing. https://twit.tv/shows/security-now https://twit.tv/shows/security-now Long Live Steve Gibson