Programs for determining the true size of a USB drive. H2TestW - USB device testing program

Good afternoon. I have finally reached civilization and can once again please you with an interesting and, I hope, useful article. On top of that, today my friend and I are streaming the game Battlefield 4 for bfcl.ru, it will start at 21:00 and you can watch it by going to link. Now let’s get back to our sheep, or rather flash cards, be it a USB flash drive or an SD (MicroSD, MMC, CF, etc.) card.

The bottom line is that I came across one of these from China and was selling one for a rather modest price, like 64 GB. But the person who bought it had no doubts about its functionality, since some of the recorded files stopped opening. Of course, he was not aware that our brothers in communism had long ago learned to flash controllers so that it would show a larger volume than it actually is and write files as if cyclically. The system is very cunning and I don’t fully know how it’s all implemented. I remember at the very beginning, when I first heard about such a Chinese trick, some people on the hub shouted that such a controller would cost much more than a flash drive. But today this occurs on every second flash drive ordered from China. But let's move on to the most delicious part and today the article will be divided into two parts. The first is about how to recognize a fake (which will make it possible to open a dispute on Ali and get your money back), the second is how to get a flash drive into working condition with its real capacity.

We recognize a fake and determine the real capacity of a flash drive

1. To do this, we need a small utility called h2testw, download it from my Yandex.Disk and unpack the archive. We launch h2testw.exe and for convenience (I don’t know German) switch to English. Click the “Select target” button.

   

2. We select our problematic flash drive. Be careful not to make a mistake, otherwise you will lose all the data on the flash drive.

   

3. Click the “Write+Verify” button.

   

4. The process of filling the flash card will begin, and then the program will check how much was recorded and how much is actually on the storage media. It took me a little over two hours to use a flash drive with a true capacity of 8 GB (about an hour for writing and an hour for reading).

   

   



5. Now let's get the flash card in order so that it can be used without the risk of data loss (as far as possible with a Chinese counterfeit card:) and for this we need one value, which is in the report. So before closing the window, copy or rewrite the number of sectors for the working volume.

   

Fixing the display of volume for a fake flash card

I should warn you that since we work with fake flash cards, they can break at any time and you use this method at your own peril and risk. If your fake fails after this procedure, then thank the Chinese, not me :)

So, download the second utility from the link. And we launch it. This is a Chinese program and don’t be surprised by the lack of text on the buttons, the main thing is to click on the right ones, and that’s what this site exists for. By the way, I had a problem with it working until I ran it as administrator. The program cursed as if the flash drive was being used for something. Therefore, when starting, close all windows that may be using the flash drive. And if that doesn’t help, use run as administrator.

1. Launched, select the desired flash drive at the top. I don’t advise you to make mistakes, double-check. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chinese increase the volume with the same program.

   

2. We move the point to the bottom point, this is a low-level formatting mode - just what the doctor ordered for this Chinese fake g...

   



3. Click the button at the top right. In theory, it says “Format” on it.

   

4. He swears in non-Russian that all data from the flash drive will be erased, “Are we sure that we want to format it,” of course, “Yes.”

   

5. The formatting process will begin, following which the program will produce a report similar to this. Now our flash drive is detected as a real 8 GB, unfortunately, I gave the flash drive away, forgetting to take a screenshot from the Explorer window. But yes, it was defined as 7.7 GB.

   

That's all. I hope you found this article useful, click one of the buttons below to tell your friends about it. Also subscribe to site updates by entering your e-mail in the field on the right or subscribing to the group on VKontakte.

Thank you for your attention!

Hi all! It’s not for nothing that I decided to write an article on how to flash a flash drive – I have experience. Yesterday I restored my flash drive Kingston DT Elite 3.0 16GB. Everything worked out, and I thought, why not write similar instructions, and tell me what and how to do, in order to give the flash drive a new life :).

Nowadays, probably every house has a flash drive and very rarely just one. It’s convenient to transfer information onto them, they’re beautiful, and besides, they’re not expensive these days. But very often USB drives fail. If we talk about why this happens, then we ourselves are in first place. Do you always do a safe removal of your flash drive? So I rarely do. There may, of course, be other reasons why flash drives simply “die”.

One point needs to be clarified here. It happens that the flash drive really “dies”. In this case, it is impossible to restore it. At least at home. But if the USB drive shows at least some signs of life when connected to the computer, then you can try to restore its operation using the controller firmware.

What signs of life might there be for a USB drive?

• When you connect the flash drive to the computer, the computer signals that the device is connected - that’s good.
• When connecting Windows, it asks you to format the removable drive (but during the formatting process there are problems and errors such as “Windows cannot complete formatting”).
• The flash drive is detected and visible in Explorer, but when you try to open it, the message “Insert disk...” appears.
• Errors occur when copying information.
• Very slow speed of writing/reading information.

If there is valuable information on the flash drive, then you can try to restore it before and after the firmware. This can be done using different programs. I advice Recuva, here is the article but there are many other good programs.

If the information is very valuable, then it is better not to do anything yourself so as not to make it worse. Contact special service centers that specialize in data recovery.

Let's now look at the entire process of flashing the controller using a real example, using my Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 16GB flash drive as an example. My flash drive broke down. It’s interesting. I needed to upload files to it and delete those that had already been recorded. I connected it to the computer and started deleting the folder. But the folder was deleted very slowly. I unplugged and plugged this flash drive back in, a message appeared that the disk needs to be formatted “Before using the disk...”.

Since there were no Important files on the flash drive, I started formatting without hesitation.

But the process itself lasted a very long time and never ended, I forcibly stopped it. The message “Windows could not complete formatting” may also appear.

But still, I formatted it, the tenth time, and only in FAT 32. After which the USB drive was detected normally and I was even happy. But it was not there. I started copying files onto it, and the recording speed was approximately 100 kb/s. I decided to flash it, which I did.

Determining the VID and PID of the USB controller

First we need determine VID and PID. This is data about the model and manufacturer of the controller, which is located in our drive. Using this data, we will look for a utility for the firmware. There are many different programs that can be used to determine VID and PID. I recommend the utility Flash Drive Information Extractor You can download it from the link.

Connect the USB flash drive to your computer and run the Flash Drive Information Extractor program (extract the program folder from the archive and run the GetFlashInfo.exe file).

Click the button at the top of the program “Get data about the flash drive”.

The program will give us the result. We look at the information that is located opposite VID and PID.

You can copy these numbers, or leave the utility window open, we will now need the received data.

We are looking for a utility for flashing a flash drive

Based on the VID and PID data, we need to find the utility with which we will flash the controller. There is a good website flashboot.ru, which contains a database of flash drives and utilities for their recovery.

Press the button Search and look at the result.

In the search results we look for a flash drive similar to ours. The list may include devices from other manufacturers. They just have the same controller, it was identified by VID and PID. You may have noticed that I have a 16 GB flash drive, but in the list I highlighted 32 GB. I think there's nothing wrong with that (just where the name of the utility is not indicated on 16 GB). You try to choose a more similar device from the list.

We are interested in the field UTILS(utility), copy its name in full.

Unfortunately, the utility that I need was not found on this site. Perhaps you will have better luck and you will see something in the search results. Download the utility to your computer.

But I didn’t stop there and started Googling. I just asked “SK6221 MPTool 2013-04-25” and found this utility on some other site. If you have the same flash drive, then this utility is . True, the name of the archive is different, but this did not stop me from successfully curing my flash drive.

USB drive recovery process

Disconnect the flash drive. Extract the folder with the utility from the archive and run .exe file. In my case it is the MPTool.exe file. Also look at the text file readme.txt. Perhaps there are instructions there, or a link to a site with instructions. If the instructions are in English, then translate it using the same translate.google.ru.

I'll tell you how I did it (you just may have a different utility and everything may be different there, but it shouldn’t be very different).

The utility is running. We connect the flash drive. I have information about the flash drive in two lines in the program. Press the button Start. In my case, the yellow strip signaled the firmware process. We wait.

When the process ended, I saw a green color, everything seemed to be fine.

A Windows message should immediately appear asking you to format the disk. But most likely nothing will work out the first time. Unplug the flash drive and plug it back in. The driver should be installed and the removable drive should appear in Explorer. You can format it.

I checked the recording speed, everything is as it should be for USB 3.0, everything is fine!

You need to be prepared for the fact that the actions may differ from those I described. And not everything can work out the first time. The main thing is not to give up and everything will work out!

Best wishes!

Also on the site:

How to flash a flash drive? Restoring the operation of a USB drive [using the example of Kingston DT Elite 3.0 16GB] updated: February 7, 2018 by: admin

Lately it has become “fashionable” to buy large-volume flash drives at “fabulous” prices, which during operation begin to behave inappropriately, music gets stuck, videos crumble and files disappear. Most often, such symptoms indicate that the actual capacity of the flash drive is several times less than the declared volume, which is displayed in the drive’s properties.

Fraudsters who sell you such flash drives program small flash drives in a special way, which, when inserted into a computer, show a size 2-4 times larger, and therefore the operation of such drives is accompanied by errors.

How to protect yourself from this type of fraud?

1. Don't buy smoked items at too low a price;
2. If possible, find reviews about the device and the seller;
3. Check the device immediately after purchase.

First method

How can I check if they sold me a Chinese miracle of 8 GB, with the declared 64 GB?

Fill your drive to capacity with files. Correctly remove it from your computer using the eject function. Afterwards, connect the USB flash drive to the computer again and copy the files to the newly created folder. Compare the files you downloaded to the flash drive with those you extracted. You can compare by size, by hash amount, or use video files, which you can then view. If the files are not damaged, then you are in luck.

Second method

You can use a free program. If the flash drive shows the wrong size, the program allows you to restore the real value.

How to use the program:

1. To work with the program, administrator rights are required.
2. Download and install the program.
3. Format the USB Flash or SD Card.
4. Run the AxoFlashTest program, allow administrator rights.
5. Select the drive you want to scan and restore by clicking on the folder icon with a magnifying glass.
6. Click on the “Test for errors” button and wait for the results of checking your flash drive (check time depends on the drive). The report will contain the card size declared by the manufacturer, the actual size (if the card is fake, it will be smaller), and the information necessary to restore the functionality of the USB-Flash or SD card, if you want to use third-party software for this.
7. Click on the “Test speed” button and wait for the results of checking the speed of your flash drive. In the report you will see the read and write speed, as well as the speed class in accordance with the SD specification.
8. If the flash drive does not meet the specified specifications, present them to the seller and demand money or exchange for a working drive.

Sometimes a flash drive, after formatting or incorrect ejection, begins to incorrectly display the memory size - for example, instead of 16 GB, only 8 GB or even less is available. There is another situation in which the declared size is initially much larger than the actual volume. Let's look at both cases to figure out how to restore the correct storage capacity.

Step-by-step instructions for volume restoration

To restore the actual size of the flash drive, you need to perform a low-level format. As a result, all data will be deleted from the flash drive, so first transfer the information to another medium.

You have received a completely clean media, now you need to re-label it. This procedure is performed through the task manager:

After formatting is complete, the storage capacity will be the same as it was before. If you have a flash drive from Transcend, then you can restore its actual size using the free Transcend Autoformat utility. This program independently determines the volume of the flash drive and returns its correct display.

Transcend's utility will perform low-level formatting, after which the actual available memory will be displayed in the properties of the flash drive.

Working with Chinese flash drives

Chinese flash drives, purchased on Aliexpress and other similar online platforms for little money, often have one hidden drawback - their actual capacity is significantly lower than the declared volume. The flash drive says 16 GB, but you can read no more than 8 GB from it - the rest of the information is not actually written anywhere.

This effect is achieved by flashing the controller. If the recorded files do not exceed the actual available capacity of the flash drive, then you will not understand that you have been deceived until you are faced with the fact that some of the information has disappeared. But you can determine the size of the drive in advance without leading to an unpleasant situation:

If the actual size of the drive matches the declared parameter, then the test will end with the phrase “Test finished without errors.” If the memory of the flash drive is actually not so voluminous, then you will see a report in which there will be two lines - “OK” and “LOST”.

“OK” is the actual memory of the flash drive, the volume that you can fill with data. “LOST” is a fake value, an empty space known only to the reflashed controller. To avoid confusion, you need to restore the actual storage capacity. This can be done through the free Chinese program MyDiskFix. The utility does not have a Russian-language interface, so you will have to navigate using the screenshot.

With low-level formatting, all data from the flash drive will be erased, but the drive itself will receive its real size. After eliminating the error with incorrect volume display, you will know exactly where the free space has gone and how many files can be written to the media.

After you have received a fake flash card and returned the full amount for it, the question immediately arises:
- What should we do with her next?
In this situation there are two ways out:
First, just forget or throw away the microSD card.
Second, try to restore it.

In order to restore the card, you will need the H2testw () program and to restore functionality.

I. Determine the actual amount of memory

First, we format the patient card, then run the H2testW program in order to determine the real volume:

• Be sure to uncheck the endless verify option, otherwise the card will be checked constantly.

We wait for the test to finish and look for errors:


Of the entire error text, we are interested in only one line:

7.5 GByte OK (15932954 sectors)
23.6 GByte DATA LOST (49570278 sectors) 4

7.5 GB is the actual size of the card, 15932954 sectors is the number of sectors.

II. Recovering real memory capacity

We disconnect all, all, all flash drives and SD cards and connect only the one that we want to restore!

We launch the MyDiskFix () program, do not be afraid of the hieroglyphs - this is normal.
This program is needed to “cut off” the fake volume. To do this, we first determine the real volume, and then copy the number of real sectors on the card from the data of the H2test program.

I’ll say right away that there are other programs, or if you understand, then you can trim the excess volume in Acronis, Partion or any other program.
This one is also convenient because it does not allow you to select an HDD or hard drive and will not allow you to harm the system.
Look at the screenshot below:

We are waiting for the end. Then we format the card using Windows --> My Computer --> right click on the card --> Format --> NTFS --> OK.
All. Congratulations - you have restored flash memory. Let's do control testing:

And a little more in Crystal Disk Mark:

Instead of MyDiskFix, you can use Acronis or any other program of a similar type:


We carefully select the disk/flash drive we need. We delete the occupied space. After that, click Create volume.


Select our flash drive.


Set the REAL size of the flash drive. In my case, the actual volume is 7.5, but I chose a little less.
We make an OFFset of 100 megabytes if we want, or we don’t (this is optional). Click Finish.

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