With the increase in the number of USB flash drives produced in China, the recovery of Chinese flash drives is becoming more and more relevant. Online platforms offer a huge range of these gadgets. You can order USB drives up to 512 Gb at competitive prices. But most owners of flash drives ordered from China face problems in their operation. The most common of them is file corruption in the memory of the flash drive.
The reason for the loss of data from the memory of drives from China
The main components of any USB drive are the NAND chip and the controller. The NAND chip is responsible for the maximum amount of data that can be written to the media. The controller provides communication between the chip cells and the computer. During the manufacture of a flash drive, all information about the characteristics and size of the memory is recorded on it. Mismatch of data in the controller with the real capacity of the flash drive causes device malfunctions. When the true volume is full, the information begins to be written in a circle, overwriting the previous data. As a result, the files become inaccessible. Often the file system of overcrowded media is recognized as RAW. In some cases, it is possible to format such a device using standard Windows utilities, but the solution to the problem will be temporary, because after the real amount of memory is filled, the drive will start to malfunction again.
The NAND chip of most Chinese flash drives is serviceable and usable. But to restore its correct operation, it is necessary to make changes to the drive controller, indicating the actual capacity. After that, the flash drive can be used without fear for the information on it.
Flash drive memory analysis
Before you begin to restore the true value of the amount of memory, you need to find it out. The easiest way is to gradually fill the media with files, waiting for a critical capacity value, after which a failure will begin. But in this way it will not be possible to determine the exact value of the memory and the number of sectors of the microcircuit. It would be more correct to use the program for testing drives. The most convenient free program for this is H2testw. It has a simple and intuitive interface. With its help, it is possible to quickly and accurately determine the true size of the storage medium.
The algorithm for working with the program is as follows:
- specify the desired device (select target);
- select full data check (all available space);
- run test writing and reading information (Write + Verify).
Depending on the declared volume of the flash drive, the analysis time may last more than 10 hours. But there is no need to wait for the end of testing. You should wait for a significant drop in the write speed. This is evidence that the drive is completely full and the process of surface overwriting has begun. You can stop the write test (Abort). Next, select the reading process (Verify) and wait for it to complete. value will be received next type: "6.7 GByte OK (14162432 sectors)". The value in brackets is the actual number of memory sectors that will be needed to restore the Chinese flash drive. In most cases, the true capacity of the media is 5-10% of the specified, so the amount of usable memory for drives with the declared 32-64 GB will not exceed 6 GB.
Restoring the real size of the capacity of Chinese flash drives
Restoring the real size of fake flash drives requires special utilities. But before using such programs, you must remove other media so that you do not mistakenly format them. The most convenient program for this is Acronis Disk Director.
Recovery instructions:
- Select the media you want to restore, right-click and start the initialization process. If the flash drive is formatted, skip this step.
- Select "create volume" from the operations menu. In the window that appears, designate the creation of a basic volume and select the required media.
- Set the volume size to no more than the one obtained during testing. The volume type is logical. file system choose according to your needs. Click on the "finish" button.
- On the main page, select the "apply pending operations" option. The formatting process will begin, after which you can use the media. If an error occurs, you must return to step 2 and set a smaller volume size.
In this way, information about the total amount of memory in the controller will not change, but only its actual size will be available to all readers. This method is fast and safe, so it should be preferred.
To reprogram the controller, you must use the MyDiskFix utility. This program was developed by the Chinese to change information about the amount of storage media. There is only an alpha version of this program, so failures are possible. It is more convenient to use its English version.
For the correct operation of the program, media recovery must be performed in safe mode. To do this, when the PC boots up, press F8 and select the item "Safe Mode with Network Driver Loading".
The algorithm for working with MyDiskFix:
- select the required media;
- mark low-level formatting (Low-Level);
- leave the first field of sectors (Sectors) unchanged, in the second field indicate the number of sectors that does not exceed the one that was obtained during testing, for example, 14162000;
- start formatting "START Format".
This method is longer in time, but allows you to permanently fix the problem by changing the information about the NAND chip in the flash drive controller.
Regardless of the chosen recovery method, after the formatting process is completed, you must re-test using the H2testw utility. After making sure that the USB media is working properly, you can safely use it.
Good afternoon!
If you purchased a USB flash drive or SD card on Aliexpress or another Chinese site and when checking with the program it turned out that it does not correspond to the real size, in most cases you can restore its real size and use it.
I say "most of the time" because there are two things to keep in mind:
- In rare cases, flash drives and memory cards stop working when trying to fix the size and it is no longer possible to repair them.
- Fake flash drives and memory cards are usually very slow and can not be used for all devices. For example, if you insert such a memory card into your phone, it will slow down. If in the camera - it will save each picture for 2-3 minutes. But a resized flash drive like this is great for use cases where speed isn't a big deal. For example, to listen to music in the car.
Restoring the actual size of a flash drive
1. Test your flash drive or memory card using the program if you have not done so before or have already closed the testing window. Please note that testing a large flash drive can take a very long time, for example, I got about two days:
2. Now we need a suspicious-looking Chinese program MyDiskFix. I tried to find an alternative to it, but there are no other convenient ways under Windows (only under Linux, but only a few can use it). I checked the program with all possible antiviruses before uploading to our server, feel free to download:
(checked for viruses)
4. A program window with unreadable inscriptions will open in front of you. Don't worry, I've outlined all the necessary steps in detail:
So, follow the steps:
(1) - If more than one flash drive or memory card is inserted into your computer, then you need to select the one you need. If there is only one, it will be displayed automatically.
(2) - Select the item indicated by the arrow (2), this is a low-level format.
(3) - In this field, you must write the actual number of sectors, which was determined by the h2testw program:
(4) - Click the indicated button to start formatting. After that, a warning window will appear, click "Yes" in it. If an error pops up, then you did not close h2testw, close it and click the button again.
5. The formatting process may take a long time, depending on the volume 1-10 hours:
6. After the process of restoring the size, format the USB flash drive again using standard Windows tools, then run h2testw again to make sure that the restore was successful.
How to teach a Chinese scammer a lesson
Here our possibilities are limited, since it is located in another country. The only thing you can do is win the dispute, return the money and write a bad review. To win the dispute, check out my article:. Do not change the reason for the dispute, no matter how the seller asks you to do so. You will win the dispute anyway, and the scammer will have problems with such a reason for the dispute.
If you have any questions or need clarification - please ask a question or leave a comment.
Sometimes a flash drive, after formatting or incorrectly ejecting, starts to incorrectly display the size of the memory - 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 drive size.
Step-by-step instructions for restoring volume
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-partition it. This procedure is performed through the task manager:
After formatting is complete, the drive will return to its original size. If you have a flash drive from Transcend, you can restore it to its actual size using the free Transcend Autoformat utility. This program independently determines the volume of the flash drive and returns its correct display.
The utility from Transcend will carry out 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 bought on Aliexpress and other similar online sites for little money often have one hidden drawback - their real capacity is significantly lower than the declared volume. The flash drive says 16 GB, but you can read from it no more than 8 GB - 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 actually available volume of the flash drive, then you will not understand that you have been deceived until you encounter the fact that some of the information has disappeared. But you can determine the size of the drive in advance, without bringing the matter to an unpleasant situation:
If the actual size of the drive corresponds to 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 real memory of the flash drive, the amount that you can fill with data. "LOST" is a fake value, an empty space known only to the flashed controller. In order not to get confused, you need to restore the real volume of the drive. 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 by the screenshot.
class="eliadunit">
Chinese Internet sites, such as AliExpress, offer a huge selection of goods at affordable prices, and sometimes at unrealistically cheap prices. But very often there is a catch behind the cheapness. Today we will analyze how not to be deceived when buying Chinese flash drives on the Internet. The classic divorce scheme, that's what it can be called, consists in selling cheap flash drives with large sizes. Outwardly, everything looks good, when you insert such a flash drive into the computer, the size is displayed as on the site when selling. The buyer sees that the flash drive is working and gives the OK to transfer money to the seller. Don't trust Chinese flash drive sellers - never! Trust must always be tested.
Divorce scheme by Chinese sellers of flash drives. Now let's look at why you should not immediately confirm the receipt of the goods. In most cases, it will not work correctly and this is fraught not only with lost money for a low-quality flash drive, but also with loss important information. The Chinese inflate a smaller flash drive to a larger one and sell it for the price of flash drives bigger size(for example, 8 GB, I inflate to 64 GB and sell at a discount for the price of 64 GB - very profitable). But do not inflate, do not inflate, an 8 GB flash drive will not store 64 GB information in itself, and this flash drive will not work normally without certain operations.
Determination of the actual size of the flash drive. You cannot trust the inscriptions and stickers on the flash drive, as well as the display size on the computer. To do this, we need a small, but in this case extremely useful program for Windows. h2testw_1.4 . Download, run. We choose the language: German or English, there is no Russian, but the program is extremely simple, which does not require the Russian interface language. Next, insert the USB flash drive into the computer and select it Selecttarget(pre-formatted if it's not empty) . Next click Write+ Verify.
Now you can turn on the movie and watch it. this operation is quite long (depending on the flash drive write speed and its size).
How h2testw works. During this test, the size of the flash drive is completely filled with small files that are formed into 1 GB files until they are completely filled. After filling the entire size with a flash drive, a report will be displayed and verification will automatically begin. If the flash drive is “bloated”, then this will be visible after receiving the correct size and it is not advisable to wait for the end of the test of all memory (a waste of time).
Analysis of results h2testw. After the determination of the “good” size is finished (in the screenshot, the second line is “7.4 GByte OK ...”), the “lost” volume is determined. If there is no change in the second line with a “good” size, you can stop the test with the “Abort” button. Of all the results, the most important indicator for us is the second line, which indicates the actual size (number of sectors) of the flash drive.
class="eliadunit">
Restoring the real size of MyDiskFix. After auditing the size of the flash drive, we return the real size to it by the program MyDiskFix . Do not be afraid of obscure characters in this utility, this is due to Chinese characters, apparently, this is the native language for the program. Next, set the settings (numbers in the screenshot):
1) select a flash drive;
2) set low-level formatting;
3) specify the actual number of sectors for the flash drive (we take from the h2testw report, the second line, for my flash drive the correct number of sectors was 15618999);
4) run, press yes / ok in the subsequent windows.
Error at work MyDiskFix. In my case, after launching and agreeing to restore the flash drive, an error popped up: « Can NOT open drive H: [ Mass Storage device]! Please close the program which is using the drive and try again". Its meaning is that the MyDiskFix program cannot complete its operation due to the use of a flash drive by another application.
I did not notice the use of this flash drive by another application, so I had to restart the computer and start the system in safe mode with network drivers loaded (you should press F8 when starting the computer). There MyDiskFix also "cursed", but did its job.
Final verdict. That's actually all. MyDiskFix will offer format already the “correct” flash drive, what needs to be done, and then for a special exact people I recommend once again auditing this flash drive in the h2testw program . After no problems have been identified, you can use the flash drive for its intended purpose.
Chinese flash drives: how to find out the real size, restore and return the real volume of a Chinese memory card or flash drive
If you are reading this text, then I dare to assume that you have become the proud owner of a Chinese flash drive. If so, then you've come to the right place.
Cunning yellow-faced brothers make the firmware of a Chinese flash drive so that the computer sees 16, 32, 64GB, etc. available memory on the flash drive, although the actual size is much smaller.
A large amount of information is copied onto it, as it were, but you will not be able to read it all later. Here they are, Chinese USB flash drives, and not only USB, but all kinds of memory cards.
Why are Chinese flash drives bad?
Cheating with Chinese flash drives may be due to rejected NAND memory.
How it's done: they buy defective memory chips from factories or landfills. They are sold by weight, and the price is about $ 0.5 per chip after the selection of completely dead microcircuits. It can be not only 16 Gb chips - any capacity will do. There may be two of 8, or one of 64, but with a bunch of defective pages. Everything goes into “production” - scraps of large chips, combining several small chips inside one device, combining scraps of large chips
Cheating with Chinese flash drives may be due to NAND memory less than the declared capacity:
How it is done: they buy chips with a small amount of memory, and increase the capacity to the required one through the passport, that is, with the “get ID” command, the flash drive will give as many gigs as it is written on it. In order for the fraud not to be detected immediately, the recording on such a device is either looped (a gigabyte has run out - we start writing again), or emulated (a gigabyte has run out - we pretend that we are writing, but we are not writing anything).
Such flash drives can be used for everyday needs: music in the car, watching a movie on TV, and the like. The main thing to remember is that any time a Chinese flash drive restored using the method described below, may refuse.
So how do you restore the real size of a Chinese flash drive?
In this case, you need to do the following:
1. Determine the actual volume of the Chinese flash drive.
For this we use the program h2testwver 1.4 ().
The verification process consists of two stages: - writing special files 1.h2w, .h2w, etc., 1 GB each, to the USB flash drive until the entire volume is completely filled and reading the recorded file.
The media is likely to be defective.
7.5 GB OK (15924224 sectors) - remember these numbers somewhere.
7.9 GByte DATA LOST (16776192 sectors)
Details:0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
7.9 GByte corrupted (16776192 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x00000001d5fa2000
Expected: 0x00000001d5fa2000
Found: 0x0000000000000000
H2test version 1.3
Writing speed: 3.97 MB/s
Reading speed: 10.2 MB/s
H2testv v1.4
We see that 7.5 GB OK is the actual size of a Chinese flash drive.
2. formatting Chinese flash drives for real size.
Programming will help us with this. MyDiskFix (MyDiskFix download from the link at the bottom of the page). It has problems with encoding, so the sequence of actions is as follows.
In the upper window, select your Chinese flash drive.
On the left, move the dot down (means low-level formatting).
In the window on the right (where 0) we enter the sector number - in my case 15924224
Press the top button to the right of the "Debug" button - the button (YEG and & PYUeg)
