Windows program Disk Management still shows almost 16 Tb of unallocated space on my flesh drive, which is fake. Only 57 Gb are healthy. So, my question is: is it possible to fix flesh memory controller so that Disk Management shows its real 57 Gb of space?
For difficult situations with drives such as partitioning and formatting I use a program called GPARTED [GNU Partition Editor], it's free and available as either a downloaded .iso file used to create a Bootable CD-R or in a Linux Operating System. I use it mostly for wiping drives before discarding or recycling to further use. The worst Thumb drive I had to work with as a no-name 2TB that would only partition to 1TB.
Just an FYI. A utility was released recently to check USB drives to see if they are fake.
GRC | ValiDrive
I don't know the fix.
It's possible but not practical. You would need to determine the USB stick's CMOS controller chip then find the CMOS programming utility from the controller's manufacturer.
A bigger problem with faked USB sticks is that they are usually obtained either by buying sticks in bulk that have failed the manufacturer's quality control tests or have been stolen from the bins where they're thrown out.
So, even if you do manage to reprogram the controller chip to correct its reported size, it's almost certain that it will never be reliable... so any data copied to it is at a great deal of risk.
I've been caught out twice. One time I was able to get a refund after showing the results of 2 test utilities and quoting consumer legislation that the USB sticks were neither 'as described' nor of 'merchantable quality'. The second time I had to accept my losses and just chucked them away. I wasn't prepared to take the risk with my far more valuable data.
Hope this helps...
Last edited by RickC; 24 Oct 2023 at 18:38.
Excellent link to the Steve Gibson tool - ValiDrive. Thank you... I wasn't aware of it and my usual fake capacity tool is getting really long in the tooth.
As for 'fixing', IMO there is no known generic reprogramming tool for USB controller chips to reset the reported size.
Hope this helps...
Last edited by RickC; 24 Oct 2023 at 18:40.
You are already receiving help on this subject in your thread
USB flash drive behaves erratically - TenForums
Denis
Make a 57G partition, assign a letter, format and leave the remain as unallocated.
In explorer you will only see a 57G drive.
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