Hardware

Ask something
Question Locked

Hacked USB drives

0 helpful
4 replies

by marcson98

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
I have recently bought a few hacked flash drives that don't show their true capacities. Does anybody know a way I can fix this. They are some of the no name flash drives sold on ebay. One is using Ameco memory, one Alcor and one Samsung. I am about to throw them away because if the capacities have been faked who knows what else has been done to them.

4 replies

by Former member

Do you have a USB flash drive that just won't work any more? Assuming the hardware is undamaged, you could try formatting the USB drive.

1) Insert the flash drive into a USB port on your computer. If it is detected, it should show up in your "My Computer" after a couple of seconds.
1.Try right clicking on the USB drive icon and then left click on format. Select NTFS for windows operating systems beyond 98. Click "start" and formatting should begin. Note: Formatting will erase everything on the device.

2.Try using the USB drive again as before.

Alternate method.

Backup all data from your hard drive to another hard drive or CDs or DVDs.

1.Turn off your computer.

2.Insert the USB drive to a USB port.

3.Turn on your computer.

4.Hit the F8 key when prompted to get to your system bios. Some computers required the Delete key or F2 instead of F8. There should be a note on the screen that specifies the key.

5.Navigate your bios (usually using your cursor keys) to boot from CD drive first. Save and exit.

6.Insert your operating system disc aka Operating System Restore disc. Your computer should restart. If not, restart it yourself.

7.Follow the instructions for installing your operating system. When the option to select which drives to format comes, you should be able to see your USB disk in the list.

8.Format the disk with FAT32 for Win98 or previous. Format with NTFS for anything after e.g. NT, 2000, XP etc.

9.Depending on your options, you may be able to opt out of the operating system install at this point. If it was running well beforehand and you can, leave your other drives alone and quit the re-installation.

10.Reset the computer to boot from the disc drive the operating system is on instead of the CD drive as before. You should have your working flash drive detecting and usable now in windows.

11.If you didn't get the option to opt out of the re-installation, continue to follow the instructions onscreen and complete the re-installation, formatting whatever drives are required. Note: Do not try to install your operating system onto your USB disk drive.

Search around for a formatting tool to reformat your drive beforehand. Re-installing an operating system is not a task to be taken lightly.
Things You'll Need
Your operating system (restore) disk.
Your operating system activation code.
Your operating system serial key.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by bizzo

I think the only option you have is to format the drive to determine the real capacity.

"Oversized" drives will never be able to store the amount they say they can. Do not use them until you've reformatted, as it is inevitable you will lose the data.

Edit:
Found this article that may be of use to you:
http://www.passmark.com/support/bit_fake_USB_detection.htm

by shhite

I tried 3 different flash drives from ebay and even after reformatting them and doing scan disks and such could not get them to work properly. The data would corrupt at the drop of a hat. Could not transfer anything but regular word docs and such onto any of them without having issues. I finally gave up and bought a Flash Voyager from Corsair (Fry's Electronics).

This discussion is closed to new replies.