![]() ![]() ![]() Typically, fake SD cards have really slow writing speed (3-7 MB/s, sometimes 11-13 MB/s, which is a much slower speed compared to their usually advertised rating of Class 10). How can you tell for sure?įirst, you can test the card by trying to write a large file on it. But whenever you see a card packaged like that one in the listing, don’t walk but run away! These are 100% fakes.īut what if a memory card is advertised as “32 GB SDHC”, or “64 GB SDXC”, but it was still offered for a ridiculously low price? Or what if you’ve got a “free gift” memory card with your straight-from-China smartphone? It could be branded Samsung, SanDisk, or anything else it could be genuine or fake. These cards are called by many names, sold by hundreds unscrupulous dealers locally and directly from China. Have a close look at one of the packaging: As a result, any SD or micro SD card advertised as “64 GB SDHC” is a genuine, 100% fake. With due diligence, it is easy to spot a fake right away: the combination of “64 GB” and “ SDHC” is impossible, as all SD cards larger than 32 GB do, in fact, conform to the SDXC standard. The card is advertised as a 64 GB micro SDHC card. How to avoid buying a fake anyway? Let’s take this “deal” as an example. This is what causes the loss of data, and this is why you can’t get it back no matter how good a tool you use to recover information. As a result, if you try reading anything written onto that memory card beyond its actual capacity, you will be fed digital garbage (random data) instead of the data originally stored. Instead, it’ll be cycle-fed into a few remaining flash cells from the reserve pool, overwriting the cells many times with newly fed data. However, it will NOT be written to the memory card. The modified microcontroller will continue accepting new data. The worst happens AFTER the card is filled up beyond its actual storage capacity. As most users will only test their newly purchased card with 1-2 GB of data, the “test” will be passed, and the card put to service. What happens to that data? The first 8 gigabytes (or whatever the actual capacity is) will be written to the card, and can be read back with no problem. As a result, your computer, smartphone or digital camera will continue writing new data well beyond the actual capacity. It’s also partitioned and formatted on a logical level to support the fake capacity claim. ![]() Instead, their microcontrollers are re-programmed to trick the operating system to see the faked capacity. What’s particularly bad about these fakes is that these cards are not simply mislabeled. These fake SD cards have very cheap, small-capacity flash chips inside (usually 8 GB), advertising a much higher capacity of 16, 32 or 64 GB. The second type of fakes is much more dangerous, as it will inevitable cause loss of data the very first time you fill it up beyond its actual (unknown) capacity. These cards are typically using slow, low-grade memory chips, but their advertised capacity matches the actual storage capacity of the flash chip. The majority of “free gift” memory cards buyers receive when ordering stuff from China fall into this category. Sometimes, unscrupulous manufacturers will slap a label of a well-known manufacturer onto an otherwise very generic, inferior product. What Are Fake SD Cardsīut what was wrong with that memory card anyway? While it’s easy to say it’s a fake, it’s a bit more complex than that. So what was wrong with that purchase? In this case, it was a combination of factors that switched off critical thinking and neglected due diligence: a reputable online store (but a purchase off Amazon Marketplace, of which many consumers are still not aware of, and from a sleazy dealer to boot), and all the Christmas sales around that taught consumers to expect huge discounts and make them hunt for deals. But all that won’t bring the rest of his photos back. Indeed, his only recourse would be returning the card (with the cost of shipping being nearly half of what he paid for the card itself) and leaving well-deserved angry feedback. We couldn’t do much to help the customer other than tell him he wasn’t the first or the last to be tricked with one of those sleazy dealers offloading fake memory cards with advertised capacity much higher than their actual storage. The voice didn’t sound overly concerned, so after a few questions about the memory card we informed the customer that what he’s got was a fake. The rest of my pictures come out corrupted. Back home, I could only read the first 300 or so. I used that card on a Christmas vacation and took more than a thousand pictures. “I’ve just got a Christmas deal on a new 64-gig micro SD card. It’s not been long since the end of winter holidays we’ve got our first support call in the new year. ![]()
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