[PLUG] Filesystem problems with new USB drive

[John Jason Jordan]

On Sat, 21 Jul 2018 09:45:37 +0900
Bryan Linton <plug at shoshoni.info> dijo:

>	Counterfeit USB flash drives are sometimes sold with
>	claims of having higher capacities than they actually
>	have. These are typically low capacity USB drives which
>	are modified so that they emulate larger capacity drives
>	(for example, a 2 GB drive being marketed as a 64 GB
>	drive).

Aha!

It turns out that f3 is in the Ubuntu repos, so a couple minutes later
it was ready to roll. The command is 'f3probe':

	sudo f3probe /dev/sdd
	Probe finished, recovering blocks... Done
	Bad news: The device `/dev/sdd' is a counterfeit of type limbo
	You can "fix" this device using the following command:
	f3fix --last-sec=66150399 /dev/sdd
	Device geometry:
	         *Usable* size: 31.54 GB (66150400 blocks)
	        Announced size: 234.38 GB (491520000 blocks)
	                Module: 256.00 GB (2^38 Bytes)
	Approximate cache size: 0.00 Byte (0 blocks), need-reset=yes
	Physical block size: 512.00 Byte (2^9 Bytes)
	Probe time: 1'07"

So there we have it. Both drives will soon be on their way back to
China with complaints filed with eBay. 

Now that I know the truth I looked at the packaging. The only thing in
writing is a heavy paper folded through the blister pack. Reading
through it there is not one word about how big the drive is. There is a
round sticker on the drive itself that says '256G,' but that could
easily have been added by the cons. All they had to do was have the
paper and sticker printed, pop the blister pack apart and apply them,
and place the listing on eBay.

And considering that the goods say nothing about the size I can guess
what will happen when eBay gets my complaint. The seller will insist
that they never said the drive was 256GB. Well, we'll see what happens.

Thanks a million for bringing this up!