Player opens his USB hard drive after 3 years because she is defective-and experiences a nasty surprise

Sometimes the view of the housing of a USB hard drive can have a surprise. (Source: Reddit)

After 3 years a Reddit user has experienced a nasty surprise with its external mechanical hard drive. Exactly after the time mentioned, the drive gave up its mind and the user apparently opened the housing out of interest.

There, however, he then found that no mechanical hard drive worked in the inside, but a Cheap flash memory chipthat was connected to the socket of the drive via USB and some cables.

In the interior of a cheap fake USB hard drive (source: Reddit)

In the then bought HDD was one by the seller Small metal plate placed in the housing so that it also has the right weight. So that it stays firmly on the spot, it was glued and fixed on the top with two strips of insulation material.

The construction worked for 3 years

According to the Reddit user, this construction worked without any problems for three years. He bought a model with one Capacity of 1 TB. The flash chip used should actually be significantly smaller. The provider has probably flashed the drive so that the larger capacity was displayed in the operating system.

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According to his own information, the Reddit user never noticed that the actual capacity of the drive was smaller, nor that the hard drive was not the Typical access noises gave. When asked by another user, he stated that he saw noise as a feature.

Apparently he didn’t notice that his hard drive only in Snail worked. The flash memory glued into the housing cannot be compared to the NAND flash of an SSD, but rather to that of an SD card.

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How can you see a scam drive?

With a mechanical hard drive, you should pay attention to the access noises. I am not aware of an external drive with HDD that is not the one Typical scratching and circulating tones would have given. If you stick the ear to the drive, you can also hear the start of the hard drive as soon as it is infected at the USB port.

In addition, that the housing warms up after a whilethat should not happen with the model shown above. In addition, the transfer rates are: If they fail unusually low, you should be skeptical.

Another fake drive with a slightly different structure. (Source: Reddit)

A USB 3.0 drive with a mechanical hard drive, for example (depending on the built-in hard drive), reaches values ​​of up to 100 MB/s, external HDDs with USB 2.0 connection A DIE 30 MB/S Significantly slower.

Of course, it is not only cheated by external mechanical hard drives, but also with SSDs with USB connection. Here, too inferior chipswhich neither bring the durability nor the performance of the original. Such a scam can only be seen by opening the housing or by a benchmark that outputs the actual transfer rates.

Skepticism is attached to a strikingly cheap offer

Many of you like to order from Temu or Aliexpress, there are often flawless offers that are not objectionable. But always remember that the Seller abroad are and you can copy your money if you send you a faked drive.

Ebay is and has always been a source of dubious offers. Especially with data carriers, you should not depend on the last euro Better to buy from a specialist dealer. There, an external drive costs more, but you have the certainty that you really get what you pay for.

Have you ever become the victim of a similar fraud? If so, tell me in the comments.