how to test USB stick capacity.

[home user]

Good evening,

background
==========
In the wikipedia article about USB Flash drives, it says ("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive#Counterfeit_products")
------
Counterfeit USB flash drives are sometimes sold with claims of having higher capacities than they actually possess. These are typically low-capacity USB drives with modified flash memory controller firmware that emulates larger capacity drives (for example, a 2 GB drive being marketed as a 64 GB drive). When plugged into a computer, they report being the larger capacity they were sold as, but when data is written to them, either the write fails, the drive freezes up, or it overwrites existing data. Software tools exist to check and detect fake USB drives,[46][47] and in some cases it is possible to repair these devices to remove the false capacity information and use its real storage limit.
------
A footnote leads me to believe that a tool "H2testw" could detect bad sticks and maybe fix them.

question
========
I tried man, dnf, and dnfdragora to find H2testw.  Nothing.  I also tried to find something else to test and fix sticks.  Nothing.  What do we have for this purpose either already installed or that I can get via dnf?

[Michael D. Setzer II]

I've used https://fight-flash-fraud.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

On 6 Feb 2024 at 20:21, home user wrote:

Date sent:      	Tue, 6 Feb 2024 20:21:02 -0700
To:             	Community support for Fedora users 

From:           	home user 
Subject:        	how to test USB stick capacity.
Send reply to:  	Community support for Fedora users 
> Good evening,
> background
> In the wikipedia article about USB Flash drives, it says ("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive#Counterfeit_products")
> Counterfeit USB flash drives are sometimes sold with claims of having higher capacities than they actually possess. These are typically low-capacity USB drives with modified flash memory controller firmware that emulates larger capacity drives (for example, a 2 GB drive being marketed as a 64 GB drive). When plugged into a computer, they report being the larger capacity they were sold as, but when data is written to them, either the write fails, the drive freezes up, or it overwrites existing data. Software tools exist to check and detect fake USB drives,[46][47] and in some cases it is possible to repair these devices to remove the false capacity information and use its real storage limit.
>
> A footnote leads me to believe that a tool "H2testw" could detect bad sticks and maybe fix them.
> question
> I tried man, dnf, and dnfdragora to find H2testw.  Nothing.  I also tried to find something else to test and fix sticks.  Nothing.  What do we have for this purpose either already installed or that I can get via dnf?
>
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
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+------------------------------------------------------------+
 Michael D. Setzer II - Computer Science Instructor (Retired)     
 mailto:[e-mail]                            
 mailto:[e-mail]
 mailto:[e-mail]
 Guam - Where America's Day Begins                        
 G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer 
 http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
+------------------------------------------------------------+

[Michael D. Setzer II]

site I found didn't seem to have download option, but it is in 
Fedora repo

dnf whatprovides f3probe
Last metadata expiration check: 1:04:55 ago on Wed 07 Feb 2024 
12:35:47 PM ChST.
f3-8.0-5.fc39.x86_64 : Utility to test for fake flash drives and cards
Repo        : @System
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/bin/f3probe

On 6 Feb 2024 at 20:21, home user wrote:

Date sent:      	Tue, 6 Feb 2024 20:21:02 -0700
To:             	Community support for Fedora users 

From:           	home user 
Subject:        	how to test USB stick capacity.
Send reply to:  	Community support for Fedora users 
> Good evening,
> background
> In the wikipedia article about USB Flash drives, it says ("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive#Counterfeit_products")
> Counterfeit USB flash drives are sometimes sold with claims of having higher capacities than they actually possess. These are typically low-capacity USB drives with modified flash memory controller firmware that emulates larger capacity drives (for example, a 2 GB drive being marketed as a 64 GB drive). When plugged into a computer, they report being the larger capacity they were sold as, but when data is written to them, either the write fails, the drive freezes up, or it overwrites existing data. Software tools exist to check and detect fake USB drives,[46][47] and in some cases it is possible to repair these devices to remove the false capacity information and use its real storage limit.
>
> A footnote leads me to believe that a tool "H2testw" could detect bad sticks and maybe fix them.
> question
> I tried man, dnf, and dnfdragora to find H2testw.  Nothing.  I also tried to find something else to test and fix sticks.  Nothing.  What do we have for this purpose either already installed or that I can get via dnf?
>
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]
> Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue

+------------------------------------------------------------+
 Michael D. Setzer II - Computer Science Instructor (Retired)     
 mailto:[e-mail]                            
 mailto:[e-mail]
 mailto:[e-mail]
 Guam - Where America's Day Begins                        
 G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer 
 http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
+------------------------------------------------------------+

[home user]

Thank-you, Michael, for both posts.
I've installed it.
It looks like it will take a while to run, and it's late here now.  So I'll give it a try tomorrow.

I gather we don't have a GUI interface available via DNF.

On 2/6/24 8:42 PM, Michael D. Setzer II via users wrote:
> site I found didn't seem to have download option, but it is in
> Fedora repo
>
> dnf whatprovides f3probe
> Last metadata expiration check: 1:04:55 ago on Wed 07 Feb 2024
> 12:35:47 PM ChST.
> f3-8.0-5.fc39.x86_64 : Utility to test for fake flash drives and cards
> Repo        : @System
> Matched from:
> Filename    : /usr/bin/f3probe
>
> On 6 Feb 2024 at 20:21, home user wrote:
>
> Date sent:      	Tue, 6 Feb 2024 20:21:02 -0700
> To:             	Community support for Fedora users
>
> From:           	home user 
> Subject:        	how to test USB stick capacity.
> Send reply to:  	Community support for Fedora users
> > Good evening,
> > background
> > In the wikipedia article about USB Flash drives, it says ("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive#Counterfeit_products")
> > Counterfeit USB flash drives are sometimes sold with claims of having higher capacities than they actually possess. These are typically low-capacity USB drives with modified flash memory controller firmware that emulates larger capacity drives (for example, a 2 GB drive being marketed as a 64 GB drive). When plugged into a computer, they report being the larger capacity they were sold as, but when data is written to them, either the write fails, the drive freezes up, or it overwrites existing data. Software tools exist to check and detect fake USB drives,[46][47] and in some cases it is possible to repair these devices to remove the false capacity information and use its real storage limit.
> >
> > A footnote leads me to believe that a tool "H2testw" could detect bad sticks and maybe fix them.
> > question
> > I tried man, dnf, and dnfdragora to find H2testw.  Nothing.  I also tried to find something else to test and fix sticks.  Nothing.  What do we have for this purpose either already installed or that I can get via dnf?
> +------------------------------------------------------------+
>   Michael D. Setzer II - Computer Science Instructor (Retired)
>   mailto:[e-mail]
>   mailto:[e-mail]
>   mailto:[e-mail]
>   Guam - Where America's Day Begins
>   G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer
>   http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
> +------------------------------------------------------------+

[Michael D. Setzer II]

I've used it on with my g4l disk imaging project for some time.
Have run across a few fake flashes. The program can fix them, but 
fix them means change to the real size of drive. Witch means a 
fake 2TB Usb might really be a 64G Usb.

It is command line only.

f3probe --help
Usage: f3probe [OPTION...] <DISK_DEV>
F3 Probe -- probe a block device for counterfeit flash memory. If 
counterfeit,
f3probe identifies the fake type and real memory size

-l, --min-memory           Trade speed for less use of memory
  -n, --destructive          Do not restore blocks of the device after 
probing
                             it
  -s, --reset-type=TYPE      Reset method to use during the probe
  -t, --time-ops             Time reads, writes, and resets
  -?, --help                 Give this help list
      --usage                Give a short usage message
  -V, --version              Print program version

Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also 
mandatory or optional
for any corresponding short options.

On 6 Feb 2024 at 21:09, home user wrote:

Date sent:      	Tue, 6 Feb 2024 21:09:47 -0700
Subject:        	Re: how to test USB stick capacity.
To:             	[e-mail]
From:           	home user 
Send reply to:  	Community support for Fedora users 
> Thank-you, Michael, for both posts.
> I've installed it.
> It looks like it will take a while to run, and it's late here now.  So I'll give it a try tomorrow.
>
> I gather we don't have a GUI interface available via DNF.
>
> On 2/6/24 8:42 PM, Michael D. Setzer II via users wrote:
> > site I found didn't seem to have download option, but it is in
> > Fedora repo
> >
> > dnf whatprovides f3probe
> > Last metadata expiration check: 1:04:55 ago on Wed 07 Feb 2024
> > 12:35:47 PM ChST.
> > f3-8.0-5.fc39.x86_64 : Utility to test for fake flash drives and cards
> > Repo        : @System
> > Matched from:
> > Filename    : /usr/bin/f3probe
> >
> > On 6 Feb 2024 at 20:21, home user wrote:
> >
> > Date sent:      	Tue, 6 Feb 2024 20:21:02 -0700
> > To:             	Community support for Fedora users
> >
> > From:           	home user 
> > Subject:        	how to test USB stick capacity.
> > Send reply to:  	Community support for Fedora users
> > > Good evening,
> > > background
> > > In the wikipedia article about USB Flash drives, it says ("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive#Counterfeit_products")
> > > Counterfeit USB flash drives are sometimes sold with claims of having higher capacities than they actually possess. These are typically low-capacity USB drives with modified flash memory controller firmware that emulates larger capacity drives (for example, a 2 GB drive being marketed as a 64 GB drive). When plugged into a computer, they report being the larger capacity they were sold as, but when data is written to them, either the write fails, the drive freezes up, or it overwrites existing data. Software tools exist to check and detect fake USB drives,[46][47] and in some cases it is possible to repair these devices to remove the false capacity information and use its real storage limit.
> > >
> > > A footnote leads me to believe that a tool "H2testw" could detect bad sticks and maybe fix them.
> > > question
> > > I tried man, dnf, and dnfdragora to find H2testw.  Nothing.  I also tried to find something else to test and fix sticks.  Nothing.  What do we have for this purpose either already installed or that I can get via dnf?
> > +------------------------------------------------------------+
> >   Michael D. Setzer II - Computer Science Instructor (Retired)
> >   mailto:[e-mail]
> >   mailto:[e-mail]
> >   mailto:[e-mail]
> >   Guam - Where America's Day Begins
> >   G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer
> >   http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
> > +------------------------------------------------------------+
>
> --
> _______________________________________________
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]
> Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue

+------------------------------------------------------------+
 Michael D. Setzer II - Computer Science Instructor (Retired)     
 mailto:[e-mail]                            
 mailto:[e-mail]
 mailto:[e-mail]
 Guam - Where America's Day Begins                        
 G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer 
 http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
+------------------------------------------------------------+

[home user]

Here we go:

On 2/6/24 9:09 PM, home user wrote:
> Thank-you, Michael, for both posts.
> I've installed it.
> It looks like it will take a while to run, and it's late here now.  So I'll give it a try tomorrow.

-----
-bash.4[~]: f3probe --time-ops /dev/sdb
F3 probe 8.0
Copyright (C) 2010 Digirati Internet LTDA.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.

WARNING: Probing normally takes from a few seconds to 15 minutes, but
          it can take longer. Please be patient.

Probe finished, recovering blocks... Done

Good news: The device `/dev/sdb' is the real thing

Device geometry:
             *Usable* size: 57.30 GB (120176640 blocks)
            Announced size: 57.30 GB (120176640 blocks)
                    Module: 64.00 GB (2^36 Bytes)
    Approximate cache size: 0.00 Byte (0 blocks), need-reset=no
       Physical block size: 512.00 Byte (2^9 Bytes)

Probe time: 1'17"
  Operation: total time / count = avg time
       Read: 21.76s / 4197137 = 5us
      Write: 54.71s / 4192321 = 13us
      Reset: 0us / 1 = 0us
-bash.5[~]:
-----
That took a lot less time than I anticipated.

Tim:
I saw your post.  Thank-you.  I understand.

Michael:
I saw your early-this-morning post. What you said makes sense.

Everyone/Anyone...
Follow-up questions:
1. For a new stick, does the --destructive option matter?
2. What is the --reset-type option about?
3. What's taking up all that 6.7 GB (64 GB - 57.3 GB) unavailable space?  That's a lot!

[Tim]

On Tue, 2024-02-06 at 20:21 -0700, home user wrote:
> A footnote leads me to believe that a tool "H2testw" could detect bad
> sticks and maybe fix them.

I wouldn't trust any ability to "fix" them.  If they've faked the size
identification, they'd have no qualms about selling reject memory
chips, too (that will fail).

But the suggested method doesn't fix them, it just puts a smaller
partition within the space that actually seems to exist.  You're hoping
that this is contiguous space, and that it reliably stays accessible.