Fake Flash Drivesfrom

Shenzhen Topkeen Industry Coor

History of an Order

Stas Fomin, stas@custis.ru, stanislav.fomin@gmail.com

May 6, 2009

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We order1000flash 4GB-drivesfrom Topkeen Inchttp://www.topkeen.com

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http://www.topkeen.com is now dead, but theyhave still a lot of pages, just Google ”ShenzhenTopkeen Industry”.

Snow11 ask not confuse Shenzhen TopkeenIndustry and Shenzhen Topkeen Electronicshttp://www.topkeen.net.cn (see comments onslideshare).

Some days ago we got it. . .

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But problem number 1:All flash drives has been brokeninto pieces.(Badly glued).

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And big problem number 2:

All flash drives are FAKE .

They ”pretend” to be 4GB flashdrives, but actually they are not.

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Looks like normal4GB flash,FAT32 format

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Also looks like normal 4GB flash,FAT32 format

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Looks like normal4GB flash,FAT32 format

FAR manager

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Trying to play copied file…

WTF?17 / 65

starting from position7D790000 (hex) = 2105081856 (dec) ≈ 2007 MB all bytes are incorrect

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Lets run expert tools…

Looks like 4GB flash drive

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?starting from 2GB-position read speed increasedfrom 11 MB/s to 32 MB/s

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Again half of flash-memory is bad

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INSIDE OF TOPKEEN 4GB FLASH

FLASH MICROCHIP

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INSIDE OF TOPKEEN 4GB FLASH

FLASH MICROCHIP

SAMSUNG K9GAG08U0M-PCB0

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INSIDE OF TOPKEEN 4GB FLASH

FLASH MICROCHIP

SAMSUNG K9GAG08U0M-PCB0capacity 16Gbit=2Gbyte

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http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/productList.do?fmly_id=672

16 G bit = 2 G Bytes ≠ 4 GB

This is the answer…

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INSIDE THE TOPKEEN 4GB FLASH

FLASH MICROCHIP

SAMSUNG K9GAG08U0M-PCB0capacity 16Gbit=2Gbyte

HERE ISTHE PLACEFOR ANOTHERCHIP

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What now?

How to fix?

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First, we need to recalibrate fake flash drives

Ask Google about UdTools software, download

and run it.

For example, seehttp://forum.flashboot.ru/Files-file-158.html

(This soft works only for specific flash microcontroller).

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This is UdTools v.1.0.4.6

Use Google to find

and download UdTools.

We use it to test

and recalibrate

fake USB flashes

For example

http://forum.flashboot.ru/Files‐file‐158.html

for chips: AMECO 8208, 6208A, 6208E (MW6208, MW8208)

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UdTools automatically detects flash drives

Just plug-in USB flash drives (1,2,3… ) and click here

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ook at this Tab

Low quality, high speed (it takes about a minute)…

Best quality, low speed (about 30 minutes)…

Use "Special Scan" only for very bad flash drives with a lot of bad blocksthis mode reduces capacity of a flash drive

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Here you can set ANY capacity…4GB, 8GB,… 32GB,……and make fake flash drive.Please, do not do it!

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Yes, recalibrating takes a lot oftime .

Also, 15% of flash drives arecompletely dead (see next slides).

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Bad soldering. . .

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A box of crap — 150 dead flash drives. . .

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Next problem: How toglue/stick/bond ”live” flashdrives?

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We try to glue them again

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By cyanoacrylate. . .

But it takes so much time. . .

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So we use ”batch processing”

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put both pieces together. . .

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stack it. . .

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take some weights. . .

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press down the stack of flash drives. . .

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take hairdryer. . .

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and fan flash drives with hot air. . .

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especially edges. . .

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regularly. . .

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press down the weights with your hands. . .

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So flash drives are bonded with melted plastic edges

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Yes, flash drive has fair 2GB capacity and bonded now

but still ugly because of melted edges,

and badly glued ”logo plate”’ also falling off . . .

So impossible to present this to customers. . .

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So we presented all these recovered flash drives. . .

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. . . to students at career fairs

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