Item: This Counterfeit External SSD Houses Two microSD Cards Inside
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Author: Low Boon Shen

This Counterfeit External SSD Houses Two microSD Cards Inside

Last updated: October 6, 2023 11:42 am

By Low Boon Shen

12 Min Read

This Counterfeit External SSD Houses Two microSD Cards Inside

Someone in China had to learn it the hard way: the unnamed user bought an 512GB “external SSD” (emphasis on quotes) on a local second-hand online marketplace, only to find out the speeds are immensely slower than what a normal external SSD would be. Turns out, the user has been scammed – as they opened up the internals of this unassuming device.

Upon opening the insides, the user has been greeted with half-length worth of void, and a small green PCB that houses two microSD cards, all glued up in a rather cheaply-applied epoxy material, presumably to stop it from rattling inside. There’s none of that NAND flash, or a decently sized controller designed to handle such hardware. Granted, there’s at least a USB-C port – though looking at the traces (and the nature of the product itself), it’s likely just a USB 2.0 port which is very limited in its maximum speeds.

microSD cards comes in various speed ratings, but most of them fall in the range of teens, or hundreds if it’s the high performance ones. It’s unlikely that any of the premium microSD cards gets used here – there’s no point in that – so it’s safe to assume the speeds in practice would be abysmally slow, even if RAID0 is a thing to mask its weaknesses (which is extremely unlikely, anyway).

So, moral of the story? Get your hardware from reputable brands and stores. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

Source: MyDrivers (快科技)