I bought a "4TB" SATA SSD from AliExpress for $40 - It's a slightly different scam!

Fairly short video from me again but there is the usual rambly bits in this one so if you need to use Timestamps to skip through, they are integrated into the video.
======================================================
Greetings and welcome to another installment in the iWish series, a series in which I purchase various questionable products to see if they are any good...most of the time they are not but I buy this stuff so you don't have to!
I found this while browsing AliExpress but I think I showed this on Stream and you folks wanted to see it so thank you to those folks, I do appreciate you all so much and I was curious about this - even though I said I wouldn't buy more.
It's because ALL the other ones I've looked at have been EXTERNAL SSDs. This is an Internal one with a SATA interface.
That's the part I was curious about.
We all know it wouldn't be 4TB for $40 AUD but have they put a Micro SD on a board again or something...that's what I wanted to find out!
You all know the drill here, stick with reputable companies and manufacturers and if it's too good to be true then it likely is.
I am taking a slight break at the moment so I've slowed down with videos but I'll catch up soon.
This was an easier video to work on so it was fine.
======================================================
Download H2TestW to test your SSD, HDD or Flash Drives:
h2testw.org/#download-h2testw
Link to the investigation of this:
vlab.su/viewtopic.php?t=10886...
TIMESTAMPS:
Introduction & Disclaimers: 0:00
The Listing, Pricing & Comparison: 1:44
Unboxing: 3:56
The 4TB Drive & Taking it apart: 4:58
Plugging it into a PC & First Issues: 6:17
Testing with H2TestW, More Issues etc: 7:24
Further Analysis of the Board: 8:40
HD Sentinel, AS SSD Benchmark, Second Test & Results: 9:50
Final Thoughts, Be Cautious & Rambling: 10:57
Thanking folks & Outro: 12:27
Be good people!
======================================================
SOCIAL:
Instagram: s.moorez
Email: [e-mail]
My second channel that thought we was quiet riot:
/ @smoorez2
======================================================
Music/Video:
Outro:
Mick Gordon - Cultist Base (Doom Eternal Soundtrack)
iWish Theme:
Andrew & Simon Hale - L.A Noire Main Menu Theme
======================================================
*All images used in the video belong to their rightful owners but are used under fair use/demonstration.
======================================================
#Scam #4TB #AliExpress

[@SMOOREZ]

*It's an obvious scam but people may still fall for it if they aren't too careful. Just be careful when buying stuff like this* Hey everyone, welcome back to another installment in my iWish series! I said I wouldn't. I know, but I bought this as a pure curiousity, simply because it uses SATA instead of USB. Hope this was still entertaining for the first video of 2024 (Happy New Year also everyone!) and thank you to the folks that did donate towards seeing this and other products on the channel. I appreciate you all so much :) Let me know what you thought of this one down below! TIMESTAMPS: Introduction & Disclaimers: 0:00 The Listing, Pricing & Comparison: 1:44 Unboxing: 3:56 The 4TB Drive & Taking it apart: 4:58 Plugging it into a PC & First Issues: 6:17 Testing with H2TestW, More Issues etc: 7:24 Further Analysis of the Board: 8:40 HD Sentinel, AS SSD Benchmark, Second Test & Results: 9:50 Final Thoughts, Be Cautious & Rambling: 10:57 Thanking folks & Outro: 12:27 Be good people!

[@mateuszzimon8216]

3:52 SATA M.2 Drives exist, they use different keying. Also if u wanna get real SSD/HDD u buy hiksemi

[@nightbirdds]

I had to service a computer that was acting up. It had a drive very similar to this in it. The client had bought one and installed it as their boot drive. After getting windows installed, Steam, and a few games, it crashed exactly like that. People have fallen for it, and I'm just glad this client hadn't had enough time to put a lot of their life on it.

[@dancingwiththedogsdj]

It's just hard to tell anymore and obvious to one person, may not be obvious to me, so I truly appreciate you taking the time for stuff like this! I'm still in the dark sometimes about what is good VS scam products and I really love trying to keep up with the good, bad, and ugly of computers, electronics, etc.... but it is HARD!!!

[@mitabpraga7487]

Thing is it's not that obvious to everyone. I've thanked you in another post for the heads up on this, I know I'm going to have to warn people of it and I doubt I'll be the only person who's seen this video and will be warning others. Good work mate, every time you point out what you might think is obvious, someone who doesn't think it's obvious finds out the easy way rather than the hard way, even if it's at 2 or 3 degrees of separation.

[@nightbirdds]

@@mitabpraga7487 Yeah, that's the problem. If you don't look closely at it, you won't spot it. I didn't see it myself until I pulled it from the system and looked closer. It's just close enough that it'll pass a cursory inspection.

[@treelineresearch3387]

Hilarious that they lasered off the markings from the controller chip but put the part number on the board silkscreen. Kinda makes me wonder if some of the laser-etched/sanded chips aren't blanked to hinder reverse engineering, but rather late-process reject chips from real manufacturers that get blanked on the production line to prevent resale as genuine but still make it into products in the "literally trash" end of the market.

[@edtuckerartist]

Sounds about right!

[@Kalvinjj]

Nice theory, haven't thought of that! I wonder if IC manufacturers would have to start physically breaking chips to avoid this happening, but then again dunno what they can do with rejects, in the industry nobody really throws anything away fully, it's all recycled in a way after all.

[@catlover10192]

​@Kalvinjj I know that some famous 80s home computer used a lot of semi-defective ran chips that were good enough for half the intended memory (obviously this memory lacks detail but I think I got what I did remember pretty correct)

[@samholdsworth420]

I think you hit the nail on the head

[@noth606]

@@catlover10192 That is pretty standard, or was some years ago. Fabs would have one production line, and test the chips before etching, sort them based on working capacity and/or speed and then etch, and sell as different model number based on what they tested OK as.

[@WhoLover]

If I *can* buy an SSD that gives me better "security Sex" then I WILL buy that SSD.

[@drumphil00]

I'd pay 40 bucks for that! 😃

[@Trick-Framed]

A few years back when a drive like this was $65 I found a 512GB Lexar SSD on Amazon for $35 shipped. I thought it was too good to be true but it was Amazon so I knew i'd get my money back and went for it. Turns out it was 100% legit and someone was dropping stock in a liquidation sale. I should have bought 10 of them. You win some. You lose some. I still use that drive to this very day as a test drive for PCs I assemble. And it still runs like a champ.

[@RMED24]

Oh wow that's actually a crazy story. You really got a bargain with this one and it encourages me to possibly try and get a drive using this method. However, I would only recommend to those who actually know how to test these drives and wouldn't put anything important on them even if they show up okay

[@Dante-420]

​​@@RMED24it's always fun to do these things, but I like to keep in mind that it's more about the hobby than it is getting a good value. After all, the time spent making sure a drive is legit and works well could be spent on more profitable endeavors, and then you can use that extra money to buy reliable, warrantied drives!

[@acmenipponair]

Meanwhile I tried a 2 TB SSD some days ago on Amazon, normal price - and it was a scam. Amazon is just crap they simply don't push out companies that scam...

[@DarkDragonEWA]

I don't know why, but even after all the storage device videos I've seen you make I still love watching this stuff. It's just fun seeing the different lengths they go to to make these things.

[@charleshines2142]

It is nice to know what is there so that we can avoid buying them

[@akierum]

You would rather love selling those

[@bertbrecht7540]

I was so glad to hear that you do file complaints and try to get your money back. Thanks for what you do!

[@MoisesCaster]

I bought a 64GB flash drive, but it only had 128MB. I modified the firmware and now I have a 128MB flash drive. 😅

[@Mizai]

I have a 32mb sd card

[@Ametisti]

My smallest is a 64MB MMC

[@Ametisti]

@@holycrapski OK, that's cool. Mine is from an old, long lost camera and just sits in my desk drawer XD

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Yeah, I'm divided on those. On one hand you got a drive that works at a price appropriate for the size, on the other hand you still gave the scammer money. Of course unless you got your money back. Seen that with faked graphics cards. Flash them back to what they actually are, make a claim to get the money back, enjoy a free low-end backup card.

[@sjococo]

@@Ametisti 512 KB pcmcia card...

[@foxmulder4560]

Security sex is fairly new technology, that's impressive tech.

[@supergeekjay]

It's where different security protocols come together. Two become one and all that. :)

[@tubevolts]

@@supergeekjay Me: DoH! She: ssh

[@RyzesTechZone]

These obviously scam tech items are a guilty pleasure to watch. We all know its bullshit but seeing the stuff these scammers do to make it seem legit is so interesting

[@qxy_]

I see smoorez, I click.

[@charleshendrix3820]

Me too

[@SOLOBARV]

And me

[@qxy_]

Such a simple thing to do

[@bluecarbon32]

Indeed

[@karwan6385]

True.

[@hmklegend2791]

Yay, another SMOOREZ video, this made my day better😊

[@Truthorshit]

Thnx for the test program G!

[@shanethrelfall416]

Skip the rambling? The rambling is why I’m here 😂👌🏼👍🏼❤️

[@mitabpraga7487]

Inevitable, I suppose. Thanks for the video, one more thing to warn my clients about. Especially the guy who 2 years ago gave me a €40 "1TB" flash drive to back up his stuff to, the guy who last year gave me a €50 "4TB" USB SSD for the purpose and the guy who I just know would get one of these tomorrow.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

It's the usual "If it's too good to be true" situation.

[@mitabpraga7487]

@@HappyBeezerStudiosAbsolutely, but it can be a tough job telling some people that. Tell them to look at the general retail price of a 4TB SSD and some will just think the RP is a ripoff if they can get it for a quarter of that elsewhere. The flash drive guy, when I told him the bad news, told me he'd bought it off Amazon "so it must be ok" (I quote verbatim there), and took his flash drive to another techie saying I was trying to rip him off for the retail price of a 1 TB HDD and USB case. And that's despite the fact that I'm just a techie, I don't actually sell stuff...

[@DarkestVampire92]

I wish there was a way to re-flash the card back to being recognized as 120GB. If it worked as intended, it might actually be useful rather than just being E-waste.

[@pacman10182]

there is, he went over it

[@endurofurry]

You can its not that hard, you do it when you format it!

[@DarkestVampire92]

@@endurofurry I'm not so sure of it, because a 256GB SD card i got from Temu (as a christmas gift, no less) became unreadable after i tried to format it fully. It just broke 75% into the process, lagged my PC and was unrecognized afterwards. Only with a recovery software i could even look at the thing as it popped in and out of existance, which is when i found out it was a spoofed SD card with stats written in by hand, but nothing i could do made it readable or able to be formatted.

[@endurofurry]

@@DarkestVampire92 maybe a different brand, i was talking about the ones used in this video. i personally have a couple. i buy them here and there for cheap boot drives for testing rigs and file transfers. to freinds as im not worried about getting it back. i even have one in the pc that just runs crome and VLC for media veiwing. its been in there for over 3 years and it runs 24 hours a day with no isues. My only thing is the morality of buying these in the first place and suporting the scam even know i know what im getting.

[@tomtube1012]

Seems like a lot of work to recover 10GB. Just use it as a 110 GB drive. Create a 110 GB partition and you should be able to avoid the "crash" part of the drive.

[@BlueEyedVibeChecker]

I miss Sunbow, I bought a 960GB SSD from them on Amazon, and it outperformed my Samsung QVO drive. But the following pay day, they were completely gone without a trace. Wish I'd bought two the first time instead of being sceptical.

[@SianaGearz]

I have the 1T 870 QVO and it's a filthy filthy drive, i absolutely hate it. Not only is spectacularly slow and causes system stalls during write, it also has a habit of falling off the SATA bus during warmboot. The falling off the bus is mostly relieved with new firmware, but i'm not sure if entirely. I'm so relieved to take it out of my PC and replace it with two TLC type Crucial drives. I don't know if you're missing much with Sunbow. There are several reputable Chinese brands which are alright-ish. Best case it's identical, worse case you find a scam where 3 out of 4 drives are good and one is a scam drive.

[@irishdingus9430]

Smoorez is a real gem. I binged ashens channel to bits and now I’m enjoying everything smoorez posts. Thank you for existing!

[@denny1527]

I recently bought a kodak branded 128GB ssd off aliexpress for £3. Interestingly, the pcb looks very similar to this one, the controller is also a realtek, and the flash chips also appear to have had the markings removed, though the difference is that the advertised capacity actually comes up in the testing. Not sure about the reliability as I know the chips might be used/low quality, but since I use it in my test PC with a throwaway Windows install for plugging in and testing random things, I don't really care if it suddenly dies.

[@Armgedown]

Use the current version of the HDS, otherwise that old version from 2015 does not recognize new ssds correctly. Because of this shows 80% for the performance.

[@Jah_Rastafari_ORIG]

I'm OK with you doing more storage vids; go nuts...I'll watch.

[@joebates8659]

The description is hilarious... What is "higher data transmission security Sex? LOL

[@Skobeloff...]

Aliexpress is great if you are willing to think.

[@MonochromeWench]

If the controller is a standard part the flashing tool is likely available somewhere on the internet probably on some sketchy looking russian site for hardware hackers. The flashing tool will let you specify the flash chip configuration among other internal parameters and even the sata model number you want the device to appear as to the computer.

[@johnruschmeyer5769]

A couple of years ago, I fell for this basic scam on a 1TB drive from an ebay seller. In my case, the usable capacity was something just north of 64GB. I ended up finding a flashing tool on a Russian site that let me flash it to be a 64GB drive. I only use it for light duty, but it seems to operate with no issues.

[@fearbot69]

I enjoy getting fake storage devices in my hands because it's super fun when it's possible for me to re-flash firmware and change the "real" name of the drives that the computer sees. This drive could be some fun if it was a bit cheaper, would love to see if those extra NAND spots work.

[@g4z-kb7ct]

The extra locations could be populated but if you're going to do that then just get one of the SSD pcbs that dosdude designed and make your own proper drive with known good parts.

[@mobileplayers5008]

Well said man. Always be cautious on what u buying.

[@cameramaker]

I would try to make a 96 GB partition and try the H2TestW again (multiple times) - either it will work, or not, depends on where the capacity was faked and how resilient is the wear levelling. If it will work, it should just report lot of damaged cells (above capacity), as long as the untrimmed space stays smaller than the total NAND capacity.

[@vladislavkaras491]

Thanks for the video!

[@lentas4921]

Thanks for good videos ❤

[@SMOOREZ]

I appreciate that! Thank you :)

[@mmmihai1384]

i saw that ssd, but i never thought about it.Thank you for verifying the ssd

[@s14tam]

Thank you for clearing up this scam!

[@gameoverwehaveeverypixelco1258]

The program teracopy can verify data you copy to a drive. It will show data errors.

[@rodentartmouse]

Happy New year🎉

[@joeceretti9098]

I have a "16TB" "Portable SSD" USB Drive from them... I popped it open.. inside is a USB > MicroSD card reader and a 64mb Card and everything inside it is hot glued together inside of a piece of aluminum extrusion that normally would be used for Patio Table legs. I have to give it to them for be resourceful. Just all ruined by the fraud and deception.

[@SianaGearz]

I actually wouldn't mind some unmodified (not ruined by faking capacity) small capacity SD-Cards. To use for old cameras, 3D printer etc.

[@nickwood8694]

I have the same HP laptop as you, but the core i7 model. Now thats pretty cool

[@betoh2o]

Congratulations on the enlightening video, I bought a HD SSD very similar to the one in the video promising to be 2 TB, but when I went to use it, I discovered that despite showing the capacity of 2 TB in Windows, it crashed whenever the amount of data exceeded 120 GB , the internal structure of my equipment is exactly the same as shown in the video. Thank you very much for clarifying our doubts.

[@SummonerArthur]

I've had walram's official store sell me two of these. They charged me what would be the normal price a 500gb ssd goes for on aliexpress, but they sent me that thing, except mine had 4 chips instead of 2 like yours. I've kept trying to use it while only filling about 64gb, but after some time its read/write speeds bsecame slower than 1mbps and I've decided to test my bbgun on one of them. If youfigure a way toflash the firmware, please do a video on it. I'd like to see the process. Since then, I've started to buy netac and netac only products.

[@g4z-kb7ct]

3:00 you missed the best part. 'no moving parts' but with anti-vibration support that a SSD doesn't need haha!

[@ErraticPT]

Beware even if this drive could be flashed back to its true capacity the chips used for storage are often old ones ripped from used drives. So they would soon fail anyhow. The scammers are also doing this with drives that are actually the rated capacity (ie a 4 TB that is 4 TB) but often have multiple makes/models of heavily used chips on a single board. Certainly wouldn't trust any data to them!

[@supergeekjay]

It's the same as some scam companies selling old hard drives as new by wiping the SMART data and re-labelling (SONNICS is a company on eBay that do this). They look perfectly new until you hit errors.

[@SylvesterAshcroft88]

I remember seeing these on amazon, and ebay a little while ago, before a lot of them got pulled down, but it's surprising how common these kind of scams are.

[@Kennephone]

When I first saw this I thought "for that price you can get a real 1TB SSD", and then after he showed the price of the real one, I double checked and WOW have the prices gone up, nearly double on the low end in just a couple months.

[@toonman361]

I would not trust a no-name SSD of questionable origin and quality to store anything, no matter how cheap.

[@Nikioko]

5:15: So many fake certificates. I doubt that the CE sign is real. And I don't think that this had a safety inspection by TÜV Rheinland, either.

[@stevenspencer5367]

Really enjoyed the video. I was just as surprised by what was inside. Not because I know my stuff but your reaction was priceless. 😂 Learning new stuff all the time. ❤

[@eiriseven]

Hey Smoorez, seen your disclaimer about stolen footage, have you considered having some words on your desk like "scam" "debunk" or "fake" to discourage this?

[@brianbuchanan9961]

Could you show the output of a program called ValiDrive on one of these fake drives?

[@BeEhUmBLe7945]

SATA? that's from dinosaur era man... lol! i was in middle school "Elementary"....it's good that it was brought up. Do you have any of those "FLOPPY DISK"? lol!

[@miqotelover]

Great content, and editing, wishing you get a ton more subbers in 2024! :D

[@Rybagz]

SSDs will usually not perform as well in a USB enclosure vs SATA in AHCI mode. 550 Meg/second is about the best to expect in any case, you never hit the top speed likely to latency in command processing and data fetching etc. I've had 2 people recently tell me they got amazing deals on 2 and 4 TB USB flashdrives and I've replied with the bad news that it's 99.9% chance they've been scammed and it's just a smaller drive with a controller hack to make it look bigger.

[@leucome]

Unless maybe they got the Team Group QX. The 4tb went on sale for something like $170 USD in some region. I am under the impression that they have overstock of 2.5 ssd because a lot of people get Nvme drive nowadays.

[@id4spam]

@@leucome On the last Amazon Prime Day 2023 in Germany, Amazon had 4TB Transcend 2.5-inch SSDs on offer for 151 euros and 4TB Samsung 870 EVO 2.5-inch for 172 euros.

[@klotz__]

Thank you! I found these on aliexpress as well but couldn't see how their scam works. Now I know.

[@chat-nior4617]

Smoorez,how would i go about getting ahold of you regarding a product to review?

[@Dark.Shingo]

Interesting. Are these ever recoverable? Like, being able to make them work in their original capacity at least? Not that it would be desirable, but just as an exercise.

[@Hex05]

Probably can cut off the chip feeding the fake info but you'd have to locate it to do so

[@moth.monster]

If you just create a partition of the correct size, it should work.

[@aleksazunjic9672]

@@moth.monster That is a good point.

[@SianaGearz]

@@moth.monster No, it doesn't work, since the full flash capacity is still aliased several times, so when flash controller writes to one flash location, it actually pops up in a bunch of repeat locations. The full drive capacity will be used for wear levelling. You really need to reprogram it for actual flash capacity.

[@allenrussell6135]

Have you ever done a return ? Just to see how they react and what they say? I was expecting the micro sd setup inside. Thanks for the entertainment

[@zanta_]

Thank you man

[@Syntax.error.]

Hoofddorp is next to the Amsterdam airport where many giant companies have shell offices inside of The Netherlands for low tax reasons. This address points to one of these random office building with tons of international businesses that only collect mail from there and nobody is working.

[@BlueScreenOfDead]

ANY idiot can use fake stickers and say, its made in xx country

[@OldGameAcc]

Didn't expect a real ssd at all

[@tech_and_stuff_2022]

9:01; Is this an ad? I'm not sure if it's "the user of Vertyanov Devices"

[@SMOOREZ]

No not an ad, just where I found the info for the board and all that.

[@ejonesss]

a small board in an enclosure is to be expected in ssd. they could make enclosure half size but there would be no way to mount and secure it to prevent it moving. the real size factor scam comes from when they claim hundreds of tb in the same dimensions witch can come from a sd card paralleling card that can take several sd cards and adapt them to sata and raid them into 1 big size.

[@Sashko_Dee]

I did manage to snag a 2TB TLC Lexar SATA drive (LNS100-2TRBNA) directly from Amazon US for $62 USD this summer so the scam prices aren't shit honkingly insane, but still too good to be true.

[@jakubgregr2657]

Where can I donate please? Love your work ❤

[@Xamiakass]

it is weird how 8 months ago, i bought the 4tb ssd... yes, sata not m.2(though, they were literally same priced at the time for same capacity) on amazon for 180 british pounds. how exactly did it go up in price? i went for 870 evo. almost half a year later for old tech, i'm expected to pay 220 or about 20% more? for aging tech? samsung ssd's suck a nut... 4tb samsung sata ssd equaled to 3.27tb on windows, before the OP.

[@startreck9204]

It should go down in price, with the advance of technology. I brought brands like goldenfir, kingspec with 940GB in aliexpress for less than $50, filled them with my files and working fine for now.

[@Xamiakass]

@@startreck9204 it should've... yet it went up... annoying.

[@TUUK2006]

Hope you've got solid security on your network with installing dodgy Chinese storage devices onto any of your machines.

[@Keinapappa]

How am I not surprised.

[@grahamek86]

5:43 HELLOOOORRRRRRRRR

[@MrStanopolak]

12:32 hmmm suika ibuki seems to be a rather peculiar name indeed :,D

[@the2323guy]

she donates for more drinking games

[@barneybarney3982]

So is it possible to "scam" the seller? Like you get your drive, refund it and flash with the right fw.

[@holhorse3808]

The warning message at the top can still be cropped out 😂

[@ruben_balea]

With the 4 NAND chips it may reach the 500 MB/S A couple months ago I shut down my desktop and the next day it wasn't even beeping or showing the BIOS/POST screen, it was turning itself off after 4 or 5 seconds as if something was really bad, I was already thinking about a fried VRM but in the end the culprit was a 480GB Intel Enterprise class SATA SSD. I wasn't aware a SATA drive could prevent a motherboard from booting at all. It also prevented USB to SATA enclosures and converters from being detected.

[@SianaGearz]

I wonder, that sounds like a possible MLCC short fault, a pretty easy repair if it's that. Shunting something hard, not just not responding properly.

[@ruben_balea]

@@SianaGearz It could be but I scrapped the drive... It was an Intel drive with a Dell "Enterprise Class" logo, I haven't looked at what Dell means by that, but I have many WD Green hard drives and some that have around 60k hours started to report reallocated sectors but I didn't lose any data, all of the unstable sectors were recoverable and I was able to make backups, on the other hand I had a pair of WD Gold "Enterprise Class" and both died suddenly around 20k hours without reporting any SMART errors before... So by "Enterprise Class" it seems to me they mean overpriced drives for businesses that have backup tape drives instead of higher quality drives 🙄

[@kiendra]

3:21 lol

[@tubevolts]

As sketchy are things are now... should we be worried that a drive can re-write UEFI, making the system forever-vulnerable?

[@MsUltrafox]

WD does have an office in Hoofddorp but NOT on that address. Also, the street name on that SSD is spelled wrong (like so many other things)

[@jacianmcgurk7424]

As Del Boy once said, What are you expecting for 40 dollars? LOL

[@oso2k]

Laser etched/removed, not sanding for part number & text removal.

[@jingarjay8754]

These realtek chipsets on this board is actually not so bad, i had a legitimate 120gb one with Intel TLC NAND that actually works great. Assuming these suspiciously sourced NAND chips arent full of bad blocks, the firmware could be easily modified to appear as a real 120gb SSD

[@SianaGearz]

But it's still overpriced. There's any number of reputable Chinese brands which will give you a genuine 500G SSD for less, and 120/240 capacity cost barely nothing, people don't buy them much. I remember i bought a Kingspec i don't know 32 or 64 which was enough to upgrade a first gen Atom netbook to Linux, nearly 10 years ago now, and it cost me barely nothing, and that company is still around; major companies simply didn't feel it was worth it to them to make such a price reduced product, and yeah it's a real SSD, not some weird contraption. Since then of course several other decent Chinese brands popped up - wouldn't choose them over Crucial for my PC, ultimately at comparable specs and capacities the price difference isn't at all large, but they're fair enough to just fill out your devices with necessities.

[@jiggybucksington]

I got caught with this a few years ago. Was a 1tb for $25. Weird part was it’s actually a real ssd. Just not a 1tb ssd was a 120gb ssd. They also have an nvme 1tb scam drive too that’s the same thing. I installed windows on it. The second it reached capacity it did nothing but blue screen and couldn’t be used anymore. Real size was 64gb

[@mikigameplays]

I am sure they are just re-selling very old ssd that are 128gb that are like maybe 10$ or so and making some money back, nothing new really. At least its really ssd ahahaa

[@5argetech56]

Smoorez without the gooey mess. Just scam busting goodness. 💯😊

[@Shuttterbugg]

Whats uo with the bandages man..got nail chewing problem

[@jamesoldershaw7865]

Do you report these scam sellers to AliExperss etc so they can shut down the sellers?

[@stale2665]

Optimistic of you to think they shut down the scammers

[@sammy61187]

Got an STL file for the Smoorez logo because it's awesome and i want to print it

[@PhilXavierSierraJones]

SATA SSD scams? That's a new one.

[@Dowlphin]

Could this be defective device 'recycling'? Because why would they do any extra effort for a scam product? It realistically won't take long for a buyer of a 4 TB drive to realize it's rotten. They could just as well shipped a case with no PCB in it. And why remove the controller labeling? Some kind of serial number traceability?

[@SianaGearz]

Serial no but there's a batch identification on ICs indeed - week and year code, facility code and some top secret rolling codes. If you have one device, you might not know exactly but if you have a few dozen, the IC manufacturer and counterfeit experts can trace them.

[@TingFeng77]

Out of curiosity I decided to check the serial number printed on the drive on WD's site It corrosponds to a WD Green 240GB, but of an older model The warranty is still good until 17 Jan 2025

[@stay.in.school.]

TEMU unboxing videos is the new hot sauce.

[@cpljimmyneutron]

The whole thing looks like the stole all the design elements, web images, labels and such from WD.

[@RaduTek]

Wondering if they could've used an SD Card to SATA adapter board and put a fake SD card in that. I have an SD to laptop IDE board that I use in an old laptop and they work quite decently with cheap but legit cards.

[@sihamhamda47]

It would perform much much worse and the worst case, it can't be used as boot drive. I have a legit Sandisk Ultra 128GB SD card that is rated 90MB/s transfer speed, but even with that the speed drops to below 30MB/s when I copy anything larger than 250MB to the SD card

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@sihamhamda47Depends a bit on how the drive identifies. I have a stick that has the bit set to be seen as external hard drive, so it can be booted from. My other sticks got the removable media bit and can't be booted.

[@relklarsen]

That is how most of these fake SSD's work actually. When you pop them open,. you usually see an SD card with a SATA adapter connected to it.

[@basbas63]

Fun fact is, that WD company and address is real. Am from The Netherlands & have a genuine 4TB WD red SATA SSD, that company/address is written on it.

[@LatvianVideo]

Nice, at the start i was thinking it was an 128gb ssd

[@danmar007]

Last year, I saw a ITB internal SSD for $20 on Amazon. It was tempting. :-)

[@skayqz]

Nice playbutton :)))

[@chelliebellie9489]

Were I get that case ???

[@gabest4]

Similar scam has been going on with LTO tapes. You can buy a 15TB tape and it only has 6TB capacity!!! How can they get away with that. Aliexpress sellers should add "4TB compressed" with very small letters, maybe.

[@_DML_]

Definitely open up a dispute about it.

[@gaeshows1938]

A proper 4tb tlc nvme only costs about $200 these days

[@A-Viking]

noting is done about this and the criminals get more advanced that circuit board looks high quality but the storage chips may be quality rejects. how exactly do they fake the capacity?

[@TommyCrosby]

Just like USB drives, you shouldn't ever plug a scam SSD, just in case you have another kind of "surprise"...

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Especially not into any system with data you want to keep. Better have a dedicated scamcheck system.

[@Cueteman]

stealing leads to where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

[@WaaSoph]

First time viewing one of your videos. Time stamps etc. made it fun to watch. Imo the bright yellow/blue text in your video thumbnails are hurting your views. Maybe 10 years ago they wouldn't be mistaken for spam/AI content but nowadays I think people tend to stay away from those.

[@JohnVance]

Great vid! Plot twist: These companies now subsist entirely on selling crapware to YouTubuers for content creation!

[@Veta_YT]

The greatest SMOOREZisian that has ever lived.