If a usb flash drive is formatted with Fat16, what is the the maximum size you can have? 4 Gigabytes. For Windows operating systems before XP, you can only have 2 GB with a Fat16 file system (Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows 95, or MS-DOS). For more information on Fat16 read: Maximum size fat16
How is it possible to have a 128 GB flash usb flash drive that uses Fat16? There is only one way. Using low level formatting software tools that digitally alter what the operating system sees – hacking the flash memory chip.
The problem of false capacity usb flash drives being sold on eBay has reached crises mode
. Some sellers attempt to reassure their buyers. Usually they will present a screen capture of what the operating system reports. In other cases they will show testing information from HD TUNE.
Looks reassuring does it?
To a non technical buyer, the results look fine.
There is only one little problem, Fat16 can not support 128GB. Buyers, especially on eBay do not know a lot about file allocation systems. Fat32 and NTFS will ring a bell for most users, but Fat16? Not likely – unless you have been using computers for the past 15 years or longer.
Little details are important. The seller did not pay attention to the details. TD Tune did not pick up the false capacity. If you want to detect false capacity for usb flash drives, you need to run a program that is free to use: H2testw. It will tell you the real size of a flash memory chip and also report any errors or anomalies.
The usb flash drive sold by this seller was:
So far SOSFakeFlash has never received a report where this model has more than 4GB, usually it has 2GB and in some cases only 1GB. It is available up to 16GB, sold at internet sites that specialize in doing custom logos for usb flash drives as promotional products.
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