Jan 17, 2023 12:00:00

The contents of '16 TB cheap SSD' sold by Amazon was just a 64 GB microSD card

There should be many people who use external SSDs for purposes such as lack of storage space on notebook PCs and backups. On Amazon, in addition to products from famous manufacturers such as

Samsung and SanDisk , 16 TB large-capacity external SSDs from manufacturers I have never heard of are sold at a low price of about $ 100 (about 13,000 yen). After disassembling these products, we have confirmed that they are actually disguised products that can only store 64GB or less.

Why the Heck Is Amazon Selling These Fake 16 Terabyte Portable SSD Drives? – Review Geek
https://www.reviewgeek.com/142496/why-the-heck-is-amazon-selling-these-fake-16-terabyte-portable-hard-drives/

Fake SSDs with great reviews are still popping up on Amazon - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/16/23557569/amazon-scam-review-merging-16tb-external-ssds

Products that can be found as soon as you search for 16TB external SSD on Amazon are mainly products of unknown manufacturers such as 'WIOTA' and 'SAJIULAS'. However, they claim to be fast M.2 SSDs .

In general, famous manufacturers such as Samsung and SanDisk do not sell large-capacity external SSDs of 16TB, for example, the maximum capacity of external SSDs sold by SanDisk is 4TB and the price is about 70,000 yen. On the other hand, the price of large-capacity external SSDs sold by 'WIOTA' and 'SAJIULAS' is less than $ 100 (about 13,000 yen), and has won many 5 stars in reviews.

So, Josh Hendrickson of the technology review site Review Geek actually purchased a 16 TB SSD on Amazon and verified and disassembled it.

Hendrickson first verified writing data to the drive until the SSD capacity was full. As a result, the SSD was full at about 64GB, and it became clear that this product was disguising its capacity. Also, although the product purchased by Mr. Hendrickson was appealing

USB 3.1 , it turned out that it actually had only the performance of slow USB 2.0.

When Mr. Hendrickson disassembled this SSD, inside was found a circuit board that functions as a USB-C adapter and a 64 GB microSD card attached to the board. Regarding the fact that the capacity of this SSD was displayed as 16 TB when connected to a PC, Mr. Hendrickson said, ``The circuit board firmware is displaying a different capacity than the actual one.''

The technology news site The Verge has confirmed that more than half of the search results for '16TB SSD' are these fake SSDs.

In addition, Mr. Hendrickson pointed out that 'review integration' is being done as to why camouflaged SSDs are highly rated across the board. 'Integration of reviews' means that only reviews of completely different products that manufacturers have sold in the past are left, and everything such as product images and prices is changed. It seems that if good reviews are diverted and bad reviews accumulate, the product page will be deleted.

``If you're not sure about the product you want to buy, check the reviews carefully. If the product and the review don't match, please refrain from purchasing,'' Hendrickson warns. Also, The Verge said, ``You can buy reputable SSDs from famous manufacturers such as Samsung, SanDisk, and Western Digital for about $100 (about 13,000 yen), which is the same as the price of a 16TB SSD,'' SSD recommends purchasing from reputable manufacturers.