Bad SSDs?

MrAccident · 11-09-2022, 03:08 PM

I bought 2 external\USB unbranded 16TB SSDs, from China, through eBay. Couldn't format them to ext4. I'm on FossaPup64.
I wrote back to them ― and they are asking me to go to a professional to check this; which I don't want to do, because I'm quite sure they're just bad, and I'm not gonna waste more time and money on it (unless you'll say otherwise). Is there really a chance they can be used ― or can you validate they are bad? Can you write in percentage ― your opinion on the likelihood of them being usable.
I made these screenshots - https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...usp=share_link
Description:
01 - first drive ― about to format.
02 - first drive ― error. And that's it for the first drive.

For the second drive - I got an advice from my OS forum - to try to make a smaller partition; so I halved and attempted again, and continued to halve the size ― until succeeding.
03 - second drive ― about to make a partition.
04 - successfully made the partition.
05 - shows the information of the successful partition; and in the background you can see that I made the second partition of same size, and that it's with an error.
06 - the information of the partition with the error; looks very different.
07 - the error while trying to make a third partition of same size.
08 - after canceling the attempt.
09 - after that - even the partitions I made earlier ― are gone, and the whole space is unallocated.

pan64 · 11-10-2022, 06:07 AM

Hi, welcome here, at LQ!

first we would like to know exactly what did you try and what's happened. We don't really like screenshots (especially on google drive), but [would be better to] use fdisk or similar command line tool - and you can post the output.
Additionally you can try smartctl to check those devices.

TenTenths · 11-10-2022, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrAccident

I bought 2 external\USB unbranded 16TB SSDs, from China, through eBay.

Throw them in the bin. 16Tb external SSDs don't exist. They're fake with a controller that has modified firmware to report stupid sizes.

jefro · 11-10-2022, 07:12 AM

Some usb devices can actually work on ntfs and cause issues on ext. However you get what you pay for in some cases.

Debian6to11 · 11-10-2022, 11:33 PM

Most likely they have a microSD card (of some MBs) that is programmed to show 16TB. You were ripped off as was I with a 1TB SSD from ebay Chinese.

MrAccident · 11-11-2022, 06:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TenTenths

Throw them in the bin. 16Tb external SSDs don't exist. They're fake with a controller that has modified firmware to report stupid sizes.

Yeah, well this was one of the expected options; 50\50. Just thought that eBay and the rating system will make a difference; or at least hopefully will enable me to return it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jefro

Some usb devices can actually work on ntfs and cause issues on ext. However you get what you pay for in some cases.

Tried now the same with NTFS ― with the same result. So I got nothing for what I paid for :-D.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Debian6to11

Most likely they have a microSD card (of some MBs) that is programmed to show 16TB. You were ripped off as was I with a 1TB SSD from ebay Chinese.

Were you able to get get your money back, or only resorted to a bad review?

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

Hi, welcome here, at LQ!

Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

first we would like to know exactly what did you try and what's happened. We don't really like screenshots (especially on google drive), but [would be better to] use fdisk or similar command line tool - and you can post the output.
Additionally you can try smartctl to check those devices.

I used Gparted to format the SSDs. The first gave an input\output error right away. The second created a partition for the whole size - but with an error. I got an advice from my OS forum - to try to make a smaller partition; so I halved and attempted again, and continued to halve the size ― until succeeding with 30000MB\~30GiB. I made the second partition of the same size, and it was with an error. I tried to make a third partition of the same size ― this time there was a more severe error, and after closing it ― the previously made partitions disappeared, and the whole thing became unallocated.
I used smartmontools and it said:

Code:

Read Device Identity failed: scsi error unsupported field in scsi command

A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.

Gparted output:

Code:

<i>Filesystem volume name: * <none>
Last mounted on: * * * * *<not available>
Filesystem UUID: * * * * *6e11e9b3-1b53-41ba-815a-c06cec9125b4
Filesystem magic number: *0xEF53
Filesystem revision #: * *1 (dynamic)
Filesystem features: * * *has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index filetype extent flex_bg sparse_super large_file huge_file dir_nlink extra_isize metadata_csum
Filesystem flags: * * * * signed_directory_hash 
Default mount options: * *user_xattr acl
Filesystem state: * * * * clean
Errors behavior: * * * * *Continue
Filesystem OS type: * * * Linux
Inode count: * * * * * * *511991808
Block count: * * * * * * *4095922944
Reserved block count: * * 204796147
Free blocks: * * * * * * *4063385684
Free inodes: * * * * * * *511991797
First block: * * * * * * *0
Block size: * * * * * * * 4096
Fragment size: * * * * * *4096
Reserved GDT blocks: * * *47
Blocks per group: * * * * 32768
Fragments per group: * * *32768
Inodes per group: * * * * 4096
Inode blocks per group: * 256
Flex block group size: * *16
Filesystem created: * * * Wed Nov *2 16:31:47 2022
Last mount time: * * * * *n/a
Last write time: * * * * *Wed Nov *2 16:32:21 2022
Mount count: * * * * * * *0
Maximum mount count: * * *-1
Last checked: * * * * * * Wed Nov *2 16:31:47 2022
Check interval: * * * * * 0 (<none>)
Lifetime writes: * * * * *31 MB
Reserved blocks uid: * * *0 (user root)
Reserved blocks gid: * * *0 (group root)
First inode: * * * * * * *11
Inode size:	 * * * * *256
Required extra isize: * * 32
Desired extra isize: * * *32
Journal inode: * * * * * *8
Default directory hash: * half_md4
Directory Hash Seed: * * *9a8b5054-d1ad-4a2f-a442-a7311fc95f7c
Journal backup: * * * * * inode blocks
Checksum type: * * * * * *crc32c
Checksum: * * * * * * * * 0x4cdabd24</i>

<i>dumpe2fs 1.45.5 (07-Jan-2020)
dumpe2fs: Corrupt extent header while reading journal super block</i>

<i>Unable to read the contents of this file system!
Because of this some operations may be unavailable.
The cause might be a missing software package.
The following list of software packages is required for ext4 file system support: *e2fsprogs v1.41+.</i>

So I mainly want your opinions - so I can tell them, or eBay something.

TenTenths · 11-11-2022, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrAccident

So I mainly want your opinions - so I can tell them, or eBay something.

Vendor won't care, they know they're selling crap.
EBay won't care either unfortunately.
Unfortunately nobody really cares, thats why there's literally hundreds of these bullcrap products on eBay, Amazon, etc. Pick them up on AliExpress for $2 each, dropship them to Amazon and charge $50, nice little scam.

Debian6to11 · 11-11-2022, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Were you able to get get your money back, or only resorted to a bad review?

Actually neither. I checked it after many days and the time limit was out. Lost 30 something euros. I will never buy again a knock off brand SSD. I had another one a few years back which only lasted about a year, when my motherboard went bad so did the SSD. There was no warranty or anything (though it was good in terms of speed during that time). I buy local or well known brand now.

MrAccident · 11-12-2022, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TenTenths

Vendor won't care...

They may not care \ be stupid ― but it's a certain fact that I'll reduce their ability to sell their products, to some extent; much more than my money worth. The rating system isn't perfect, of course; but it works by numbers \ probability\statistics.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Debian6to11

Actually neither. I checked it after many days and the time limit was out.

Is the feedback also time-limited?! A lot of time have passed for me as well. I actually received them about a week ago; I just accidentally submitted that I received it; and then I couldn't get them for a long time; it was a whole chain of bad luck.
Now I clicked on feedback ― and it seems I will be able to make it, and I don't see a time-limit. All this of course doesn't mean much ― because everything is made in a stupid way, so very possible I'll only find out I can't give feedback - after clicking the final button. I want to try to return it first.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Debian6to11

I will never buy again a knock off brand SSD.

My inner drive also broke probably; can's see it. It was also unbranded. But it makes me not want to buy any SSD; I'll go with an HDD. Why wouldn't it happen to a branded one too?

jailbait · 11-12-2022, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrAccident

My inner drive also broke probably; can's see it. It was also unbranded. But it makes me not want to buy any SSD; I'll go with an HDD. Why wouldn't it happen to a branded one too?

The branded SSD or HDD or memory had to pass the brand names' quality control checks. The equipment that is rejected is returned to the Chinese manufacturer who then sells it as unbranded merchandise.

wpeckham · 11-12-2022, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrAccident

They may not care \ be stupid ― but it's a certain fact that I'll reduce their ability to sell their products, to some extent; much more than my money worth. The rating system isn't perfect, of course; but it works by numbers \ probability\statistics.

If you learn how to track them (and have the HUGE amount of free time it can take) you can actually track them changing or adding company names and proceeding but continue the same crooked business model for YEARS. The rating system helps, but they routinely avoid having it impact their revenue streams.

30 is cheap, as such lessons go.

MrAccident · 11-12-2022, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wpeckham

The rating system helps, but they routinely avoid having it impact their revenue streams.

What I meant - is that it will reduce their revenue. Of course it won't stop them. But if they start over ― they have to gain all the points, not scam for a while etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wpeckham

30 is cheap, as such lessons go.

What do you mean by "30"?

rokytnji · 11-12-2022, 03:51 PM

This thread reminds me of the close shave I had today.

Was on facebook jaw jacking with friends and family and saw this 6 inch netbook with Windows 10 Home preinstalled but gnu/Linux was touted
as being able to be installed also. Ubuntu as usual was mentioned in the sales site.

Now for the kicker. 2 for the price of one. Price? 39 dollars. Now my wife taught me how to search in case of a scam.
I went to scam advisor url search site. Sure enough. Between the name I searched in startpage and that scam advisor.

The deal was to good to be true. That was a close one because I was kinda committed to pulling the trigger on this purchase.

Quote from check

Quote:

After taking several factors in consideration, our Validator finds that .starraining.com has a medium-low authoritative score of 48.80. This numbers means that the website could be defined by the following three words: Doubtful. Perilous. Alert.

Atomic Shrimp on youtube will save you some time when it comes to cheap purchases being legit.

MrAccident · 11-12-2022, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji

This thread reminds me of the close shave I had today.

The thing is ― that they have a 95% rating (which isn't considered very good in eBay); and a few hundred buyers history. So still - it's not the same as an independent website\store. Most of what they sold - has to be good.
That's why I "bought it". I think I mostly should have searched for above 98%. I don't see how you can scam people & have a good rating.

rokytnji · 11-12-2022, 04:20 PM

Hard to find a ebay seller over 98% good feedback.

China is always iffy. I've bought a few motorcycle parts from china. Came as advertised but they are not computer parts.
The chinese external 3 port usb/sd card adapter I have next to me just broke in the sd card holder. Card slides in way too far now.

It was cheap though. That is why I bought 3 of them. The usb ports are still good.