Secret U disk shrinking insider: 512G actual capacity 512M, cost only 10 yuan

Because of its lightweight, portable and plug-and-play features, the U disk has become an indispensable and important tool for many people to live, study and work. During the use of U disk, have you ever encountered the situation that the file cannot be opened and important data is lost? If so, don't repeat it again and again, format it again and again, and your U disk may be a "shrinking plate" that slams across the sea!

The important document inadvertently damaged Mr. Wu and bought a 4G Kingston U disk in the local electronics market some time ago. Because he had to reinstall the computer, he copied all the photos and videos of his daughter's full moon into the U disk. When he opened it again, he found that the files in the U disk had been damaged and could not be opened. The loss of her daughter's photos and videos made Mr. Wu heartfelt.

Mr. Wu found a friend to help detect, only to find the so-called 4G U disk, the actual capacity is only 512M.

There are actually many consumers who have this experience. Why is it obvious that 4G is used and problems have arisen after using several hundred megabytes?

Why U disk "shrinks"

Originally, this type of U disk that would "shrink" was actually tampered with by a small-capacity U disk. After the tampered U disk is not recognized by the consumer, even the computer cannot recognize it.

In order to magnify and magnify the U disk's capacity, the operation is very simple. Only use the U disk volume production tool (a low-level software that can be modified for the U disk master chip). This can be achieved in a few simple steps.

Taking a U disk of 512M as an example, the operator can arbitrarily modify the capacity, and 512G is also indispensable. In fact, the maximum U disk capacity is only 64G currently on the market.

According to industry insiders, U disk storage capacity is determined by the capacity of its flash memory chip, once its physical structure is determined, can not change the capacity through any soft modification, so "shrink tray" is purely to flick consumer, with 512M U disk sells the price of 512G, of which the profits are self-evident.

Shrink disk into a file black hole but for users, the biggest danger of shrinking the disk may not be to buy a 512M disk with 512G money, but that you do not know that you bought a 512M U disk, copy the file into more than its actual capacity, Can't open eventually, causing the file to be lost.

Jinshan network security expert Li Tiejun said that when the file exceeds the actual size of the shrink disk, seemingly able to copy the success, in fact, the files copied to the shrink disk is written in the form of a shortcut, when the user opens the file again, Will find that it can not be used normally.

Therefore, the shrink disk became a document "black hole" and was the culprit for the loss of U disk files. Li Tiejun said that the number of members who use the “data recovery” function of the Kingsoft drug typo every month to find the missing files on the U disk exceeded 10,000. Among them, the proportion of important data and files lost due to the use of shrink trays is as high as 80%.

According to statistics of the Jinshan Security Center, every 12 USB flash drives have a shrink disk or strain disk that may cause loss of files and data at any time for every 12 USB flash drives running on the computer.

Shrink trays are usually distributed through scattered, informal channels, including electronic stores, stalls, and online shops.

In terms of pricing, under the "amazing capacity", in order to further induce consumers to buy, "shrink trays" generally give much lower prices than U disk of the same capacity. Take a so-called 512G “shrink disc” as an example. Its price is only 180 yuan, but the actual capacity may only be tens of M. The corresponding cost is only about 10 yuan, which means that its profit is up to 20 times.

According to a supplies operator, U disk was expensive in the early years, and this kind of "reduced disk" has a higher profit margin. In recent years, U disk prices have fallen sharply. Unscrupulous merchants only rely on mass shipments to maintain profits.

How to prevent and identify expansion disks How to prevent shrink disks? Li Tiejun said that under normal circumstances, the actual capacity of the U disk is not exactly the same as the labeling capacity, but when the actual capacity of the U disk is less than or equal to 90% of its nominal capacity, it can be regarded as a capacity expansion disk with quality problems. He suggested not to buy USB flash drives that are significantly lower than the market price, and choose reliable and reputable merchants and formal channels for purchase. In addition, take the initiative to understand some of the knowledge of shrinking discs, develop awareness of prevention, open the seal on site after purchase, store and open a large file whose size exceeds half of the U disk's tagging capacity, or directly use a professional U disk inspection gadget for capacity verification. If you accidentally buy a shrink disk, you should immediately transfer the documents and information, and communicate with the business as soon as possible to return or claim.