This article will be helpful in Data Recovery and can be used in everyday life. The counterfeit SD Card is always look like another counterfeit item which is always look like a genuine product. For example, you are having a 128GB SD Card. It shows 128GB, looks perfectly like 128GB. It must be 128GB? Not always. There are many sellers are selling re-marked SD Card in the market.
The Flash Memory might be 4GB but labelled as 128GB on the SD Card sticker itself. The main issue is this card can store UP TO 4GB of data only, while anything more than that will be lost!
How is it possible to get a counterfeit SD Card? – Manufacturer can reprogram the SD Card controller for the capacity itself. As a Data Recovery Specialist knows that there’s two main part in every SD Card which is Controller and Raw Flash Chip. While the Flash Chip always have a fixed size (i.e 4GB), and the controller can be programmed to show any capacity.
Hence, while we plugged the SD Card to our PC, it shows the capacity as 128GB, while the flash chip stays 4GB. Everything it does is getting some information about its ability and if the controller is re-modified to report higher limit, you’ll see what SD Card had chosen to report, not what the SD Card can really store. So, for example that user has a counterfeit 128GB card (actually its 4GB capacity). While the user use 4GB of the SD Card, everything works fine. But once user used MORE THAN 4GB the new data either will overwritten the old of them or all the extra files will remain corrupted.
How to Verify a counterfeit SD Card?
**It means that if you get 64GB or higher, it must be SDXC. If you see “64GB SDHC” or “64GB MicroSDHC”, this is 100% fake just because “64GB MicroSDHC” is inconsistent labelling.
Please note how SDXC logo differs from SDHC logo.
Please note that all modern fake cards basically have the following on the back:
- MMB3R04BUACA-GE (part number)
XL8B20180311 (date code, may vary)
Made in Taiwan
The same part number was on all fake Micro SD.
It appears that “04“ part in the part number shows the actual capacity of the card – it’s 4GB.
If you see such part number on the back, this is fake (unless you have original 4GB card which is unlikely).
Some known variations are: MMB3R04GUACA-GE, MMB3D04BUACA-GE, MMB3D04GUACA-GE, MMB3R04GUACA-GE.
