If something sounds too good, it’s not. 30TB portable SSD $39 (opens in new tab) at Walmart. This drive isn’t one of the best SSDs out there, but it deserves to be on everyone’s block list.
twitter user ray edited (opens in new tab) I recently bought a 30TB portable SSD on AliExpress for laughs. This drive retails for his $31.40, but is available at Walmart for a small premium. Aesthetically, the “portable SSD” is a clone of the popular Samsung T5. Chinese knockoffs use text similar to the T5. Although advertised as a USB 3.1 drive, Ray later discovered it was limited to his USB 2.0 speeds. Inside the portable SSD is a small green he PCB (HUB-TF2) with two microSD cards glued to it.
There are various versions of the same scam.For example, another twitter user (opens in new tab) His portable SSD is revealed to have a built-in USB pen drive instead of two microSD cards. So a portable SSD is just a USB hub with various microSD slots, or a USB pen drive.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a storage device with questionable specs. There are fake USB pen drives, SSDs, and SD cards on the market, and you should be careful when buying them. Nevertheless, the complexity of this particular portable SSD is very interesting. Scammers use her two microSD cards and slap hacked firmware to misreport capacity. The actual size of the microSD card is not important. This is because the firmware tricks Windows into thinking the card is larger than it actually is.
For Ray’s drives, Windows detects the unit as two 15TB drives. In fact, the microSD card was smaller. He says that the USB-C to USB-C 3.1 cable is a fake and that the drive is capable of transfer speeds up to 60 MBps because he is compliant with the USB 2.0 standard. The hacked firmware writes new data over old data, preserving directories. It seems to work, but when I try to access the file, nothing.
Whether it’s computer hardware or not, consumers should be careful when purchasing goods online. It’s even more important today as big retailers like Newegg and Walmart allow third-party sellers to use their platforms for e-commerce.
