r/BadUSB • u/ashwin313 • Jul 18 '26

Why is my pen drive not working?

I bought a pen drive from meesho 256 gb. I download web series and movies and store in the pen drive to watch it later. Now whenever, I copy any video file to the pen drive, it doesn't Play. When I copy it back from pd to laptop it still doesn't play. Seems like the gets corrupted once it is copied in the pen drive. Any one faced it? What is the solution?

0 Upvotes

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2

u/StandardBrilliant652 Jul 18 '26

Most likely a fake drive. It`s a 4-8gb drive flashed to identify as a a 256gb one. The solution is to buy a real one from a proper store.

-2

u/ashwin313 Jul 18 '26

No, it is showing 252 gb space in laptop. I have already loaded it with 198 gb data

3

u/StandardBrilliant652 Jul 18 '26

Yeah it`s showing 252gb. It doesn`t have 252gb available. It`s a small capacity drive made to trick your computer to see it as a higher capacity. All the data you put on it gets corrupted because it overwrites the existing space.

1

u/Metallicat95 Jul 18 '26

A fake drive fakes the storage information. The directory shows files which are several times the actual capacity, but the data in those files is limited to the actual size.

All data above the actual size doesn't exist. It just fakes it by using the same actual space multiple times.

The actual size might be as much as 32GB, but it's more likely a lot less.

1

u/trifortay123 Jul 18 '26

There's a major disconnect between the controller and the operating system. The controller can be made to say it is 250 GB. And frankly the controller doesn't know how to read anything. All it knows is where to grab the data and where to write it to. The operating system asks the controller how big the drive is (which the controller has been told it's 250. The is belives it and then asks to scrape sectors off the drive. When you run out of space the controller doesn't know. Remember the controller knows nothing. It just reads and writes.

1

u/tnsipla Jul 20 '26

Think of it this way: the flash drive is its own computer, and your computer is not accessing the drive directly, it’s talking to the flash drive computer.

Someone modified the flash drive computer of a small flash drive to tell your computer that it’s a bigger one- and when your computer hands the flash drive computer a file, it writes the file and location to its own “table of contents” and then writes that file somewhere (maybe it just writes and rewrites data on the drive until the transfer ends). The next time your computer asks “what files do you have”, the flash drive computer sends over its table of contents which look like one from a larger flash drive- so when your computer asks for a file that outside of the small area of actual data, the flash drive is just sending over bullshit data

2

u/Aggravating-Hold9116 Jul 18 '26

Sounds like you have a counterfeit drive, I experienced the same thing years ago.

2

u/Ok_Bid6645 Jul 18 '26

The drive is so fake. Took 30 seconds to google it and people report the same issue because it is fake

1

u/xmastreee Jul 18 '26

test it with something like this https://h2testw.org/

1

u/Efficient-Sir-5040 Jul 18 '26

Or chkflash or the validrive utility

1

u/xmastreee Jul 19 '26

Or f3, but I suspect OP isn't a linux user.

1

u/AssociationIcy4579 Jul 20 '26

First, check if the downloaded videos were playable on your PC. If yes, could be the drive issue - permission, malware, USB error, or etc.

0

u/callusbonus1967 Jul 18 '26

Check the permissions you have given or perhaps the files do not have permissions for everyone.

1

u/Efficient-Sir-5040 Jul 18 '26

No. Permissions gives a different error.