Dead Flash Drive: Interpreting H2testw Results

Your understanding is correct - the flash drive is severely damaged and practically non-functional. The H2testw showed that only 107.7 MB of the nearly 15 GB works correctly, while 14.5 GB of data is lost due to damaged sectors. This indicates either a fake drive with false capacity or physical memory damage.

Contents

• Main H2testw Results
• Interpretation of Results
• Causes of Flash Drive Problems
• What Can Be Tried
• How to Avoid Such Problems in the Future
• Conclusion

Main H2testw Results

From the provided results, several critical issues can be seen:

• “Drive is likely defective” - this is the standard H2testw warning when serious problems with the flash drive are detected
• 14.5 GB of data lost - a huge portion of memory is not working
• First error at offset 0x0000000006bb7000 - problems started relatively early in the testing process
• Expected: 0x0000000006bb7000, Found: 0x0000000000000000 - the flash drive returned zeros instead of test data, indicating damaged memory cells

As explained in H2testw sources, when a drive returns only zeros or ones when reading instead of expected data, this is a sign of physically damaged memory sectors.

Interpretation of Results

Your results are typical for two main problems:

1. Fake flash drive with false capacity

From research on fighting fraud, when the stated capacity significantly exceeds the actual working memory, this is a classic sign of a fake drive. In your case, if the flash drive was supposed to be more than 15 GB, but only 107 MB + 14.5 GB of damaged sectors actually work, this strongly suggests a counterfeit drive.

2. Physical damage

Based on analyses on forums, such results can also indicate physical damage to memory chips. Particularly concerning is the fact that the error was detected at offset 0x0000000006bb7000, meaning problems started not at the very end, but rather early on.

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Causes of Flash Drive Problems

Possible causes according to research:

1. Fake memory chips - the manufacturer used chips with actual capacity much smaller than stated
2. Damaged controller logic - issues with the chip that manages the memory
3. Memory wear - previous intensive use led to degradation of memory cells
4. Manufacturing defects - production defects during manufacturing

From sources on USB testing, it’s known that when H2testw shows “DATA LOST” with large volumes, this usually means the flash drive is either fake or has serious physical damage.

What Can Be Tried

1. Formatting

Sometimes low-level formatting through specialized utilities may help, but the chances of success are slim with such extensive damage.

2. Limited use

If it’s critical to use this particular flash drive, you can try:

• Format it to the minimum volume (107 MB)
• Use it only for very small files
• Configure the operating system to avoid using damaged sectors

However, experts do not recommend using damaged flash drives for important data due to the risk of complete information loss.

3. Return and replacement

The most reliable option is to return the flash drive to the seller and request a replacement or refund.

How to Avoid Such Problems in the Future

Recommendations from research:

1. Test new flash drives immediately after purchase using H2testw
2. Buy from trusted sellers - cheap flash drives with unrealistically low prices are more often fake
3. Pay attention to brand and packaging - counterfeit drives often have errors in packaging design
4. Use multiple backups on different media for important data

As noted in the official H2testw guide, regular testing of new flash drives can save a lot of time and nerves in the future.

Conclusion

Your concerns are completely justified - the flash drive is severely damaged. Main conclusions:

1. The flash drive is practically non-functional - more than 99% of its stated capacity does not work correctly
2. The cause is either fake or physical damage - in either case, repair is not economically feasible
3. Such a flash drive is not suitable for bootable images - the risk of data loss is too high
4. It’s better to replace the flash drive - recovery attempts are unlikely to succeed

Considering that Ventoy could not install the system on this flash drive but works successfully on another, this is additional confirmation of serious problems with your drive. I recommend purchasing a new flash drive and testing it immediately after purchase using H2testw.

Sources

1. H2testw – Gold standard in detecting fake capacity flash | Fighting flash fraud on Ebay
2. Test A USB Flash Drive For Errors Or Fake Size - TechLogon
3. How to Test Your USB Memory: A Comprehensive Guide - h2testw
4. How to Check Your USB Drive for Errors and Recover Data - h2testw
5. Bogus USB flash drive / understanding H2testw results - Reddit
6. H2testw 1.4 – Gold Standard In Detecting USB Counterfeit Drives - SOSFakeFlash
7. How to understand the result of H2testw - XDA Forums