• 2 min read
Fake Samsung 870 EVO fools Windows with 2TB lie
Counterfeit Samsung 870 EVO SSDs are posing as real 2TB drives in Windows, but testing showed only about 120GB of usable capacity.
Image: iXBT
Counterfeit Samsung 870 EVO 2TB SSDs are now convincing enough to fool Windows itself. According to iXBT, the fake drives are nearly indistinguishable from the real product by packaging, casing, and labels, and the operating system identifies them as genuine 2TB SATA SSDs.
CrystalDiskMark results also look plausible for a SATA drive, with about 492 MB/s read and 467 MB/s write speeds.
A deeper check exposed the fraud. In testing with H2testw, the drive could write only about 117,227 MB — roughly 120 GB — before write speed dropped to zero and the test could not be completed. After a reboot, the SSD no longer identified properly in the system, and previously written data became inaccessible.
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That makes the scam particularly risky: a buyer may not notice anything is wrong until stored data exceeds the drive’s real capacity. At that point, all information on the disk could be lost.
A teardown showed none of Samsung’s usual hardware inside. Instead of a Samsung controller, the fake uses a Realtek RM1135T controller plus two unbranded flash memory chips with no markings. A genuine Samsung 870 EVO uses a Samsung controller, Samsung NAND, and a separate DRAM cache.
In practice, the fraud works by selling a drive with a real capacity of about 120 GB while firmware reports it to the system as a 2TB SSD.
Security Editor
Sophia unpacks the invisible wars happening on our networks. Covering cybersecurity, privacy legislation, and cryptography, she exposes how our data is weaponized and defended. Before joining for(geeks), she spent years as a penetration tester. She's the reason the rest of the team uses physical security keys.
via iXBT
