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Initialize USB Stick?

H

Hollywood2000

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 1, 2022
7
8
Hi,

Got two 16TB USB Sticks of Ali express but I can not get them to format, get this error message,

Erasing “AL SSD Media” (disk6) and creating “Untitled”

Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Unable to write to the last block of the device. : (-69760)

Operation failed…


Any ideas? Are this fake USB sticks?

Cheers
 
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Usually, such stuff initializes just fine. Those may be duds.

Sometimes them Ali prices can seem best by far... and then you find out why when trying to actually use them. Hopefully, you have an ability to return them for a refund.

Update: missed the T in TB in above post. Total scam. Get refund if possible. Lowest cost, legit 16TB SSD is going to be RAID 0 enclosure of TWO 8TB m.2 sticks for approx. $1400 or so.

Or if you need “cheapest” 16TB, go HDD for about $170.
 
Last edited:
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I got suspicious when they were advertised as 16TB and as far as I know, there is no 16TB USB Sticks.

The question is can I make it work in a smaller configuration or not.
 
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You would need to modify the firmware. The software to do that is likely to be Windows only.

Send it back for refund.
 
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I just mentioned something like this when some one was comparing Ali express to Apple upgrade prices.
Op: it’s common scam on Ali express for USB and Nvme/SSD to advertise huge memory for cheap. Most of them don’t work and have volume information matching the advertised drive size. You either get lot less memory or none at all.
 
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benwiggy said:
You would need to modify the firmware. The software to do that is likely to be Windows only.

Send it back for refund.
Click to expand...
Exactly. These aren't just smaller drives sold as a 16TB drive. They hacked the firmware to present themselves to the computer as a bigger drive than they really are. You're just asking for data corruption down the road if you do get them to work. I wouldn't be surprised if the actual storage is something like 16 or 32GB.
 
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Ah...Ali. The place where almost every gadgets there are scams. And to be honest, considering that it's a storage to store your data, I consider yourself lucky. Lots of other people found the hard way AFTER they format it and using it for quite some time. Their data stored in there suddenly vanished into thin air.
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Next time, always buy from official store, no matter how much their price will be. For the time being, you could place an appeal and ask for a refund to the seller on the Ali app.
 
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Hollywood2000 said:
Hi,

Got two 16TB USB Sticks of Ali express but I can not get them to format, get this error message,

Erasing “AL SSD Media” (disk6) and creating “Untitled”

Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Unable to write to the last block of the device. : (-69760)

Operation failed…


Any ideas? Are this fake USB sticks?

Cheers
Click to expand...
I have 2 usb sticks of 32GB each… they don’t work perfectly and are slow (but at least they aren’t a scam)… An16tb usb sticks seems a big scam… but it was to expect since it’s Ali express… If you really want storage I suggest you an ssd !
 
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Hollywood2000 said:
Hi,

Got two 16TB USB Sticks of Ali express but I can not get them to format, get this error message,

Erasing “AL SSD Media” (disk6) and creating “Untitled”

Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Unable to write to the last block of the device. : (-69760)

Operation failed…


Any ideas? Are this fake USB sticks?

Cheers
Click to expand...
When I buy mass storage I look for the best I can find which is also often the most expensive. Life is too short to risk data to cheap mass storage. Even if only being used for sneakernet, one's time is worth more than bad data issues.

Questionable mass storage goes to recycle immediately.
 
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macfacts said:
Here's a windows tool to test if it is fake

New Freeware Detects Fake USB Drives with Inflated Capacity

Steve Gibson developed Windows freeware app also scans for read/write errors.
www.tomshardware.com

How much was the drive? Best price for SSD price now is about $70 usd for 1 TB
Click to expand...
I bought few 4 TB nice M.2 SSD from micro center on Black Friday sale for 199$ each. And a thunderbolt enclosure for few more hundred bucks. I wish there were legit 16 TB drives with single NAND chip. It’s too good to be true to get 16 TB or 32 TB with out spending a lot.
 
Even if you could format it to any size, I still wouldn't use it. Best case scenario you have a hacked firmware and some very sketchy SSD chips that could fail at any time, losing all your data. That's the Best case scenario.

Worst case scenario, that USB stick is exactly the above, with the added bonus that it is hosting malware.
 
16TB sticks, heh.

Largest single NAND is 256GB, maybe 512GB.

Toss that stick in the bin. It’s probably 2GB NAND only. We won’t know until you test and see when files overwrite themselves.
 
Last edited:
Hollywood2000 said:
Hi,

Got two 16TB USB Sticks of Ali express but I can not get them to format, get this error message,

Erasing “AL SSD Media” (disk6) and creating “Untitled”

Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Unable to write to the last block of the device. : (-69760)

Operation failed…


Any ideas? Are this fake USB sticks?

Cheers
Click to expand...
Yep, willing to bet they are reprogrammed 1GB or lower capacity sticks, which report to the OS a fake capacity. You only normally find there's a problem when capacity is reached, or in your case, tried to format. As the old adage goes "Buy cheap, buy twice". Really common, not just on Temu / AliExpress but also Amazon.
 
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Fake drives that report a high capacity in Windows but usually only hold a few GB (at most) before there is an error. They count on people buying them and never bothering to use them for much or being too lazy to return them. The fake capacity reporting probably doesn't even work on a Mac.
 
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