500GB Sony MicroVault Counterfeit Fake USB Flash Drive – Model Numbers USM4024 – USM500024
Posted by flashchiptutor on March 26, 2009
Beware Sony Microvault models USM4024, USM500024 advertised as 500GB with a packaging label of 500G are a counterfeit – fake! Sony never produced these usb flash drives. It will be a number of years before there will be a 500GB usb flash drive available. These are the most outrageous and wild false capacity usb flash drives. Sold on wholesaler internet sites in China and Hong Kong. Often sold as “upgraded” – there is no such thing. These drives are unlikely to have a real capacity of more than 512MB. This model type the favorite Sony Micro vault counterfeit sold on eBay. It comes in other sizes and packaging. Avoid being frauded or scammed. Do not buy this usb flash drive, you risk data loss. Do not sell this usb flash drive!
This is a very popular article. If you bought one of these drives, please send the details to sosfakeflashdrive@gmail.com
Important Reading:
- USB Flash Drives Best Price Bargains Fair Value To Sell Or Buy 8GB 16GB 32GB
- Genuine Verses Fake Counterfeit USB Flash Drives – A Guide – USB Flash Chips Used – Grades A B C D
- Sony MicroVault Genuine USB Flash Drives – Archive Of Retired Models To Avoid Fakes And Counterfeits
- H2testw 1.4 – Gold Standard In Detecting USB Counterfeit Drives
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
The fakes shown above have been around a long time. One is a relabeled item.
Please report any internet listing to:
Visit http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/ for the list of sites in the FrankenFlash Project. You will find plenty of evidence on this counterfeit line that has been documented.
Flashchiptutor's Flash Drive Facts 
Dermott said
Had a coworker bring some of these back from China last month. I tested mine and got up to 2 gig onto it before it broke (obviously I knew it was fake but I was curious). He gave another one to a friend and it came pre-loaded with spyware that launched through an autorun exploit. Redirected him to chinese sites, changed his default search to Baidu, broke his LSA stack, etc. SKU USM500024 UPC 2724263969
You might want to have a note that it is probably very likely that spyware/adware can be pre-flashed on these drives before sale.
kittyfireflash said
Yes, depending on how people have their operating system configured – autorun on for usb flash drives – this is a very serious exposure. In reprogramming the flash drives ie changing their reported size, the tools and environment where this is done is not very “clean”. For people who buy on eBay this happens a lot when they buy these fakes. Alot of viruses seem to be reported. There are more dangers then just lossing data. Some come with a setup disk and these often have viruses too. It tends to happen a lot with those bargain basement MP Players, but also sometimes with usb flash drives.
And an odd thing doing a general search on the interent for code UPC 2724263969, or just plain 2724263969 comes up empty too.
Dermott said
Yeah, probably because I typed the UPC wrong (it’s only 10 digits when it should be 12). ‘Real’ UPC is 027242639690 which comes up blank on http://www.upcdatabase.com though if you look at things with a similar prefix http://www.upcdatabase.com/by_prefix.asp?prefix=27242 they are all Sony. These guys did their homework.
neoice said
i have several of these and all have copied data up to 488gb.
However these drive will not format into NTFS only FAT32
kittyfireflash said
Hi Neoice
Please test the drives. Read http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/h2testw-14-gold-standard-in-detecting-usb-counterfeit-drives/ This drive was never made by sony. It is a counterfeit. You need to find the true capacity.
Generally usb flash drives do not like being formatted in to NTSF. It is complicated. FAT32 is understood by most operating systems so this is why it is normally used. It does present a problem with video and files more than 4 GB. But you are very very unlikely to have even 4GB with this flash drive. The highest real capacity found so far is only 512 MB.
dirtyhippy said
i have two of these drives and i can attest to their ability to hold 499gb, though only in an exFAT format. i even reformatted and they still work and have the same capacity. whether sony made them or not, is of little importance. even if it is counterfeit, the ones i have are very real, and their original capacity is 500gb before formatting.
Goodseek said
Hi. a friend who recently came back from china take like 25 of those USB 10 of 500GB and 15 of 640GB i already tell him is a fake but im looking for some tool or any way to use that USBs, like restore it to its original sise: 512mb, 1gb anything is better that nothing y have tried several utilities like Portfree production, iformat, HDLLF, and some others but non of those work, in other forums say that this tools work to restore fake usbs of 8 or 4gb but i cant find anything to restore USBs of 640gb not eaven 500gb if someone know a way to restore those usbs plz tell me.
THX and sorry for the english that i dont speak it to well.
InspectorTech said
You need to visit my site. Look at the post on vid and pid. It explains what you must find before trying to fix usb flash drives. You need information on what the controller chip is and possiblily the flash drive chip. If you do not know what the controller is, then how to find the right tool?
Please becareful Goodseek, if you use the wrong tool you could damage the drive(s). In your case if they are all the same model and if you are very very gentle, you could try to open one and see what the controller is. Then look at my site to see if there are any articles on it. The vid and pid article has links to the russian site with translation to look for a tool that somebody might have uploaded.
If you have more questions you could leave comments at my site, but it is better at sosfakeflash site, for the repairing fakes post to see if somebody could answer you. Also look at that article for the many comments people have left. Once you know the controller you may have a better chance to fix the usb flash drives.
sktr said
how to format microvault 640 gb,please help me.please sent instruction to my email ok
saber said
Hi everyone
I bought one of this fake flash with capacity “80GB SONY VAIO” unfortunately, so I can format this USB with DRAGON software, but I cannot partition this flash if evrybody have information about this problem I’ll appropriate if help me.
tanx
Ph.Sarbaz@yahoo.com
Randy said
Have you tested drive with h2testw? What was the output?
Some of these drives have a small real capacity and are not worth repairing of partitioning.
sepang said
I just come across your website. If you have not fixed your flash drive, you can check this out – http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160398880556
TechChips said
Hi sepang,
Please read :
for more information regarding this listing. Sorry it does not address the real issue.
It it is great to promote awareness. It is NOT THE ANSWER to repairing fake flash memory items. If you read the dialogue in that comment and after, it will become clear why.
Beware Sony Microvault models USM4024, USM500024 advertised as 500GB with a packaging label of 500G are a counterfeit « Ericgrobinson's Blog said
[…] Beware Sony Microvault models USM4024, USM500024 advertised as 500GB with a packaging label of 500G are a counterfeit April 13, 2010 at 6:02 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 500GB Sony MicroVault Counterfeit Fake USB Flash Drive – Model Numbers USM4024 – USM500024 […]
Randy Dach said
I am another sucker for the cheap media. On Alibaba.com they advertize sony micro vault usb 2.0 640 G USM640024 $157.00 for 15
here is the readout from h2testw.exe
Warning: Only 128 of 655338 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
99 MByte OK (202752 sectors)
29 MByte DATA LOST (59392 sectors)
Details:0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
29 MByte corrupted (59392 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x0000000006300000
Expected: 0x0000000006300000
Found: 0xffffffffffffffff
H2testw version 1.3
Reading speed: 9.43 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
pure junk
Tks Randy
Andrew Jensen said
Someone has one up for sale on ebay right now. Do a search on “500GB flash drive” and you’ll see it – I’m betting the seller has no clue what she’s gotten her hands on.
Crazy world, isn’t it!