Companies like Kingston, Sandisk manufacture SD cards that are in a myriad of numbers. Now here is where the problem lies. Since these companies are producing flash memory cards of several capacity densities and different models, they will all possess different levels of performance. From personal experience, there are some people who purchased SD cards from the above mentioned reputable companies and experienced below satisfactory performance.
These kinds of incidents have started to occur in numerous frequencies. Before you jump to conclusions saying that companies falsely advertise the performance of their products, stop to think for a moment and divert your attention to the shopkeepers, because you never know what trick they might be hiding up their sleeves to sell to unsuspecting customers in the hopes of making a quick buck. Fortunately for you, there are ways to easily deduce the authenticity of a SD storage card.
Few Facts Before Proceeding
Before we move on, there are few small facts that we would like to get out of the way first. SD storage cards, and every other storage device that is NOT A HARD DRIVE comprises of flash storage. Flash storage can be manipulated with little effort (especially if that SD card is in the hands of a dexterous individual, who knows this trade all too well) into displaying an upgraded capacity, which will obviously be sold at a higher price, fooling the customers and filling the shopkeeper’s pocket at the same time.
In order to check whether or not your SD card is authentic or not, there happens to an industry standard for testing memory present in the SD card. It is the burn in test, and what it does is that it writes a set amount of data onto the flash memory, and then verifies that data. If errors start appearing in your SD card, then it obviously means that that the memory present in the SD card is:
- Unstable
- Made up of sub – standard quality
- Most likely manipulated to display a fake capacity
Which Program To Use?
h2testw.exe or more commonly known as the H2 burn in test will be your guardian. Given below are the instructions that you will need to follow in order to complete the test:
1: Insert the SD card into an available slot card reader slot and DO NOT proceed with the test until and unless the card has been properly read by the computer system. After the card has been detected, run the H2 burn it test.
2: Click on the ‘Select target button’, which will obviously land you to the place where you have to choose the drive letter that corresponds to the SD storage card.
3: After selecting the drive path where your SD storage card is placed, leave the option ‘DATA VOLUME: ALL AVAILABLE SPACE’ checked and the option ‘ENDLESS VERIFY’ unchecked.
4: Click on the ‘WRITE + VERIFY’ button to execute the test.
5: The H2 burn in test will use the entire capacity of the SD card in order to reach the verdict. If the test takes too long to process, then it is also going to depend a lot on the speed of your SD card. A genuine SD card will no doubt consume less time to complete the test, while a fake SD card will comparatively take far longer. After the test has been completed, you will receive a full report, telling you how many errors you have received on your device.
If you do receive any form of errors whatsoever, chances are that your SD storage card is faulty or has been upgraded to a higher fake capacity. If you have any further questions regarding this program, then no one is stopping you from filling out the comment banks and asking them. Till then, good luck with your next SD card purchase.
