I bought a ’16TB external M.2 SSD’ for $20 and got what I deserved

Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributor

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes Contributor

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over two decades to helping users get the most from technology — whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera. Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs.

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Regular readers will know that I’ve been in the market for SSD drives. While I was shopping, I couldn’t help but notice that there were a lot of cheap — very cheap — 16TB external M.2 SSD drives being offered by no-name sellers.

Now 16TB M.2 SSDs do indeed exist, but they’re not $20.

Try closer to $3,000.

OK, so while I knew it was a scam, I had to find out what made these fake drives tick.

So, I bought one.

Don’t worry, the scammers don’t benefit from this sale because I always claim a refund and report the seller for selling fake products.

I’d ordered this fake drive about a month ago, and today it arrived, and I was so excited that I ripped it out of the box and plugged it into a system (an isolated, sacrificial system, there’s no way I’m plugging a random drive into my main systems).

Now, I was expecting one of those cheap, low-capacity drives that had been modified to look like a 16TB monster.

What I go was even more disappointing.

Lots of promises of M.2 drive goodness on the packaging.

The packaging looks good. Looks like a genuine product.

I got the drive out of the box, plugged it into a test system (I’m not plugging a random drive into my main system). 

Surprise, the drive didn’t work.

I grabbed my tools and started digging in, and within seconds I had the guts out and the drive spilled its secrets — there were no M.2 drives inside, but instead a no-name 64GB microSD card fitted into a USB-C microSD card reader.

No M.2 drive in sight. Instead a microSD card.

Basically, the drive is a USB-C microSD card reader.

The microSD card was corrupted and totally unusable. Nothing I tried could bring it to life.

Basically, it’s all junk.

Well, the little bag and the USB-A to USB-C cable was nice and all, but not $20 nice.

Remember, if a deal looks too good to be true, it is.

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