Tool: H2testw - To test hacked flash memory
 

Hi everyone,

I was reading a website and found it mentioned a tool called "H2TESTW" to test flash memory whether it has been hacked.

So, I've uploaded it to this site and can be downloaded here: H2testw - To test hacked flash memory

I would like to ask if anyone who has a hacked player to test this tool and see if find anything. It's a self executable program which doesn't require installation. Obviously it would work much better for those players that hasn't had the memory hack removed.

Would love to hear your feedback.

I'm somewhat against the use of this program on MP4 players since there's the risk of overwriting the firmware if the flash is really smaller than it specifies. There's also the fact that flash these days, unless you're lucky and get a 100K cycles SLC, has very low endurance (down to 1,500 cycles for some very new parts). It's OK for USB drives and the like, which don't store firmware on the same flash as the main storage. The better way is to open the device and read the part number directly.

Thanks lolita for your comments.

From the description of the program, it says this:

"H2testw does not overwrite or erase any existing data. It doesn't do any low-level tricks so administrator privileges are not required. If your hardware is working properly H2testw will not harm any existing data."

From that, I think it wouldn't overwrite the firmware. But then again, I'm not sure if anyone has tried this on their MP4 player yet. I would be interested to know if you do.

I'll see if I can buy myself a dodgy hacked player and try that and see what happens....... We don't have eBay here in New Zealand, so it may be slightly more difficult.

I'm getting conflicting information. Here, it says that h2testw writes to the drive to determine its true capacity. I can't see any other way to do so either, with only the ability to read/write sectors to the device and not e.g. use some extended commands that could get the flash hardcoded ID.

Worked for me.
 

I tried this programme yesterday on my mp4 player. It confirmed to me that my 16GB player is in reality only 1.8GB. It did not overwrite the firmware.

I have tested my 32GB Mp4 and it's 3.5GB only. How can I fix the Memory Hack, to make it 3.5GB only, and not 32GB as a fake? The other tool in the other sticky doesn't work.

nand flash fast check
 

here is another way to check nand flash size ..
product code decoder: open your 2.8" touchscreen player and search nand flash product code.
the source decoder product code data are from samsung, hynix and micron directly.

NAND FLASH SIZE CHECK by nane

After using H2Testw my player is dead :(
After writing with H2Testw of apr. 2Gb player was disconnected and after that Win doesn't recognizes it.
Moreover I cant power on it:(

Board: QS27C21 Touch Key v0.1

H2testw will only write to free memory.
It will not over-wright firmware or existing information stored in the memory.

If you disconnect the program whilst it is running, you run the risk of corrupting the information being written. This may cause problems, it's like switching the power off your computer when it is writing to the hard disk (not recommended).

If your player stops working after H2testw has finished, then I am afraid that your player would have stopped working if you had filled it's memory with data (music/video). That would have been caused by the way the firmware has been hacked , not by H2testw.

The fact that H2testw will only write to free memory will cause an incorrect "OK" value if files are stored on the device when testing is performed.

Before testing, copy all files from your player into a temporary folder on your PC, so that you can put them back when finished.
Delete the files on your player and then run H2testw.
It will take a long time to run the test if your player is claiming 32Gb, wait until the program indicates that it has finished.
Make a note of how much memory is indicated as "OK".

I have a "RIZONE" player.
I used H2testw to test it, deleted the primary partition, created a primary partition using the H2testw information and then formated the partition.
My player still works, I fill it with audio books several times a week and never have problems.

I would recommend that people used usb cables from other devices or invest in buying a good cable because the cables supplied with these cheep players are pretty crap.

As far as the uncertainty of over-writing firmware is concerned, the "RIZONE" either has separate memory for it, or the only way to gain access to it is by using flash software.
H2testw will not over-wright firmware.

I didn't disconnect the player by myself. I think it was disconnected by itself after H2testw start writing to memory which are not exist. Because real memory of my player 2GB, but system recognizes 8Gb.
Before I used H2testw with 2 another hacked players. One player was fully tested with H2testw and another also disconnected itself after H2testw start writing over 1.8Gb...but after this player works good...

I formatted the drive and it says 15.9Gb in Windows but now when I try to access "Music" on the player it just says "Disk Error!"

Any clues as to what is going on here?

I have been through the suggested format sequence as suggested elsewhere in this forum and each time it reports 15.9Gb

ian

Interestingly running this utility on one of the players I purchased off of ebay only achieves a write rate of about 1Mb/s whereas for the USB 1.1 interface on the XP machine the maximum throughput could be as high as 1.5Mb/s which would seem to indicate a a fair amount of processing going on before read/write on the drive itself. Clearly this will take several hours to check 8-16Gb of supposed memory.

I will let you know what these players are reported as having by way of actual memory.

ian

ps there is interesting background to the problem on Wiki
USB flash drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are Flash Tools mentioned there

http://www.sdean12.org/zipped2/USBFlashTools210.zip

;)

I am currently trying the Sarah Dean Tools, looks like it runs ok on Vista so will be quicker as that laptop has USB 2 ports not 1.1

ian

Well, that was interesting!

The report (for the one that said it was 10Gb even after reformat):-

So the Sarah Dean utility is a fairly fast and reasonably accurate (to 1Mb) to prove for claims purposes that you have been sold a fake.

But still very interesting. I shall research this further now.

ian :)

This would seem to indicate that formatting should be set to 4Gb? I am still confused as to how the Mp3 Drive Manager utility actually works and how we end up with 2 drive letters but the player obviously only can recognise 1.

The problem for me is that its still saying either "Disk Error!" because it finds no disk at all or it only "sees" the small 17Mb partition that that tool seems to create by default.

Any ideas?

Problem was solved by the very good chkflsh method as posted elsewhere on this forum

ian

The write/read test tests the usable portion of any memory available in the device. In my experience of these players there is not much of note already on them, no films etc so there is not much to copy off of them. Its an easy matter to make a copy of anything already on the player prior to testing, just drag the selected files as usual to an empty folder you create on your laptop/desktop machine. The memory test will not overwrite the firmware. After the test has run take note of the TRUE capacity and follow the instructions elsewhere to use the chkflsh utility to re-partition the drive and then re-format to the true capacity. You can then copy back any files or folders as you wish.

The problem if you leave it hacked is that at some point you may lose data and not be able to use the device.

Copying a folder by default copies the content. Drag and Drop is a Copy by default in Windows. I do not believe there is any constraint on what order those folders appear. If you copy them back after re-partitioning then the contents should still play OK.

STEP 1
Back Up All Your Data Before Proceeding! This Guide Will Clear Everything In Your Player's Memory Chip!

Install MP3 Utilities, any version will do. It usually comes on the CD with the player, or you can download version 3.68
here, or version 4.03 here, or version 4.05 here. Any one of these will do. The Disk Tool Utility is the same.


STEP 2
Start up MP3 Utilities Disk Tool.
You will be shown a screen like this:

Ensure that you select LOW Format Type.

Next, go to the Partition and Encrypt tab as shown below.

Now, slide the Partition Slider all the way to the Right.
You will notice the "Setting encrypted disk capacity" increases, it is normal.
In this screen, you will also notice the first signs of a hacked memory. After sliding the slider to the right, you should see the actual capacity of the memory chip in the Partition box.

*NOTE* Ensure That You Do Not Click The "Set Username And Password", Leave It UNTICKED.

Next, click on Start to begin the format and partition process. You will be presented with a dialog box like below, click on Yes to proceed.

It will take a few moments for the process to complete. You will notice that your player would disconnect from the computer, and then re-connect back again.

You will be presented with the "Complete setting disk partition!" dialog box like below.



STEP 3
Go to My Computer and check that now you will two memory drives for your player. You might need to click Refresh or press F5.


One of which would be small (about 17MB), and the other would be the remaining memory capacity.
*note* it seems that some members reported that they do not see this extra drive appearing. Do not worry if it does not appear, just continue to proceed with the guide.

Now, go back to the Partition and Encrypt tab.
Slide the Partition slider to the Left, and click on Start.


You will repeat the process and the "Complete setting disk partition!" dialog box would appear.


Check in My Computer that now you will only have One single memory drive for your player. Right click on it and select Properties, this is your actual real memory capacity.

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/9555/8wb0.png
Now check your player's Memory Info for the correct memory display.
To access this, go to your player's SYS TOOL >> MEMORY INFO.
Your player should display the actual memory size that you have just checked.
Check if the percentage is at 0%. If it is, you can skip Step 4 below, and continue to Step 5.


STEP 4
If your player's Memory Info does not show 0%, you will need to complete the below procedure.

Right click on your player's memory drive, and select Format.



Now a new windows format screen would appear.

Select FAT in the File System drop down menu.
If after completing Step 3, your player really does have 4GB of memory, then you need to select FAT32 instead. As FAT only supports up to 2GB.
Click on Start to begin on the format process.

A warning will appear for the format, click on OK to continue.

Wait for a few moments while Windows formats your player.
When completed, check your player's Memory Info again, it should display 0% now.


STEP 5
Once completed, sit back and start copying music/video files to your player and enjoy your stuff!

what all do i need?
 

my mom gave me this mp4 player for my birthday, and i can't figure out how to get more than 3 gigs of songs on it. it's version is 1018_100303_rel_tp_iphone_bg_s I saw that someone else had a media player with similar numbers. anyone know what it is or if i need any software? i'm not very tech savvy so if possible, explain in simple terms. thanks

Can you post a picture of it?

I think I did this right, there should be two pictures attached[IMG]file:///C:/Users/spencer/Pictures/2011-01-23/023.JPG[/IMG]

Hi!
It would be great if anyone can help me with this report that I got from h2testW:

The media is likely to be defective.
3.8 GByte OK (7998964 sectors)
262 KByte DATA LOST (524 sectors)
Details:0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
262 KByte corrupted (524 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x0000000061bfd800
Expected: 0x0000000061bfd800
Found: 0x0000ffff2080ffff
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 1.02 MByte/s
Reading speed: 4.75 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

What can I do about those 262 Kbytes so they don't corrupt my mp3s when I put them - can't I put a restricition on the writing on this defective sector of memory?

P.S. By the way, I formatted the device before doing the check.