FakeFlashTest and ChipGenius are often listed side by side as if they were rivals. They are not. They answer completely different questions, and using only one of them leaves a gap the other was built to fill. FakeFlashTest tests whether a drive really holds what it claims to hold. ChipGenius reads information about the USB device and its controller without writing any test data at all. Put simply, one proves capacity, the other names the chip. The strongest workflow uses both, in the right order.
FakeFlashTest, by Steve Si of RMPrepUSB, is freeware for Windows, portable, and must be run as Administrator. Its latest v1.1.5 is the developer’s latest Beta. ChipGenius is a Windows utility that reads USB device and controller information, including VID and PID, controller vendor and part, and NAND flash information where the device reports it. It writes nothing to test capacity, and that single fact defines both its safety and its limit: it cannot prove real capacity by itself, no matter how detailed its report looks.
What ChipGenius can and cannot tell you
When you plug in a suspicious drive, ChipGenius can tell you what the device claims to be at the controller level: who made the controller, which part it reports, and what flash information is exposed. That is genuinely useful. Fake drives use hacked controller firmware to report a small amount of real flash as a huge capacity, and knowing the controller identity is the identification step that comes before anyone goes looking for controller tools, often called MPTools, for that specific chip. Without the controller identity, that search has nowhere to start.
What ChipGenius cannot do is verify that the reported capacity is real. Reading information the controller reports is not the same as writing data across the claimed capacity and reading it back. A lying controller can report plausible information while still wrapping writes around past its real limit and overwriting your files. Treating a tidy ChipGenius readout as proof of capacity is one of the most common and most expensive misunderstandings in this area. Identification is not verification, and no readout screen changes that.
| Tool | Method | Destructive? | Thoroughness | Platform | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FakeFlashTest (Quick) | Writes and reads back marker blocks at intervals from the end | Yes | Quick capacity screen; not a full test | Windows | Free (freeware) |
| FakeFlashTest (Test Empty Space) | Fills free space with test files and verifies | Designed to preserve files; back up first | Broader capacity check | Windows | Free (freeware) |
| ChipGenius | Reads device/controller info (VID/PID, controller, NAND info); writes no test data | No | No capacity proof by itself | Windows | Free utility |
The workflow order that makes sense
Start with ChipGenius when the drive already holds files or when you simply want a no-write first look, because reading controller information does not put data at risk. Note the VID, PID, and controller details and keep a record of them alongside any photos of the listing and packaging. Then back everything up, and run FakeFlashTest for the capacity answer: the Quick Size Test for a fast screen, or Test Empty Space where appropriate. Our download page sets out both modes, and how to test a USB flash drive for fake capacity gives the full sequence, including the Administrator step people most often miss.
If FakeFlashTest confirms the drive is fake, the ChipGenius details become supporting evidence and context rather than the verdict itself: the verdict comes from the capacity test. Follow what to do next when a fake drive is confirmed and learn to read FakeFlashTest results so your refund claim rests on a test, not on a readout. Some technically confident users then research controller tools for their specific chip. Go into that with clear eyes: it is a separate, controller-specific topic, it is not what either tool in this comparison does, and a drive built on this fraud should never graduate to holding important data again whatever you do to it.
Why “use both” is not just a slogan
Consider the two failure modes. Test capacity without identifying the controller, and you know the drive is fake but know nothing about what is actually inside it. Identify the controller without testing capacity, and you have a parts list for a drive whose central claim, its size, remains completely unverified. Together, the two tools give you a diagnosis and a description: how big the drive really behaves, and what hardware is making those claims. That combination is also what makes your notes useful if you report the seller or warn other buyers. For the wider toolkit, see the best fake USB drive test tools and FakeFlashTest vs H2testw for the full-proof step, plus our guide for microSD cards, where the same identify-then-test logic applies.
Keeping records that actually help
Whichever tool you run first, save its output properly. Screenshot or copy the ChipGenius readout in full, including the VID, PID, and controller fields, and save the FakeFlashTest result from the same session alongside it, dated and tied to the same drive. Sellers and support agents respond far better to a capacity test result paired with a clear device identification than to either document alone, because together they show both what the drive claims inside and how it behaves when written to. Keep your order details in the same folder until the return window has fully closed. If the drive passes the capacity screen, those same records become the baseline you compare against if it ever starts behaving strangely later.
Verdict
Do not choose between FakeFlashTest and ChipGenius; sequence them. ChipGenius first for a safe, no-write identification of the controller and flash information, FakeFlashTest second, on a backed-up drive, for the capacity proof ChipGenius can never give. One names the chip, the other proves the capacity, and a buyer armed with both has everything needed to return a fake with confidence. Start with the FakeFlashTest download for the proof step, and keep the ChipGenius readout in the same folder as your test results.