Arduous drives bought as new contained decade-old internals from beforehand used Seagate and Western Digital unitsSMART information was manipulated to cover prior utilization, masking severe mechanical and skim error issuesAttingo evaluation revealed leftover person information, proving zeroing solely touched the beginning of storage sectorsA current case involving UnionSine-branded exterior laborious drives has raised severe questions in regards to the integrity of some merchandise bought by means of Amazon’s market.An investigation by information restoration firm Attingo uncovered supposedly “new” laborious drives contained 2.5″ HDDs from main manufacturers like Seagate and Western Digital manufactured over a decade in the past.These findings contradict the product labelling, which lists a producing date from spring 2025.
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Used drives masquerading as newThe drives had been bought underneath the identifier HD2510 throughout Amazon’s Tech Week promotional interval, and had been assumed by patrons to be new transportable HDDs appropriate for normal backup and storage use.Attingo’s teardown of the drives revealed not simply their age, but in addition indicators of earlier use, with the proof extending past the {hardware} identifiers.The corporate stated a number of the HDDs nonetheless contained fragments of person information, with solely the start of the info fields zeroed out.This apply, generally used to simulate full information erasure, didn’t eradicate all traces of prior use.Signal as much as the TechRadar Professional e-newsletter to get all the highest information, opinion, options and steering your online business must succeed!One recovered XML file even contained a timestamp from Could 2024, pointing to very current exercise inconsistent with a supposedly unused system.Among the information traces had been linked to TV recording methods, suggesting that the drives had as soon as been in operational environments.Attingo additionally famous inconsistencies in SMART (Self-Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Know-how) information, which is utilized by working methods to evaluate laborious drive well being.Though the displayed working hours recommended zero utilization, different key metrics, such because the learn error fee, advised a special story.This sort of manipulation has been seen earlier than in fraud instances involving repurposed HDDs, particularly these bought by means of grey market channels.The presence of quite a few learn errors and mechanical anomalies conflicted with the SMART standing, indicating a contemporary drive.The truth that this concern emerged from a widely known retail platform, somewhat than a distinct segment market or obscure on-line retailer, is of explicit concern.Attingo CEO Markus Häfele expressed alarm on the findings, saying the state of affairs was not solely deceptive to customers but in addition doubtlessly harmful from an information safety standpoint.”It is sadly well-known that used {hardware} is often declared as new on platforms like eBay or in direct imports from Asian retailers – however the truth that that is taking place systematically as a part of a extensively marketed Amazon marketing campaign is really scandalous,” Häfele stated.Although the incident has sparked renewed concern in regards to the reliability of NAS HDDs and exterior storage units provided by means of third-party sellers on-line, Amazon has but to reply to the allegations.Through ComputerbaseYou may also like
