- Arduous drives offered as new contained decade-old internals from beforehand used Seagate and Western Digital models
- SMART knowledge was manipulated to cover prior utilization, masking critical mechanical and browse error points
- Attingo evaluation revealed leftover consumer knowledge, proving zeroing solely touched the beginning of storage sectors
A latest case involving UnionSine-branded exterior laborious drives has raised critical questions concerning the integrity of some merchandise offered by way of Amazon’s market.
An investigation by knowledge 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 new
The drives have been offered below the identifier HD2510 throughout Amazon’s Tech Week promotional interval, and have 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 additionally indicators of earlier use, with the proof extending past the {hardware} identifiers.
The corporate stated a number of the HDDs nonetheless contained fragments of consumer knowledge, with solely the start of the info fields zeroed out.
This apply, generally used to simulate full knowledge erasure, didn’t remove all traces of prior use.
One recovered XML file even contained a timestamp from Might 2024, pointing to very latest exercise inconsistent with a supposedly unused machine.
A number of the knowledge traces have 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) knowledge, 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 charge, informed a special story.
This type of manipulation has been seen earlier than in fraud circumstances involving repurposed HDDs, particularly these offered by way 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 difficulty emerged from a well known retail platform, fairly than a distinct segment market or obscure on-line retailer, is of specific concern.
Attingo CEO Markus Häfele expressed alarm on the findings, saying the state of affairs was not solely deceptive to customers but additionally doubtlessly harmful from an information safety standpoint.
“It is sadly well-known that used {hardware} is sometimes 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 broadly marketed Amazon marketing campaign is really scandalous,” Häfele stated.
Although the incident has sparked renewed concern concerning the reliability of NAS HDDs and exterior storage units provided by way of third-party sellers on-line, Amazon has but to reply to the allegations.
By way of Computerbase
