- Onerous drives offered as new contained decade-old internals from beforehand used Seagate and Western Digital items
- SMART knowledge was manipulated to cover prior utilization, masking critical mechanical and browse error points
- Attingo evaluation revealed leftover person knowledge, proving zeroing solely touched the beginning of storage sectors
A latest case involving UnionSine-branded exterior onerous drives has raised critical questions concerning the integrity of some merchandise offered by means of Amazon’s market.
An investigation by knowledge restoration firm Attingo uncovered supposedly "new" onerous 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.
Used drives masquerading as new
The drives have been offered beneath 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 in addition indicators of earlier use, with the proof extending past the {hardware} identifiers.
The corporate mentioned a number of the HDDs nonetheless contained fragments of person knowledge, with solely the start of the information fields zeroed out.
This apply, generally used to simulate full knowledge erasure, did not get rid of all traces of prior use.
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One recovered XML file even contained a timestamp from Might 2024, pointing to very latest exercise inconsistent with a supposedly unused machine.
Among the knowledge traces have been linked to TV recording programs, 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 programs to evaluate onerous drive well being.
Though the displayed working hours instructed zero utilization, different key metrics, such because the learn error price, instructed a distinct story.
This type of manipulation has been seen earlier than in fraud instances involving repurposed HDDs, particularly these offered 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 difficulty emerged from a widely known retail platform, slightly 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 scenario was not solely deceptive to customers but in addition probably harmful from an information safety standpoint.
"It's 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 occurring systematically as a part of a extensively marketed Amazon marketing campaign is really scandalous," Häfele mentioned.
Although the incident has sparked renewed concern concerning the reliability of NAS HDDs and exterior storage gadgets supplied by means of third-party sellers on-line, Amazon has but to answer the allegations.
Through Computerbase
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