Recently, several independent investigations have revealed the sale of used Seagate hard drives that are being sold as new. In doing so, fraudsters erase usage records, change serial numbers, and modify labels to mislead customers. However, it is still possible to determine that the drive has been used, and there are several ways to detect such counterfeit HDDs.
About 2 weeks ago, allegedly new Seagate Exos series hard drives (designed for use in cloud service providers’ data centers) were found on sale, and now a similar situation has occurred with IronWolf Pro series drives (designed for corporate NAS systems). These are quite reliable lines of drives designed for 24/7 operation. Although these drives have a lot in common in terms of hardware platform, they use different firmware.
Due to their reliability, performance, and high capacity, the Exos and IronWolf Pro HDDs were an attractive choice for Chia mining. There is an assumption that Chia miners are now massively selling used drives from their farms, which may include both Exos and IronWolf Pro. However, instead of honestly admitting that these are used HDDs, fraudsters modify them and offer them as new.
How to recognize used Seagate HDDs
Counterfeit Seagate Exos and IronWolf Pro hard drives are sold through retail stores in various countries and look almost identical to new ones. They appear to be «zero» for software because the internal usage logs, including SMART settings, have been cleared. However, a closer inspection reveals small dents and scratches on the case, as well as scuffs on the SATA connector – clear signs of previous use.
In addition, the QR codes on the counterfeit devices have been altered. Instead of redirecting to the standard Seagate verification page, they lead to a warranty verification page that does not display the serial number or drive capacity, making it difficult to verify authenticity. The fake labels also cause slight differences in the alignment and scaling of the printed data. Finally, utilities such as smartmontools, which can read Seagate’s FARM (Field-Accessible Reliability Metrics) values, show that some of these drives have been in operation for more than 50 thousand hours.
So far, no such cases have been reported for Toshiba or Western Digital HDDs. However, it is more difficult to detect traces of tampering with these brands, as they do not have analogues to FARM indicators that contain extended usage history.
Seagate has confirmed the problem, noting that fraudulent practices with IronWolf series drives are not new. The company is conducting an active investigation into how the altered drives entered the market.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time Chia miners sell used drives under the guise of new ones.
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