Fraudsters have found new ways to pass off used HDDs as new ones — Seagate explains how to identify them

A wave of counterfeit Seagate hard drives has flooded the market and is not abating. The German publication Heise has uncovered a new method of fraud involving manipulation of metadata. Fraudsters have learned to change Field Accessible Reliability Metrics (FARM), which allows them to sell used drives as new.

Image source: Seagate

Experts recommend using alternative verification methods. One of them is analyzing the operating time of individual disk heads, since this data is more difficult to fake. Another useful method is checking the production date. New HDDs usually reach customers within six months of production, and a significant delay between the production date and the sale date may indicate potential fraud.

It is also worth paying attention to the presence of a sticker with a serial number and a barcode on the front panel of the disc. The absence of this sticker should at least alert the buyer. In addition, the serial number of the disc can be checked using mobile barcode scanner applications.

Image source: Seagate

Recall that the problem first became known in January, when reports emerged of used Seagate Exos enterprise-class drives being sold as new. An investigation showed that the scammers had forged serial numbers, changed labels, and erased metadata on usage dates. However, special utilities such as smartmontools were still able to detect traces of use. As it turned out, some drives had worked for more than 22,000 hours.

The source of the counterfeit drives turned out to be Chinese farms that mined the Chia cryptocurrency. During the popularity of Chia, demand for hard drives increased sharply, causing a shortage and price increases. When mining this cryptocurrency became unprofitable, the farms closed, and worn-out drives with 15,000 to 50,000 hours of operation began to appear on the market as new.

Seagate denied any involvement in fraud, promising to investigate and provide tools to verify the authenticity of the products. The company also recommended that resellers purchase drives only from certified distributors. However, even among official partners, there were cases of selling counterfeit HDDs due to vulnerabilities in the supply chain.