Used Seagate hard disks in circulation as new goods
Used Seagate drives have been sent to at least two retailers as new goods. It is still unclear how the disks entered the supply chain.
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While looking for new drives for his NAS, our reader Florian E. purchased two Seagate Exos hard disks, model number ST14000NM005G, from a German online retailer at the beginning of January. When unpacking these 14-TB drives, he discovered some minor damage to the casing, but thought nothing more of it. The SMART values were unremarkable, the SMART tests ran through, there were no errors.
After a few days, he checked the disks again with the smartmontools, but this time with an option that produces further diagnostic data. Seagate collects so-called FARM values (Field Accessible Reliability Metrics) for its server drives, which are evaluated in Synology NAS enclosures, for example.
According to this data, the drives had already clocked up 10,000 and 15,000 hours respectively.
He complained about the drives and ordered a replacement from another dealer, this time the ST16000NM001G model with 16 TByte. Here, too, he found minimal signs of wear on the housing. But worse: According to smartmontools, these drives had already been running for 22,000 hours.
According to the Seagate warranty query, all four drives are also OEM drives, which are only covered by the dealer's statutory warranty, but not the usual five-year warranty. The dealers had not pointed this out.
In both cases, the drives were declared as new by the dealers; they were not refurbished hard disks by Seagate itself, as the manufacturer sells them as "Factory Recertified" and with a special green sticker.
Upon request, Seagate confirmed that SMART values of hard disks can be reset and that the real runtimes in the FARM values are probably correct. However, the company was unable to provide further information on how these drives came to be sold. Seagate is in contact with one of the affected retailers to clarify the situation and prevent further incidents.
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Ordered and canceled
The affected drives were no longer available from the first retailer, but the 16-TB disks were still available. We ordered two of them undercover last week.
But yesterday we got our money back; we also received an email that the order had been canceled. In response to our astonished inquiry about the reason, the retailer explained that they had "discovered during the obligatory quality control that the goods delivered to us were apparently not new, but refurbished used goods". The order was therefore canceled. Well, in this case a customer had probably carried out the mandatory inspection ...
OEM problem
Time and again, we receive information from readers that retailers are supplying so-called bulk or OEM goods instead of a product with a manufacturer's warranty intended for retail sale. Only the dealer's statutory warranty obligation applies to these. Many dealers also take back OEM goods, but are unable to supply hard disks expressly intended for retail sale.
We have not yet been able to clarify why this is the case. The manufacturers claim that such products are available via authorized distributors (middlemen). Some retailers claim that this is not the case.
Where to buy?
If you want to be on the safe side, you can buy directly from the manufacturers, but then you usually have to pay higher prices. The manufacturers also name a number of official dealers. With Toshiba and Western Digital you first have to select the appropriate country, Seagate makes it much easier for its customers with a list of German dealers on the German website.
But even if you buy the drives from an official dealer, you can fall for it – One of the two dealers concerned is also on the Seagate list. We therefore recommend using the serial number to check whether the drives are OEM drives or whether they were sold some time ago and the warranty may have expired.
Warranty check
Seagate: https://www.seagate.com/de/de/support/warranty-and-replacements/
Toshiba: https://www.storrepair.com/toshiba_products/
Western Digital: https://support-de.wd.com/app/Warranty_Status
Download smartmontools (Linux & Windows): https://www.heise.de/download/product/smartmontools-56954
So far, we have not received any reports of further cases of this kind. The FARM values of a Seagate hard disk can be determined via the smartmontools with the command smartctl -l farm /dev/sd[X]. If you find any discrepancies between the operating hours and the standard output using smartctl -a /dev/sdĂ—, please send an e-mail with the details to ll@ct.de.
(ll)
