Hi All,

I bought 2 new Seagate Ironwolf 10TB HDDs from a local retailer in the UK about 2 months ago, I have had some suspicions about them since I first plugged them in and checked the SMART attributes and disk 2 had a field "Add. Product Id: DELL(tm)" and neither of the disks sound particulary healthy, both have very loud grinding sounds which I have only heard from failing disks although I am getting no SMART errors.

When I received the devices they were in sealed anti-static bags and I am having trouble with the retailer giving me a full refund or replacement as I have now used the disks (even just to run a SMART test). So I am wanting to get as much evidence as possible that these disks are not what they seem and I think they might have been tampered with and if the retailer is not willing to listen I want to have the evidence to provide to trading standards, I am wondering if anyone here can help me identify if they have been or even confirmation if you thing I have ade

Disk 1 (ZS50XRXB):

[img=250x250]https://i.ibb.co/phm78mb/disk1-label.jpg[/img]

[img=250x250]https://i.ibb.co/1JgZB1n/disk1-pcb.jpg[/img]

Disk 2 (ZS50XRZN):

[img=250x250]https://i.ibb.co/xLDcRKP/disk2-label.jpg[/img]

[img=250x250]https://i.ibb.co/Fg4Xq2d/disk2-pcb.jpg[/img]

When I started looking at the label I noticed a few things which made me suspicious.

1. There is no link to verify.seagate.com
2. When I type the code for Disk 1 or Disk 2 into https://verify.seagate.com/verify/ Seagate does not recognise either of them
3. The QR Code for the PSID is different from the text label next to it
4. Both apparently manufactured in August 2023 but the warranty expires on Disk 1 on 02/Dec/2024 and Disk 2 on 28/Oct/2024

SMART Information

Disk 1: https://pastebin.com/4gXuEQE6

Disk 2: https://pastebin.com/myZEHgau

Drive Binary Log 00h Identity

Disk 1: https://pastebin.com/wU80p64N

Disk 2: https://pastebin.com/nmrVXRRW

Drive Binary FARM Log

Disk 1: https://pastebin.com/4grJrSvJ

Disk 2: https://pastebin.com/VXm0Cj3Y

I already mentioned on Disk 2 about the "Add. Product Id: DELL(tm)" and the Dell TA23 firmware I assume this was an OEM / Server drive.

Power_On_Hours was 0 on both when I first plugged it in but there was raw_value for Raw_Read_Error_Rate, Seek_Error_Rate, Total_LBAs_Written, Total_LBAs_Read and Hardware_ECC_Recovered (which appears to be exactly the same as Raw_Read_Error_Rate)

I have downloaded and parsed the factory logs using openSeaChest tools but they show the same information as I have shared, Is there anywhere else I can look? Is it feasable that this was an old disk and had the PCB replaced? would there be any logs or a way to access logs within the SA?

I would really appreciate any help anyone can give me on this.

Both drives show the same PSID on the label. I would have expected these numbers to be unique. :-?

The shitty warranty seems inconsistent with a retail drive. Certain retail models also qualify for free data recovery.

The other side of the PCB would be more interesting. I would like to compare the date codes on the chips and PCB against the date of manufacture on the label.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Unless you had them from some dodgy site just return them it's not worth the risk, assuming it was a genuine retail sale you're covered under the distance selling regulations.

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Data Recovery Services in the UK.
https://www.usbrecovery.co.uk/