I purchased the other day from _____ (guess) a WD 500 AAKS, for $60. It wasn't ridiculously cheap so I thought it wouldn't be fake (usually they sell fake non-existant models like Elements 2.5" 2TB or 1TB USB's for insane prices).

WRONG!

All of a sudden drive started clicking, so, since there wasn't anything important inside, I thought I'd RMA that.

Hello! Surprise, surprise! The s/n does not exist in WD database, and I also noticed that the s/n is printed a little higher than usual.

Oh, well, I should have seen it comin'....

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

I'm surprised they didn't even make the effort to put a plausible model/serial on it (L7A on a 500GB drive is also a good hint).

_________________
You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Agree. I never see this model ( L7A ) 500GB, I have only see this model 160GB or 320GB. And it's not that big.

Hehe, now that you mention it, I didn't notice it
Of course there is no such model!

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Yep that's what happens when free sw is dumped on the market

_________________
All went well until I plugged the drive in.

At least 11 things wrong with the label..

_________________
On a clear disk you can seek forever.

Thats interesting. Care to name them?

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Mostly errors I see on label are:

Varying fonts on label
SN is 'raised' from where it should be
SN + Model (L7 usually pinclite or pinnacle, never seen larger than 320GB)
Pretty sure DCM has too many characters
Many spelling mistakes
"P/N" should show "R/N"
Poor quality print

Still, all in all, its not a bad effort

I am curious to know...the label aside, are the PCB and heads WD products? Outside the sloppy label, is this a refurbished WD or is there a Chinese factory making full knock off WD drives?

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

@ Northwind : Can you please post the PCB # and/or picture ?

Haha, yes didn't notice that either!! I guess the chinese guy who did the label, when saw "R/N" must have thought "idiots, this is P/n"
Well it is a good effort, it tricked me at first (ie. nothing too spotty gathered my attention), I used it to transfer some movies, then had it laying on a shelf for 4 months or so. Then I formatted it and tada! clicky-clicky...



PCB looks like WD, but then again, this is China, so...
I think i will open drive and look inside. I am curious too.


Sure thing. Here is a pic of pcb non-component side. I will open drive and take more pictures. This is gonna be fun!

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Thanks for sharing this.

Wow 2060-701477- PCB on (L7) 500 GB. Fantastic lol

Yes I will prepare a list

_________________
On a clear disk you can seek forever.

OK, I remembered I bought some seagates and hitachis from same place. But they still work. Gonna check them too.

I opened the drive. This is a good job

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Looks like they just stuck a fake label on an old Tornado

_________________
You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

This is what I noted right away, and it's a tedious thing to point everything out. The fake label is wrong and full of tiny mistakes. Basically we're looking at spelling and spacing mistakes.

1- label edge and cut is wrong, curve not smooth either..
2- left label position off, covering indented mark if there is a mark there, should have more marks too
3- serial number, vertical spacing, ":" position
4- spacing error, vertical, and 16MB spacing
5- spacing error, mostly vertical
6- spacing error
7- spacing error and poor quality connector graphic
8- oversaturated sata/jumper graphic
9- more spacing errors, positioning of ":" and "M" in relation to barcode and sata graphic
10- seal = sesl ? spelling error, vertical spacing between 2 lines
11- vertical spacing
12- LBA, most likely should be here and not by 14, due to printer limitation see 10, 11
13- DATE, WWN justification, vertical cspacing consistency
14- more spacing errors, again with ":" and font proportionality, U.S. LBA vertical error
15- "Prod uct" vs "Product", also vertical space problem
16- Canada ICES & NMB position all wrong, ROHS appears almost subscript
17- ZEP vs A and justification
18- missing code array (I call them dotboxes)
19- what is this series of labels? Is it covering up something?
20- position of label against indented mark
21- note the sharper curve in the label here
22- the white arrow in WD is too thin, spacing between the stylized WD is too narrow
23- edge is not perfectly straight, note the waviness
24- stamped marking, not deep enough, grain of metal wrong.
25- edge too sharp and wrong cut size (for this model)
26- what's this circular mark?
27- off center screw cover
28- 2 "cut off areas" were ripped by stress and not a clean cut, too many of these
29- screwdriver markings
30- wrong screw (for this model drive)
31- label thickness appears wrong
32- P/N vs R/N
33- poor quality graphic

_________________
On a clear disk you can seek forever.

My advice to consumers, looking at labels like this, is to note the vertical spacing. It should be consistent. And the quality of the graphic symbols and diagrams.

At first quick look, this seems to be a decent forgery. The other red flag was the screw markings telling me it was previously opened up.

_________________
On a clear disk you can seek forever.