March 7th, 2025, 4:32
That's indeed hilarious.
The label SCREAMS 'fake'. The PCB is Hitachi.
The WD agent should be fired.
March 7th, 2025, 6:15
they are owning HGST after all...
March 8th, 2025, 17:51
I am the OP in that WD Thread. I have been running pictures through Grok X.com AI and the only thing it picked up was a mislabel of the drives WD Red Pro and performance of a Red standard. I usually buy from reputable dealers of HDD but when I saw the advert for WD Reds for £30 delivered I though why not can always be returned as there is 90 day buyer protection and they advertised 5 year warranty.
I put some of fzazkbar's point to grok which counter that it was 99.5% a grey import or OEM drive mislabeled. I cant show any pics of the component side of the board as I have returned the drives.
How is the label a dead giveaway? Dashboard/Kitfox both ID the drives as WD Reds although not pros. Are these old Hitachi's from perhaps a data centre re-badged.
March 10th, 2025, 17:50
Reply from WD Support, this is the kind of detail I wanted.
Thank you for contacting Western Digital. Unfortunately, the drive you have purchased is an invalid Western Digital label and not a Western Digital valid product. We do honor warranty update from the purchase date, however, every proof of purchase submitted is subject for review and verified within our own records.
According to the label, the serial number doesn't exist, the product shows as WD Red Pro, the part number listed is a WD RED plus; and model WD30EFRX-68EUZN0 has been an End of Life, Discontinued product since Mar-30-2020.