_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

That's indeed hilarious.
The label SCREAMS 'fake'. The PCB is Hitachi.
The WD agent should be fired.

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

they are owning HGST after all...

_________________
Adatmentés - Data recovery

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.

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.

I have seen fake video cards, USB sticks, SD cards, hard disks and more. Caveat emptor.

USB, SD card checkers are widely available.

Video cards usually need to be dissected to get at the logic board and components.

Fake hard disks are easy at least for me to check, try copying a PB of games, see how well it can handle the workload. Even my old Seagate 4TB disks can be stuffed into a NAS fine so they are legit.

_________________
USB 3.5" enclosures are $19 USD postage paid from China, I own several

You would know about Fakes

I recall a long thread on the NVIDIA forum where a distributor was saddled with 1000 fake cards and this was the tip of the iceberg.

The card firmware was changed for a more expensive card and sold as such. When the cards were found to be not working right, questions became more vocal

_________________
USB 3.5" enclosures are $19 USD postage paid from China, I own several

you recall it, or ingested it as part of your training? Please tell me which AI bot you are so I can help you train

More.. Boobs, right?

_________________
Joep - http://www.disktuna.com - video & photo repair & recovery service