- Hard drives sold as new contained decade old internaer from previously used Seagate and Western Digital Devices
- Smart data was manipulated to hide past use, masking serious mechanical and reading error problems
- Attingo analysis revealed remnants of user data, which proved that Zero only touched the Storage Sectors’ Start
A recent case involving union-labeled external hard drives has raised serious questions about the integrity of some products sold through Amazon’s marketplace.
A study from the data recovery company Attingo reportedly revealed “new” hard drives contained 2.5 “HDDs from larger brands such as Seagate and Western Digital manufactured over a decade ago.
These findings contradict the product marking showing a manufacturing date from the spring of 2025.
Used drives masked as new
The drives were sold under Identifier HD2510 in Amazon’s tech -week promotional period and were assumed by buyers to be new portable HDDs suitable for regular backup and storage use.
Attingo’s demolition of the drives not only revealed their age but also signs of past use, with the evidence that extends beyond the hardware identifiers.
The company said some of the HDDs still contained fragments of user data, with only the beginning of the data fields reset.
This practice, often used to simulate full deletion of data, could not eliminate all traces of prior use.
A recovered XML file even included a timestamp from May 2024, pointing to much newer activity that is incompatible with an allegedly unused device.
Some of the date tracks were linked to TV recording systems, which suggested that the drives had once been in operational environments.
Attingo also noted discrepancies in smart data (self -monitoring, analysis and reporting technology), which is used by operating systems to assess the health of the hard drive.
Although the operating times shown suggested zero use, other key meters, such as the reading error percentage, told another story.
This type of manipulation has been seen before in fraud cases involving recycled HDDs, especially those sold through gray market channels.
The presence of several reading errors and mechanical deviations was in conflict with the smart status, indicating a new drive.
The fact that this question emerged from a well -known retail platform, rather than a niche market or unclear online store, is of particular concern.
Attingo CEO Markus Häfele expressed an alarm over the conclusions and said that the situation was not only misleading for consumers, but also potentially dangerous from a data protection point of view.
“Unfortunately, it is well known that used hardware is occasionally declared new on platforms such as eBay or in direct imports from Asian retailers – but the fact that this happens systematically as part of a broadly announced Amazon campaign is really scandalous,” Häfele said.
Although the incident has given rise to renewed concern about the reliability of NAS HDDs and external storage units offered through third-party sellers online, Amazon has not yet responded to the claims.
Via computer base
