- Hard discs are sold as new and internal contained in a decade of seagate and western digital units used above.
- Intelligent data were manipulated to hide the previous use, mask serious mechanical and read error problems
- Atringo’s analysis revealed the data of leftover users, which shows that zero only touched the start of the storage sectors
A recent case that involves external hard drives with the Union brand has raised serious questions about the integrity of some products sold through the Amazon market.
An investigation by the ATingo data recovery company allegedly discovered “new” hard discs contained 2.5 “HDD of the main brands such as Seagate and Western Digital manufactured more than a decade ago.
These findings contradict product labeling, which lists a manufacturing date from the spring of 2025.
Used units disguised as new
The units were sold under the HD2510 identifier during the promotional period of the Amazon Technology Week, and the buyers assumed that they were new portable HDD suitable for regular use of backup and storage.
The dismantling of the units revealed not only their age, but also signs of previous use, with the evidence that extends beyond the hardware identifiers.
The company said that some of the HDDs still contained user data fragments, with only the beginning of the data fields to zero.
This practice, commonly used to simulate the complete elimination of the data, could not eliminate all the traces of previous use.
An XML recovered file even contained a time brand since May 2024, pointing out a very recent activity inconsistent with a supposedly unused device.
Some of the data traces were linked to TV recording systems, suggesting that the units had been in operational environments.
Atying also pointed out inconsistencies in intelligent data (self-monitoring, analysis and technology of reports), which operating systems use to evaluate the health of the hard disk.
Although the hours of operation shown suggested zero use, other key metrics, such as the reading error rate, they told a different story.
This type of manipulation has been seen before in cases of fraud involving reused HDD, especially those sold through gray market channels.
The presence of numerous reading errors and mechanical anomalies came into conflict with the intelligent state, indicating a new unit.
The fact that this problem arose from a well -known retail platform, instead of a market niche or an online store, is of particular concern.
The CEO of Atringo, Markus Häfele, expressed alarm to the findings, saying that the situation was not only misleading for consumers, but was also potentially dangerous from the point of view of data protection.
“Unfortunately, it is well known that the hardware used is occasionally declared as new on platforms such as eBay or in direct imports of Asian retailers, but the fact that this systematically happens as part of a widely announced Amazon campaign is really scandalous,” said Häfele.
Although the incident has caused a renewed concern for the reliability of NAS HDD and external storage devices offered through online third party vendors, Amazon has not yet responded to accusations.
Through computer
