Seagate hard drives previously used in Chia cryptocurrency mining are being resold as new, raising concerns among buyers. An investigation by Heise has uncovered that many high-mileage drives have entered the market, particularly in Europe, Australia, Thailand, and Japan.
These drives, primarily datacenter-grade Seagate Exos models, show thousands of operational hours despite being marketed as brand new. The surge in demand for high-capacity HDDs during the cryptocurrency boom led to extensive use in mining operations. As Chia mining profitability declined, many farms sold their hardware, which was then repackaged and resold.
How to Verify Your Drive
Buyers can check the usage history of their Seagate HDDs using diagnostic tools. While SMART parameters can be reset to obscure prior use, the FARM (field-accessible reliability metrics) values provide a more accurate record. Users can access these values by executing the command smartctl -l farm /dev/sda in Smartmontools version 7.4 or higher, or by utilizing Seagate’s Seatools software.
Seagate’s Response
Seagate has denied involvement in the fraudulent resale of these HDDs, stating that it only distributes genuine products through official channels. The company suspects that these used drives entered the secondary market before reaching consumers. A full-scale investigation is underway, and affected buyers are encouraged to report suspicious purchases to fraud@seagate.com.
Retailer Actions
Retailers are responding to the issue. Galaxus has created online help pages for affected customers, while Proshop is offering free returns and replacements. Alternate, a German retailer, has encouraged customers to report used drives, although it denies any prior knowledge of the situation. Wortmann insists on verifying HDDs before offering compensation.
For more details, visit the original article on TechRadar.