Seagate hard drives previously utilized in Chia cryptocurrency mining operations have been misrepresented as new products by various retailers. An investigation by Heise has uncovered that many of these drives, particularly the Seagate Exos models, have logged thousands of operational hours despite being sold as brand new.
During the cryptocurrency boom, the demand for high-capacity storage surged. This led to extensive use of HDDs in mining farms. As Chia mining profitability dwindled, many farms liquidated their assets, leading to a flood of second-hand drives re-entering the market.
Consumers can verify the history of their Seagate drives through diagnostic tools. While some parameters can be reset to obscure previous usage, the FARM (field-accessible reliability metrics) values provide a clearer picture of the drive’s operational history. Users can check these values using the command smartctl -l farm /dev/sda in Smartmontools version 7.4 or higher, or by utilizing Seagate’s Seatools software.
Seagate has denied any involvement in these fraudulent resales, stating that it only distributes genuine drives through official channels. The company suspects that these used HDDs entered the secondary market prior to reaching consumers. A full-scale investigation has been launched, and affected buyers are urged to report suspicious purchases to fraud@seagate.com.
Affected retailers are addressing the situation by offering compensation. For instance, Galaxus has created online help pages for customers, while Proshop is providing free returns and replacements. Alternate, a German retailer, has encouraged customers to report used drives, although they claim no prior knowledge of the issue. Wortmann insists on verifying HDDs before issuing compensation.
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