Seagate hard drives previously used for Chia cryptocurrency mining have been resold as new, raising concerns among buyers. An investigation revealed that many high-mileage drives, particularly Seagate Exos models, are being marketed deceptively in regions including Europe, Australia, Thailand, and Japan.
During the cryptocurrency boom, there was a significant demand for storage solutions, prompting mining operations to purchase large quantities of HDDs. As Chia mining profitability waned, many farms shut down, leading to a flood of second-hand drives entering the market.
Buyers can verify the usage history of their Seagate HDDs using diagnostic tools. While SMART parameters may be reset to conceal prior usage, the FARM (field-accessible reliability metrics) values provide a more accurate history. Users can check these metrics using the command smartctl -l farm /dev/sda in Smartmontools version 7.4 or higher, or through Seagate’s Seatools software.
Seagate maintains that it only distributes genuine hard drives through official channels and suspects that these used drives entered the secondary market before reaching consumers. The company has launched an investigation and encourages affected buyers to report suspicious purchases to fraud@seagate.com.
Retailers are responding to the issue, with some offering compensation. For instance, Galaxus has created online help pages, while Proshop provides free returns and replacements. Alternate, a German retailer, has urged customers to report any used drives, and Wortmann is verifying HDDs before offering compensation.
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