I just bought two external drives from Amazon.ca as described below 2x Backup Plus Slim 2TB Portable External Hard Drive with 200GB of Cloud Storage & Mobile Device Backup USB 3.0 (STDR2000100) - Black Sold by xuaozhuamai Condition: New Supposedly they are Seagate drives and the cost for the 2 devices,,,,,,,$39.98 total,,,,,,shipping included. Thats under $20 per drive. Do you think they are safe to use?
Wow, you stole them! - I bought just one of those very same Seagate drives this past summer at Best Buy for about $75 (on sale)!
Run them past the Seagate Warranty Validation with the serial number: http://support.seagate.com/customer/en-US/warranty_validation.jsp
Do they work? If they do, I would reformat and do a deep scan for malware (including Rootkits) just in case they are not genuine. Frankly, however, I have never heard of counterfeit drives. I don't see where there's money in it (assuming they work). It is not like counterfeit shoes or clothing where 90% of the cost goes for the brand name on the tag. The drive industry is very cut-throat. There just is not a lot of profit per unit for the genuine products so I don't see how counterfeiters could make a functional drive for less than the big guys. Enclosures are another story, but not the drive itself. Are you sure these were not "refurbished"?
Thanks guys, when the drives arrive I will do as has been suggested. I don't think the warranty check will tell me much though as the drives are coming from China (I believe). Delivery is supposed to be some 30 days out and if this thread still is open I will post about what is happening.
I have 2 I I have a 1TB version, I just looked at the label on the bottom of the drive and along with the barcodes and serial no's etc it states "product of China" and "assembled in China" ...Probably all good, maybe a senior employee is buying them in bulk and selling them
The warranty check will work. It will tell you if the serial numbers are legit and in Seagates database. If they are there is a good chance they are legit drives.
I have long been a believer that if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. The price def seems too good to be true,,,,,but I could not resist (if it had been other than the Amazon.ca site I would have given it a pass even at the absurdly good price). Will def scan with antivirus and anti-rootkit apps before using just to be sure (and will image the PC and then unplug the storage device before plugging the new drives in for testing).
Sorry Bill, I missed your question,,,,,,I have no idea, it was not stated as so, I would be happy with refurbished though.
I know in the US and most other "advanced" countries, if something is refurbished or being "re-sold", it has to say so as either "refurbished", "remanufactured", "open-box" or something similar to indicate it is not new from the factory.
Recertified is another term often used http://support.wdc.com/warranty/warrantypolicy.aspx#recertifiedproducts
Yeah, there are several, but the idea is still the same. They were purchased then returned for some reason (could be wrong color!) and then resold.
As long as they work properly I will be happy it does not concern me much if they are refurbished or not. I will be storing backup copies of my music collection on them (off site) and if at some point in the future one of the drives dies it will not be a major issue. A bit overkill as my collection is about 200 gigs and these are 2 terabyte drives but as said before the price was sure right. I was actually looking for cheap 500 gig drives for the purpose but there are none that I can find.
Just found this thread while googling the amazon seller's name because I too thought the deal sounded too good to be true. I went ahead and ordered 2 drives. Looking forward to hearing about anyone else's experience. Also wondering if we'll get hit with big customs brokerage charges.
My suggestion is to always try to buy from the vendor's store (even via Amazon). And if the price looks too good to be true - it probably is. Mrk
if I remember right a few years ago there was a deal about some drives coming from Taiwan? these drives contained malware in the drives firmware. they were brand new. can't remember if they were Seagate or not.
I think you are confusing stories because many drive makers have factories in Taiwan. The country of origin is not the problem. It is the specific factory of origin.
just judging by you angry avatar I won't comment to your posts. you like to argue and I am not the one you want to argue with here.
Wow. It is pretty sad to be prejudged just for your avatar. Contrary to your preconceived notions, I don't like to argue. But I do like to ensure readers know the truth. For this reason, I like to do my homework before making claims that may disparage a reputable company. And the truth is, as easily verified in less than a minute with Bing or Google, almost 10 years ago, some Seagate drives made in China, were infected and then sold in Taiwan. There have no reports in recent years of drives coming from factories being infected.
Hi bgoodman4, why didn't you "listen" to your own instinct? I'm afraid that they will be something like these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8ovFkd8myE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIBsibHgS5U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAMhbqvOFyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuJ_T2jpDwc Panagiotis
Hi Panagiotis, I would have except that its an Amazon dealer and I figured that Amazon would have some checks and balances in place. As suggested above I will scan the drives for malware (I have HitMan Pro and AppGuard so not too worried about infection,,,,,and after scanning and reformatting the drives I will roll back to a previous clean state if I am at all concerned).
