FAKE Western Digital Elements 2TB 2.5inch drives

  • Thread starter Thread starter Franc Zabkar
  • Start date Start date
Franc said:
The following was recently posted to WD's forum:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop...2-5inch-drives-sold-in-China/m-p/397543#M9110

It is claimed that the HDD was replaced with a flash drive, and nuts
and bolts were used to make up the weight.

- Franc Zabkar
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I'm not taking the word of a forum poster whose total history
of participation there started just 2 days ago. They created an account
to post just this one message. You trust that poster if you want. I'm
not saying it didn't happen. All I'll deduce from that "source" for
news is that there exists the example shown in the photograph but I
don't know the story is true. This poster obviously does not have an
established reputation there. This is a drive-by poster: he showed up,
made a post, and will likely never reappear there.
 
VanguardLH said:
Franc Zabkar wrote
Click to expand...
Sorry, but I'm not taking the word of a forum poster whose
total history of participation there started just 2 days ago.
Click to expand...

That last is unsurprising if that's the first problem they have
had with a WD drive.
They created an account to post just this one message.
Click to expand...

Hardly surprising given that that's such an unusual event.
You trust that poster if you want.
Click to expand...

Or we can just be careful about buying hard drives from china.
I'm not saying it didn't happen. All I'll deduce from that "source"
for news is that there exists the example shown in the photograph
but I don't know the story is true.
Click to expand...

We don't know that you even exist.
This poster obviously does not have an established reputation there.
Click to expand...

Hardly surprising.
This is a drive-by poster: he showed up, made
a post, and will likely never reappear there.
Click to expand...

Like that or lump it.
 
VanguardLH said:
Sorry, but I'm not taking the word of a forum poster whose total history
of participation there started just 2 days ago. They created an account
to post just this one message
Click to expand...

Fraudsters should limit themselves to targeting people with active
posting histories.
 
The following was recently posted to WD's forum:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/FAKE-Western-Digital- Elements-2tb-2-5inch-drives-sold-in-China/m-p/397543#M9110

It is claimed that the HDD was replaced with a flash drive, and nuts and
bolts were used to make up the weight.
Click to expand...

And these are easily discovered without opening them, because they don't
produce any noise or vibration at all. So they act much like a DoA hard
drive.

Joseph
 
And these are easily discovered without opening them, because they don't
produce any noise or vibration at all. So they act much like a DoA hard
drive.
Click to expand...

For varying values of "easily". That is to say impossible for
people that are not computer savy.

Arno
 
Arno said:
And what business has somebody just defrauded to create an
account and complain about it? Incredible.
Click to expand...

None -- I'm just saying that the people selling these drives should
limit themselves to defrauding active forum posters, so that the victims
won't themselves be called liars due to their lack of history/reputation
when they go online to comment.
 
Franc Zabkar said:
The following was recently posted to WD's forum:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop...2-5inch-drives-sold-in-China/m-p/397543#M9110

It is claimed that the HDD was replaced with a flash drive, and nuts
and bolts were used to make up the weight.
Click to expand...

What I'm missing from all the posts on this is what the benefit was to
the counterfeiter -- was the flash drive smaller than 2TB (but somehow
reporting itself as 2TB)? As far as I've seen, a rotating 2TB drive is
still quite a bit less expensive than flash.
 
Joe Pfeiffer said:
What I'm missing from all the posts on this is what the benefit was to
the counterfeiter -- was the flash drive smaller than 2TB (but somehow
reporting itself as 2TB)? As far as I've seen, a rotating 2TB drive is
still quite a bit less expensive than flash.
Click to expand...

That's the usual trick -- Use the largest flash drive that can be had
for $5 with firmware hacked to make it appear larger.
 
Looks like the wrong type of USB connector on the outside.
Click to expand...

It is not.
And how do they make the controller report 500GB? If the controller is an
MCU they'd have to modify its flash ROM. Not too easy to reverse engineer.
Click to expand...

Apparently, it is, as thay have done it.

Arno
 
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