Alarum! Are HDD drives being rebirthed?

[Peter Jason]

As with old clothing and other used stuff, perhaps
HDDs are being returned to Asia for re-birthing,
and then returned to be sold as new!

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/te...-photos-on-new-hard-drive-20120919-2670z.html

 

[VanguardLH]

As with old clothing and other used stuff, perhaps
HDDs are being returned to Asia for re-birthing,
and then returned to be sold as new!

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/te...-photos-on-new-hard-drive-20120919-2670z.html

Well, since they aren't located in the USA then maybe they aren't
subject to FTC regulations regarding labelling as "refurbished".
Products that have not been powered on (sometimes tested using an
internal counter or clock) and which pass QC are often returned for sale
as "good as new" but the "good as" might get omitted.

Alas, this is just more exploit journalism. It never investigates how
the hard disks became polluted whether before the consumers purchased
them or after they USED them. Some stories even smack of the *store*
reselling a used item as new and nothing to do with Asia or any disk
manufacturer. You thought it was new that stores repackage returned
items to sell as new? This has been going on for decades in the
computer stores. Hell, I saw local CompUSA with the shrink-wrap
machines to rewrap returned gear. My own company had shrink-wrap gear
for returned software from our customers: we would replace the bad
discs, put in good ones, and reuse the hardcopy documentation and
packaging (it was OUR software, not that we were reselling someone
else's software). Why would we print out a whole new doc, toss a good
box, or all the other good materials just to replace a CD? Recycling
works but it's still more costly (money and time) than just reusing.

Those hard disks did NOT go back to the manufacturers who would have
wiped the platters and perform the same QC against the refurbished
product as they do against their new units. This is an issue with
stores repackaging the goods as new (with presumption of unused).

Um, just where in that article was "Asia" even mentioned? Yeah, nowhere
so you lied in your subject. Stores repackaging returned products as
new for resale is hardly an issue just in Asian stores. Probably
happens in every country. Certainly has occured in the USA. The story
is also about users that wanted files rescued from their old hard disks
and cloned onto a new hard disk. Ever see a hard disk cloning machine?
Some of those we had could clone a dozen HDDs at once. All it took to
copy the wrong one was to insert the wrong source HDD. Gee, like humans
never make mistakes, noooo. So should we require the techs that are
rescuing files from old or bad HDDs to actually go look inside all those
files before performing the cloning? Of course not since that's not
their job, it's not their responsibility, and it violates privacy (would
you want some high-school jockey cloning your HDD to know your credit
card and bank numbers)? There's probably even a policy at the store or
shop doing the rescue and cloning that they aren't responsible for the
content of the files and probably even an exclusion for loss of those
files or contamination.

 

[Peter Jason]

Well, since they aren't located in the USA then maybe they aren't
subject to FTC regulations regarding labelling as "refurbished".
Products that have not been powered on (sometimes tested using an
internal counter or clock) and which pass QC are often returned for sale
as "good as new" but the "good as" might get omitted.

Alas, this is just more exploit journalism. It never investigates how
the hard disks became polluted whether before the consumers purchased
them or after they USED them. Some stories even smack of the *store*
reselling a used item as new and nothing to do with Asia or any disk
manufacturer. You thought it was new that stores repackage returned
items to sell as new? This has been going on for decades in the
computer stores. Hell, I saw local CompUSA with the shrink-wrap
machines to rewrap returned gear. My own company had shrink-wrap gear
for returned software from our customers: we would replace the bad
discs, put in good ones, and reuse the hardcopy documentation and
packaging (it was OUR software, not that we were reselling someone
else's software). Why would we print out a whole new doc, toss a good
box, or all the other good materials just to replace a CD? Recycling
works but it's still more costly (money and time) than just reusing.

Those hard disks did NOT go back to the manufacturers who would have
wiped the platters and perform the same QC against the refurbished
product as they do against their new units. This is an issue with
stores repackaging the goods as new (with presumption of unused).

Um, just where in that article was "Asia" even mentioned? Yeah, nowhere
so you lied in your subject.

Here's something from a year ago:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/...-dick-smiths-dodgy-drives-20111222-1p6qx.html

 

[VanguardLH]

Here's something from a year ago:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/...-dick-smiths-dodgy-drives-20111222-1p6qx.html

"the practice by retailers of selling used goods as new"

So it's still about RETAILERS (stores) repackaging returned goods as new
products, not anything about drive manufacturers or "Asia" doing this as
you implied. Dick Smith is a retailer in Australia, not a hard disk
manufacturer in Asia.

 

[Peter Jason]

"the practice by retailers of selling used goods as new"

So it's still about RETAILERS (stores) repackaging returned goods as new
products, not anything about drive manufacturers or "Asia" doing this as
you implied. Dick Smith is a retailer in Australia, not a hard disk
manufacturer in Asia.

Surely by inference, and because many computers
are imported from Asia, it is likely this can be
the source for some at least.

 

[terryc]

As with old clothing and other used stuff, perhaps
HDDs are being returned to Asia for re-birthing,
and then returned to be sold as new!

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/te...-photos-on-new-hard-drive-20120919-2670z.html

If you read the article, the logical explanation is/was there for all to
see. Someone has disable the auto cleaning of the hard disk used in the
stores photo printing kiosk and then removed it from the photo printing
system. Perhaps to steal other peoples images. Then they have returned
it to "stock" without clearing the drive.

 

[SteveH]

Peter Jason used his keyboard to write :

Surely by inference, and because many computers
are imported from Asia, it is likely this can be
the source for some at least.

Why?

 

[VanguardLH]

Surely by inference, and because many computers
are imported from Asia, it is likely this can be
the source for some at least.

Every time I've read about this over that past 20+ years, it was a store
that wa repackaging the returned goods. If the unit goes back to the
manufacturer, they want to run through their QC tests to determine why
the unit had failed. Then they may recycle the parts of the unit to
rebuild or repair the failed unit. It then goes through QC testing
again to ensure it passes the same as for new units. After all, does it
matter to a hard disk if its actuator arm was made new or a recycled
part that met all new-specs was used instead?