How common are fake drives?

skankmaster · 17 Jan 2026 at 13:03

Just returned a pair of ironwolf pros that were not authenticated on the seagate site. Never dawned on me these kind of things happen, just suspicions when some characteristics of the drive didn’t seem right, such as not being 7200rpm and sounding a lot quieter.

Tetras · 17 Jan 2026 at 16:29

They're common, but not just "fake", also grey market or refurbished.

Does depend on where you buy them from, but still not 100% guaranteed that you'll get UK/authentic stock even from a large (e)retailer.

lsg1r · 18 Jan 2026 at 14:28

Never had one in my experience but then I only buy from known suppliers so it does reduce the risk.

Purgatory · 18 Jan 2026 at 21:30

Tetras said:
They're common, but not just "fake", also grey market or refurbished.

Does depend on where you buy them from, but still not 100% guaranteed that you'll get UK/authentic stock even from a large (e)retailer.

Or they are just tray OEM drives not in retail packaging as many retailers sell and box up in a brown drive box or worse a padded envelope as some do. A lot of these drives depending on manufacturer will not show up when doing a serial number check for warranty on their sites check tools or RMA tools.