Hi, I just bought a 6TB Toshiba Enterprise HDD Model MG08ADA600E from a local dealer because I ran out of room on my Dell Toshiba 4TB HDD that came with Dell Workstation 5820. But new 6TB HDD came in a Tin Foil & Does not look like the photo that I sent him. I did pay a hefty full price for it but no warranty card or mention of it in the bill. How do I know if it is real or fake ? Without thinking, in a hurry I formatted it & created one Large Volume but haven't written any data on it. Here are some stats & Photos. Model : Toshiba MG08ADA600E ( Enterprise but HDD does not mention it ) Serial No : 4420A08JFD0H Part No : HDEJX11GEA51 PCB Part No : G0049A Date : 20240403 Here are the Photos of New 6TB & Side by Side comparison of Dell Toshiba on Left. I would really appreciate if any info & suggestions as to the genuineness of this HDD & if there is any other way to identify it's authenticity. Thank You.
What exactly do you mean by fake? If it works with your computer and it has the memory as promised then it's real. Otherwise if you are that worried you should be buying from a reputable source
It is real, they fake memory cards and usb sticks and hard discs in external enclosures, these have just memory sticks inside and are often trick formatted to deceive about the capacity. Dell don't make drives, in this case their sticker was put on by Toshiba in the Toshiba factory.
I guess I should have framed the question differently. In early 2000, I trusted Seagate because of good reputation at that time & all 4 HDDs crapped out in less than a year even-though I bought them from a reputable source & they did replaced them with new ones but I did lose some data & could not recover them. Since then I found out that many vendors are selling Refurbished drives as new ones so I started buying systems from Dell with extra HDDs which worked out well. But this time three 4TBs Toshiba HDDs with my newer workstation became full much earlier than expected & for newer HDDs they are asking 4 times the price in the market. So I decided to buy from a reputable source outside at the full price that Toshiba is advertising but packing looked suspicious & when I put the serial no on Toshiba website, it says out of warranty although Mfd on this 6TB Is April 2024 & hence that raised the suspicion & decided to ask for help from the experts on this forum. I have tried to give as much info & photos comparing the Dell Toshiba to market Toshiba. But before I blame & complain to the vendor, I would appreciate if you guys can use your expertise to figure out if this is a genuine HDD or not because I still need to buy 3 more of these. Thank You & I apologize if I offended anyone.
When drives are sold to business, they don't have retail packaging so nothing is unusual about the simple electrostatic bag and possibly nothing unusual about the serial not being recognised on their website as it is not in the format of the example they give. Yes there is a possibility of a refurb where they reset they running/spin hours (can be done with a special serial cable usually). Normally however it would be stamped refurb. When a drive is told via a reseller they don't know the sales date to calculate warranty. "Warranty could not be determined for this Non-HDD serial number. If you have any questions you may contact Toshiba at 1-855-898-1905 "
I looked over your 2 SMART tests and your surface scan and everything looks OK. Most drives today only come in an anti-static bag which isn't particularly great. They should come in a retail box for protection. I prefer the latter. Personally, I would buy a "WD Black Performance Drive 6TB 7200 RPM SATA III 6Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive". However, as long as your Toshiba 7200 RPM HDD works and doesn't make any strange noises, it should be OK. I noticed you didn't post a CrystalDiskMark benchmark test result. I have a HD Tune Pro 5.60 paid software install so I am familiar with it. One thing I noticed is your Toshiba HDD doesn't have any Power On Hours Count. Make sure your Toshiba tracks its Power On Hours in its SMART stats. For example my WD HDD has 45,994 Power On Hours Count with an index of 37/100. Your most important SMART stat is your Reallocated Sector Count. Make sure your Toshiba HDD never has any RSC's. If it does, it could be a sign of impending failure, especially if the RSC's increase. If your RSC's increase, especially to near your threshold level, try to get a replacement from Toshiba. From this vendor page, your Toshiba HDD seems to have a 3 year manufacturer warranty. You might want to call Toshiba to see if you are covered and for how long.
Tuxan and Cypherdude, Really appreciate your expert help. When I posted the thread I had used the HDD to just get the test result & had not written any data on it & so is that the reason Crystal disk not showing any power on hours ? I just wrote about 1 TB of data & have put the test results here. I don't know what spin up time is & why is it such a huge number when threshold should be only 1. Please advice because I need 2 more drives like this & if it is safe to order. I don't understand the logic behind putting such a delicate & expensive hardware in a tinfoil ( Anti static ) & how many hands did it change & hopefully no one had dropped it. Thank You