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How Not to Buy a SSD

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Re: How Not to Buy a SSD

#31

Post by chao- »

jchw wrote: post #4

In general I am afraid to buy storage devices except directly from the vendor at the moment. I've heard that there's also lots of fraudulent HDDs being sold with botched SMART data, even on Amazon, even marked as "New", even sold by Amazon. Scary proposition unless you're dying to test out your RAID array redundancy.

If there is a Micro Center near you, they have been reliable.

I recently had to replace an entire array of SATA SSDs with models that could support DRAT/DZAT*. Their Samsung 2.5" SATA SSDs came with the original Samsung stickers sealing them, and they scanned each one to attribute it to my purchase. I'm sure it as much to protect them as me, i.e. that if I returned a drive, I gave them back the drive with the exact Device ID that originally came in that package. Nonetheless it was reassuring for me as well.

*For anyone who uses SATA drives attached to an SAS HBA, please check that your SATA drives support DRAT and DZAT. Unbeknownst to you, your drives may be failing to TRIM when connected through your HBA!

Re: How Not to Buy a SSD

#33

Post by ChiefNotAClue »

gmac wrote: post #26
reeddavid wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this comment references something many people don't realize: Even items that say "Ships from Amazon, Sold by Amazon" could be counterfeit, because the inventory from third party sellers is co-mingled with Amazon's own inventory. If you see "Ships from Amazon, Sold by RandomCompany" you might worry about counterfeits. But the "Sold by Amazon" item might also have been sourced from (or counterfeited by) "Random…

I’ve seen this stated many times on HN, but never knowingly experienced it with Amazon in the UK. Is it possible this varies by market?

For what it's worth, been buying from Amazon for the past 15 years or so, and not once received a counterfeit product. Granted, I still don't like they they mix up their inventory, but I think it's a smaller problem than people make it to be. Most people are buying household supplies off of Amazon; that's not really a category that gets affected by counterfeits.

Re: How Not to Buy a SSD

#34

Post by yonatan8070 »

I recently got a new 4TB Seagate drive from the biggest computer/electronics retailers here, it was shipped in the worst way I've ever seen a hard drive shipped. An anti-static bag, inside of one of those slightly padded envelopes you get when you order an Arduino from AliExpress. Naturally, it had a big dent on one of the corners, and it started clicking the moment I plugged it in.

It was replaced with a working unit iunder warranty, but still a rather unfortunate buying experience.

Re: How Not to Buy a SSD

#35

Post by ChiefNotAClue »

moepstar wrote: post #9
jchw wrote: post #4

In general I am afraid to buy storage devices except directly from the vendor at the moment. I've heard that there's also lots of fraudulent HDDs being sold with botched SMART data, even on Amazon, even marked as "New", even sold by Amazon. Scary proposition unless you're dying to test out your RAID array redundancy.

> even sold by Amazon Honest question: after all the reports of co-mingled inventory, plain fakes etc. being sold by Amazon - for years i might add - do you really consider Amazon being a reliable source for anything that is not some unimportant trinket? I went from spending > 10k€ per year to less than 5%, probably not even that, on there, all by their own fault. And i see no reason to buy there anymore: - the defau…

They may not have the best prices at every point in time, but they consistently have good deals. There are several price trackers out there; Keepa and CamelCamelCamel are the big ones. Use them to your advantage and figure out whether the item you're after is a good deal or not.

Re: How Not to Buy a SSD

#36

Post by jchw »

Moru wrote: post #30
jchw wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Honest question: after all the reports of co-mingled inventory, plain fakes etc. being sold by Amazon - for years i might add - do you really consider Amazon being a reliable source for anything that is not some unimportant trinket? Not really 100% sure why you're getting down-voted (edit: I guess not anymore. Comment was gray when I replied.), but to answer your question, no. I do not trust Amazon for anything imp…

I go out of my way to support local business. I don't care if I have to wait a day or two more. So be it. I am NOT supporting amazon.

Totally understand that and pretty much agree, the main problem I have is that the local businesses I liked to support are basically all gone. Not sure what to do now.

Re: How Not to Buy a SSD

#37

Post by FreeTrade »

cm2187 wrote: post #3

ebay is inundated with those fake retail SSDs. Designed to look like WD ( https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/306437612011 ) or Samsung ( https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/396854754678 ), but without the logo. Internally they contain maybe 100GB of flash, a controller that pretends to have 4TB, and they brick themselves when you write 1 byte more than the underlying capacity. Ebay doesn't police that. Haven't seen that for enterpris…

Those fakes are a real scourge. People lose their data in addition to their money. Very easy to spot fake listings but the platforms allow them to proliferate. I consider the platforms to be criminally culpable because of the wilful neglect.

Re: How Not to Buy a SSD

#38

Post by dlcarrier »

crinkly wrote: post #13

I usually buy second hand enterprise SSDs off eBay. No one bothers to fake them and they last longer than the consumer ones even if they are a few years old.

I did get a used fake M.2 drive once. Likely the seller had bought a fake drive, used it for a while, then dissatisfied upgraded to something else. It possible the seller didn't know it was fake, but I doubt it.

Re: How Not to Buy a SSD

#39

Post by esskay »

gmac wrote: post #26
reeddavid wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this comment references something many people don't realize: Even items that say "Ships from Amazon, Sold by Amazon" could be counterfeit, because the inventory from third party sellers is co-mingled with Amazon's own inventory. If you see "Ships from Amazon, Sold by RandomCompany" you might worry about counterfeits. But the "Sold by Amazon" item might also have been sourced from (or counterfeited by) "Random…

I’ve seen this stated many times on HN, but never knowingly experienced it with Amazon in the UK. Is it possible this varies by market?

It does happen with Amazon UK, or at least has within the last year because I've twice had it, first time with a microsd card, second time with an ssd.

They obviously replaced it no problem but it highlighted they were either still mixing stock or were using a dodgy supplier themselves.

Re: How Not to Buy a SSD

#40

Post by dlcarrier »

senectus1 wrote: post #2

Had the same issue with a Crucial drive from amazon. looked just like the real thing but for some small discrepancies. Performed like an absolute dog and the SMART data was waaaay off. amazon just refunded me the whole amount and I pulled it apart to see what was inside: https://imgur.com/a/NUSuuEh quite annoying, though also amusing.

Run f3fix on it, and you can use whatever portion of it is real to store low-value data, like Linux ISOs, that you could re-download if you lose, but are convenient to have locally.
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