this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
57 points (98.3% liked)

Hardware

1048 readers
125 users here now

All things related to technology hardware, with a focus on computing hardware.

Rules (Click to Expand):

  1. Follow the Lemmy.world Rules - https://mastodon.world/about

  2. Be kind. No bullying, harassment, racism, sexism etc. against other users.

  3. No Spam, illegal content, or NSFW content.

  4. Please stay on topic, adjacent topics (e.g. software) are fine if they are strongly relevant to technology hardware. Another example would be business news for hardware-focused companies.

  5. Please try and post original sources when possible (as opposed to summaries).

  6. If posting an archived version of the article, please include a URL link to the original article in the body of the post.

Some other hardware communities across Lemmy:

Icon by "icon lauk" under CC BY 3.0

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
57
Seagate's fraudulent hard drives scandal deepens as clues point at Chinese Chia mining farms (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
8 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago (4 children)

However, a deeper analysis using a query of the FARM (field-accessible reliability metrics) values reveals the true operational history of the drive, thus revealing if they have been used.

I've never heard of FARM. Is this something we can do ourselves?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Buyers concerned about their purchases can verify the true HDD usage history. SMART parameters are sometimes unreliable, but the true operational time can be checked using FARM values. To do this, one has to use the Smartmontools application version 7.4 or higher (via command: smartctl -l farm /dev/sda) or Seagate's Seatools software.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Ah, thanks. I thought the article ended at the newsletter box, but I now see there was the extra you quoted underneath.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

Chip burners that can overwrite the SMART data aren't expensive. I've also seen "refurbished" drives in which nobody even bothered to reset that data. In that case, the refurbishment apparently consists of a new sticker on the drive (sticker serial number not even matching the drives EPROM).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

I dont think its a specific thing, more of a vague descriptor for values they used