Find out if selling HDD was used

[Dogway]

I decided to buy one old HDD that still uses PMR, there are not many models to choose since it's a 2Tb 2.5" drive so it has to be this model, the problem is I wondered if SMART statistics could be faked/resetted to look like if it was new, and it certainly seems it could be done, so do you know another way to find out if an HDD has been used before (that can be legally justified)? Thank you.

[Snipergod87]

Smart attributes can be reset with the right tools but its not likely someone will go through the effort of doing it.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

4 minutes ago, Dogway said:

I decided to buy one old HDD that still uses PMR, there are not many models to choose since it's a 2Tb 2.5" drive so it has to be this model, the problem is I wondered if SMART statistics could be faked/resetted to look like if it was new, and it certainly seems it could be done, so do you know another way to find out if an HDD has been used before (that can be legally justified)? Thank you.

SMART statistics can tell you "on time" which is basically how many hours the drive has been powered on. Other than that, not really unless you go into forensic stuff.

[aisle9]

5 minutes ago, Snipergod87 said:

Smart attributes can be reset with the right tools but its not likely someone will go through the effort of doing it.

Unless it's a certain eBay seller (*cough*refurbforless*cough*)

[JoostinOnline]

Open it up and see if the magic elves that make the platters spin look old.  Any gray hair is a dead give-away.

[Guest]

^ That ^

[Dogway]

1 hour ago, JoostinOnline said:

Open it up and see if the magic elves that make the platters spin look old.  Any gray hair is a dead give-away.

The typical smarty-pants of the forums, a candy for you.

[Dogway]

I thought on checking magnetism loss or probably traces of data (a full format is known to leave traces hence the recommendation to full format several times).