When HGST “refurbishes” a drive for resale do they reset the drive hours to zero? I bought 3 supposedly Manufacturer Refurbished 3TB HGST drives from different vendors. One showed zero hours use (it was actually the oldest drive of the bunch), the other two showed over 17,000 hours on each. All 3 were sealed in anti static bags but I suppose anyone could do that. I called HGST but they were unable to answer my question. I have seen from Seagate they actually put a new label on the drive that says “refurbished”. The 3 HGST drives I bought seem to have the same label they came with when originally manufactured. The bottom line question is though, should a Manufacturer Refurbished drive show zero hours or are the 17,000 hour “refurbished” drives normal?
Are you sure they are not “Seller Refurbished”?
Well they were sold as MANUFACTURER refurbished, that is kind of why I am asking. One of the companies that sold me one of the 17,000 hour drives was Newegg, a fairly reputable dealer. Even though all 3 came from different dealers they were all sealed in the same type of antistatic bag, sealed on the side, not the top like most drives. I was wondering if anyone had purchased HGST Manufacturer Refurbished drives direct (if possible) or from anywhere else and see anything other than zero hours (which I THOUGHT manufacturer drives are supposed to show). Maybe HGST does not set their manufacturer refurbished drives back to zero hours though I would think if enough people bought “refurbished” drives that show tens of thousands of hours there would be complaints.
