Posted on 07/26/2009 1:46:23 PM PDT by poiuqwer
Answer: Yes
What’s the brand or make of the 1TB XTHD? I have one as well..
Obama hacked into your files, just to make sure you didn’t have a copy of his BC.
Are you guys talking about a 1TB external hard drive or a thumb/flash drive? If you know where I can get a 1TB thumb/flash drive which will fit on my keychain for under a $100, please let me know where to find such a thing.
Because when I have a USB external hard drive, I call the manufacturer and send it back. No, actually, I just buy a new one. Typically, after a few months/years, they provide more capacity for memory for cheaper anyways. And I actually prefer firewire external drives over USB.
However, I wouldn’t be surprised if hidden viruses are shipped on them when you purchase them.
Interesting theory. Perhaps a little too complex but reasonable to assume that if you return a drive to China, someone will be officially tasked with finding out what’s on it.
Since you are technical, take the drive out of the case and attach it directly to your computer’s disk controller, using the appropriate IDE or SATA data and power cables.
You may also want to try mounting it on a Linux system, both as a USB device and, out of the box, as just another hard drive.
If the drive is truly dead, then get a BIG FAT MAGNET and bulk erase the drive before returning it. That should erase most if not all of your data. I believe there are even bulk erase machines that could do an even better job of it.
One of my clients, a major midwest refinery, does not permit the use of USB flash drives for security reasons.
You may want to contact the following:
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Public Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20505
Phone
(703) 482-0623
FAX: (703) 482-1739
If you’re going to take it apart, you might as well replace the bad part yourself.
Neither does the Dept. of Defense.
Or my place of work
Most of these are just a harddrive wrapped in complex plastic, so if you really wanted to make sure it was a USB problem you could crack that beast open and plug the drive into the computer.
Do people really send these things in for repair? My drive busted I just bought a new one. Since it’s just a backup anyway I couldn’t lose anything. And do the Chinese really need our illegal MP3s? That’s what occupies most of the space on these things.
You ship it to an address in the US.
They probably just check to see it is one of theirs, send you another one, and throw it out.
I could, but why? I have the drives redundant with RAID stiped, and the manufactured will just send me a new one. I’m not concerned about my data; it’s already protected. I’m just wondering about a big scary possible picture.
a terabyte and multiples thereof is a LOT of data, probably mostly used by corporate and gummint agencies. Your concern seems entirely plausible to me, and as one who has opened every HD I have ever discarded in order to destroy the actual physical media, I will continue to do so......but I have the luxury of needing another lifetime or two before actually needing more than 60 or so gigs, LOL
I'm only talking about 1 TB external USB hard disks -- not flash drives. But I suppose the same argument applies for them as well.
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