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Seagate Ships Virus-Laden Hard Drives (Made in China)
PC World ^ | November 13, 2007 | Robert McMillan

Posted on 11/13/2007 7:05:20 AM PST by holymoly

A small number of Seagate's Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 consumer hard drives are infected with a password-stealing virus.

If you bought one of Seagate's Maxtor Basics consumer hard drives recently, check it for viruses. Especially if you're a gamer.

Seagate is warning that a "small number" of its Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 hard drives recently shipped with the Virus.Win32.AutoRun.ah virus, malicious software that "searches for passwords for online games and sends them to a server located in China," according to a note posted on the Seagate Web site. Only drives purchased since August 2007 are affected, Seagate said.

The hard drive maker is blaming an unnamed subcontractor, located in China, for the problem. Seagate said it learned about the problem from antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab. According to published reports, Seagate has had problems with Maxtor Basics drives sold over the past few months in the Netherlands and Taipei.

(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: china; communismkills; harddrive; internet; madeinchina; seagate; virus
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Note: PC World must be excerpted.

The hard drive maker is blaming an unnamed subcontractor, located in China...

Virus infected HDs. Made in China. Whould'a thunk it? /sarc

1 posted on 11/13/2007 7:05:20 AM PST by holymoly
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To: holymoly

OMG....who buys a Seagate HD? lol


2 posted on 11/13/2007 7:07:13 AM PST by Psycho_Bunny (Islam: Imagine a clown car......with guns.)
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To: Psycho_Bunny

Companies who work on the cheap....


3 posted on 11/13/2007 7:08:17 AM PST by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: theDentist

Gone are the days you could obtain a decent HD from Micropolis Corp...


4 posted on 11/13/2007 7:10:54 AM PST by C210N
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To: Psycho_Bunny
Seagate makes great drives. Maxtor I've had problems with and wasn't thrilled when Seagate bought Maxtor. WD's I've also had problems with.

My Seagate's: still going strong.

5 posted on 11/13/2007 7:12:40 AM PST by AFreeBird (Will NOT vote for Rudy. <--- notice the period)
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To: AFreeBird
I have a living 120MB Seagate drive
Of course I don't use it anymore, but it fires up just fine.
6 posted on 11/13/2007 7:15:07 AM PST by Crazieman (The Democrat Party: Culture of Treason)
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To: holymoly

It’s always a good idea to wipe clean any purchased hard drive, whether new or used with something like DBAN.


7 posted on 11/13/2007 7:15:19 AM PST by Reaganwuzthebest
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To: AFreeBird
No...they don't make great drives. They make some drives that don't fail....that's about the best you can say about them.

I've seen 1-month failure rates of Seagate drives in clustered server environments of - literally - 75%. And those were RAID class drives.

They make the worst HD on the planet.

8 posted on 11/13/2007 7:15:54 AM PST by Psycho_Bunny (Islam: Imagine a clown car......with guns.)
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To: holymoly
On Monday, the Taipei Times reported that Taiwanese distributor Xander International had discovered that 1,800 Maxtor Basics 500G-byte hard drives were affected, all manufactured in Thailand.

May I be the first to say...Thailand!!?

9 posted on 11/13/2007 7:16:26 AM PST by LexBaird (Behold, thou hast drinken of the Aide of Kool, and are lost unto Men.)
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To: nnn0jeh

ping


10 posted on 11/13/2007 7:17:21 AM PST by kalee
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To: holymoly; ShadowAce

PING!........


11 posted on 11/13/2007 7:18:18 AM PST by Red Badger ( We don't have science, but we do have consensus.......)
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To: JACKRUSSELL

Made in China


12 posted on 11/13/2007 7:19:07 AM PST by Calpernia (Hunters Rangers - Raising the Bar of Integrity http://www.barofintegrity.us)
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To: Reaganwuzthebest
It’s always a good idea to wipe clean any purchased hard drive, whether new or used with something like DBAN.

And for anyone not familiar with "DBAN", Reaganwuzthebest is referring to Darik's Boot and Nuke, a self-contained boot-floppy that can wipe most hard drives.

Particularly useful if you're disposing of, or donating, an old PC, which may have your private information on the HD.

DBAN is free.

13 posted on 11/13/2007 7:22:17 AM PST by holymoly
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To: holymoly

There is a reason why things “made in China” are often so cheap.

While we pass laws which firms have to comply with in regards to environmental, safety, social (child/prison labor)....... firms are going to locations that circumnavigate all these standards and and then import their crap onto the shelves at Wal-Mart.

Think about it. Do you really think that much of the IT operation based in India complies with Sarbanes-Oxley?


14 posted on 11/13/2007 7:28:47 AM PST by Red6 (Come and take it.)
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To: AFreeBird

Maxtor drive are crap. After my 2nd one crashed and burned, I said never again. I have never had a WD fail on me. I still have 4 gig drive that are running like a champ years later!


15 posted on 11/13/2007 7:36:53 AM PST by Bommer ("He that controls the spice controls the universe!" (unfortunately that spice is Nutmeg!)
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To: Psycho_Bunny

Their older drives used to be great. All of my older, smaller drives except one were Seagates, and they all ended up being replaced over the years due to capacity, not failure.

Every single one of em still works as well as the day I pulled it, but there’s not a lot even I can do with 4 GB anymore.


16 posted on 11/13/2007 7:44:53 AM PST by Fire_on_High (I am so proud of what we were...)
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To: holymoly

Simple rule: repartition and format your new drives before use.


17 posted on 11/13/2007 7:45:39 AM PST by Petronski (F-R-E-D! Fred! Fred! Fred!)
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To: Psycho_Bunny

I’ve never had a problem with Seagate drives. These are Maxtor drives.

YMMV.


18 posted on 11/13/2007 7:50:54 AM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo (Carry Daily, Apply Sparingly.)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo
Maxtor/Seagate....same difference.

I had two Seagates about 10 years ago that were great....but today, they're just crap.

19 posted on 11/13/2007 7:57:53 AM PST by Psycho_Bunny (Islam: Imagine a clown car......with guns.)
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To: Psycho_Bunny

Maxtor drives=Maxtor design.

You may remember that Maxtor was a kluge of Maxtor and Quantum.

Remember Quantum drives??


20 posted on 11/13/2007 8:03:31 AM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo (Carry Daily, Apply Sparingly.)
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