Recond/Refurbish HDD brands: Utania and Sebap

     BTW from now on I would translate some namuwiki page for computer parts only. I do not deal with KPop articles unless if they're related to PC parts. Some grammars are fixed, and I used google translate + PAPAGO. Namu wiki's work is available under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 KR . (However, except for some documents and illustrations for which the license is specified)

https://namu.wiki/w/하드%20디스크%20드라이브?from=하드%20디스크#s-12.3

• Clover Hitech - A reconditioned HDD company famous for the UTANIA brand. It has been supplying HDDs for various low-cost assembly finished PCs by purchasing Samsung Electronics' HDD reconditioning division. When HDD factory in Thailand was temporarily closed due to flooding, it was often mixed in and scammed with a Samsung HDD. Production was stopped in January 2019 due to poor management.
• MDT (Magnetic data technologies) - Like Clover Hitech above, it produces reconditioned HDDs. However, this one reconditions Western Digital HDD. Myung Information Technology imports from Korea.
• MARSHAL - A Japanese company that makes reconditioned HDDs like the two companies above. Mainly deals with Toshiba HDDs.
• Sebap - All three companies reproduce and the product description says Made in Korea, so it is presumed to be a Korean company. Judging from the time when this brand appeared on the market and the shape of the HDD case, it seems that Sebap is taking over the facilities of Clover Hitech and is engaged in the HDD reconditioning business. As of February 2019, it is the cheapest among various HDDs as of Danawa. Reconditions Samsung + WD HDD. (Samsung HDD division got purchased by Seagate).
• Consistent / Daichi / Blue Feather / Geonix - Indian brand. According to it's reviews on Amazon.in, some people discovered that it's actually refurbished/recond HDD, but it's not stated anywhere on Amazon page. Case of failure, no detection, SMART statistic of power on time, and bad sector, is a tell tale. Also some people said it's been pulled off from CCTV (due to very high Power on hours but low power on counts). For SSD it's an exception, because it's new parts. (Easy to order and manufacture totally new OEM unbranded SSD compared to HDD, all you need is same tooling with RAM manufacturing. Forum post from 2009, still relevant to this day.). Reconditions Toshiba, WD, Hitachi (for 2.5in) HDD (mixed bag original manufacturer). (disclosure: this part is added by translator (this blog))
• Western Digital, and Seagate - two major HDD manufacturer. Also sells refurbished products with its own logo are also sold on the website and at many electronic stores (both as Recertified lineups). In Korea, Myung Information Technology is importing Western Digital reconditioned HDDs. DWCTS for WD, PCDirect for Seagate.

How those Refurbish HDD are made?

2 way of refurbished HDD: official refurbished (Western Digital, and Seagate recertified), and 3rd party refurbished. The official refurbished tends to have higher standards of refurbishing because done by manufacturer. 3rd party ones on the other hand... It's a mess in quality

How it works:

1. Inspect lot of used HDD (origin: China, SG, ROK, Europe, or Local)
2. Deactivate bad sectors. example: 2 TB HDD, only have1 tb of good sectors. So, another bad 1 TB is disabled.
3. Reprint stickers

To test those HDD? Victoria HDD.

Cause of bad sectors? Bad PSU quality, wear and tear, mechanical shake-ups.