Samsung hard disks in Seagate clothing

Yes the title really says it all. It is a bit shocking and uncomfortable to know that Seagate have been shipping the Free Agent Go (The portable version of its external hard disks) external drives with Samsung hard disks in them. I, initially came across this bit of information from www.notebookreview.com and my worst fears were confirmed by Seagate themselves.

When one of the members of notebook review forum, alias- XStylus, ripped open his 500GB Free Agent Go to use the hard disk in his laptop, he discovered that the inside the casing was a Samsung! The computer to which the drive is connected also identified the drive as Seagate, because the controllers on board were programmed to show the drive as a Seagate. I was initially perplexed as to weather this is some sort of a hoax, but later I found this exchange between Seagate and another customer who was bitten by the same bug as me, conforming that Seagate indeed did momentarily ship their Free Agent Go's with Samsung drives.

Seagate say, they did source 500GB drives from Samsung for a short while as they were in short supply of their own drives when the holiday season was fast approaching. They add that, they began to ship its own 500GB 2.5-inch drive a few weeks later. A few weeks!! for the world's best and one of the biggest hard disk production facility a few weeks equates to a quite a healthy number of hard disks! And add to the fact that they were merely casing Samsung's drives means, the numbers could be much more than one can imagine.

But the serious question is what were Seagate doing with the production of their drives when its obvious that a holiday season is approaching? Obviously Seagate cannot say they forgot the dates! Thinking deeper, does that mean Seagate actually found a defect with its own drives to momentarily pause its production and slot in Samsung drives? These questions only Seagate can answer. I am one of many out there who would wait for a Seagate drive rather than risk buying infamous Samsung drives. Although Seagate say they uphold the same warranty of the Samsung drives, as a consumer I feel cheated. Its like finding a Hyundai engine under the hood of an Audi. Quite embarrassing.

Image credit: XStylus@Notebook Review Forum