Unionsine

Do not purchase any UnionSine products…

I purchased two UnionSine 16TB USB external hard drives on eBay UK, advertised as brand new and unused. The packaging and enclosures looked new, and the price was lower than buying bare drives, so I intended to use them in my NAS media server. Because the drives were going into a critical system, I tested both immediately using CrystalDisk to check the SMART data. The SMART information had clearly been reset — something that should not happen on a genuinely new drive. This raised concerns, so I opened the enclosures to inspect the internal drives. Both were refurbished units. Based on what I found, it appears likely that UnionSine are using end‑of‑life data‑centre drives, wiping and resetting the SMART data, and placing them into new external casings. To the average buyer, everything looks brand new, and unless the drive is tested or opened, the issue would go unnoticed until the drive fails prematurely. The UnionSine website itself is also insecure, which does not inspire confidence in the brand. My experience suggests that these products are not what they are advertised to be. Anyone considering buying UnionSine external drives — especially from marketplace sellers — should be extremely cautious and have the drives professionally checked before trusting them with important data.