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A UK buyer paid £38 for a device advertised as a 20TB portable hard drive. It appeared to offer 19TB in Windows, but attempts to use it failed. According to Ars Technica’s June 3, 2025 report, the case contained glued iron wheel weights and a small circuit board with some form of flash storage—not the expected components of a conventional 20TB hard drive.
The story is a useful warning about trusting a capacity label or a number shown by an operating system. It does not show that 20TB drives are fictional, and the report does not establish that the device failed on its first day. The important question is whether a drive can reliably store and retrieve data, and whether its model, form factor, seller, and price make sense.
What happened to the purported 20TB drive?
Ars Technica reported that a UK buyer purchased the drive from a seller identified as UK.Chicntech for £38—about $51.33 in the 2025 report. The delivered box carried Toshiba Canvio branding. Ars noted that Toshiba’s Canvio portable hard drives topped out at 4TB at the time, a sharp mismatch with the 20TB claim.
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The buyer’s son, Martin, told Ars that the device mounted and appeared to accept a copied file, but he could not open the file from the drive. He said attempts to fix the problem, including reformatting, did not make it work. The account describes an unusable device, but does not clearly establish how long after purchase it failed; the “day one” timing in the original headline should not be treated as verified.
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After opening the case, Martin reportedly found iron wheel weights glued inside and a small PCB containing some form of flash storage. The reporting does not establish the flash component’s exact capacity or whether it functioned. So the supported conclusion is that the enclosure’s contents were inconsistent with a normal 20TB hard drive—not that it contained no storage component whatsoever.
Why Windows showing 19TB did not prove the capacity
A displayed capacity is not a test of usable storage. Ars reported that Windows showed 19TB, but the buyer’s attempts to retrieve data failed. A device can report a capacity without being able to store and return that amount of data reliably.
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The apparent difference between “20TB” and roughly “18.2TB” on a computer is a separate issue. Drive makers use decimal units: one terabyte is one trillion bytes. Some operating systems calculate capacity using binary units, so a genuine 20TB drive may appear as approximately 18.2TiB (often labeled TB by the operating system). Seagate explains the unit distinction in its 2023 Expansion Desktop product document. That conversion can explain a smaller displayed number; it cannot establish that a suspicious device has the advertised capacity.
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Manufacturers document legitimate 20TB drives. Their examples show why a high-capacity claim should be checked against the model and intended use rather than judged by the number alone.
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| Documented product | Type and intended use | What the manufacturer specifies |
|---|---|---|
| Toshiba MG10 series | Internal enterprise HDD | Toshiba Electronics Europe announced a 20TB, 3.5-inch series in 2022, with 7,200 rpm and a 550TB-per-year workload rating. These are MG10-series specifications, not universal specifications for all 20TB drives. Toshiba’s 2022 announcement. |
| Seagate Expansion Desktop, model STKP20000400 | External desktop drive | Seagate’s 2023 product document identifies this model as a 20TB Expansion Desktop drive. Seagate’s product document. |
These are not interchangeable products. An enterprise internal drive and an external desktop drive differ in form factor, connection, power requirements, and intended workload. The documented examples also do not support the idea that a tiny, pocket-sized device sold for £38 in 2025 is equivalent to a genuine 20TB product.
How to check a high-capacity drive before trusting it
- Verify the exact model. Search the manufacturer’s own documentation for the model number, capacity, and form factor. A box’s branding or a seller’s headline is not enough.
- Check whether the form factor fits the claim. Look at the manufacturer’s specifications for size, power, and connection. Compare like with like: an internal 3.5-inch enterprise drive is not the same product as a portable or desktop external drive.
- Question implausible pricing. Ars described £38 as far below typical 20TB external-drive prices in its 2025 report. That is historical context, not a current price quote; prices and availability change. A very low price is a warning to verify the seller and product, not proof by itself.
- Test storage before putting important files on it. Confirm that files can be written and read back, including after the device is safely disconnected and reconnected. A capacity shown in Windows or another operating system does not substitute for a successful read-back test.
- Use a protected payment method and review the return terms. Keep the listing, receipt, packaging, and messages. If the drive fails, stop relying on it for data and contact the seller or payment provider promptly.
If you need a legitimate 20TB external drive, Seagate’s Expansion Desktop model STKP20000400 is one manufacturer-documented example, not a tested recommendation. Check the current seller, exact model number, return policy, and price before buying; current stock and pricing are not established here.
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- This USB drive provides plug and play simplicity with the included 18 inch USB 3.0 cable
- The available storage capacity may vary.
What the refund account does—and does not—establish
Martin told Ars that his father was offered a 30 percent refund, could keep the device, and was offered a “free gift.” This is Martin’s account as reported in the interview, not an independently adjudicated finding about the seller. The incident illustrates why buyers should preserve evidence and check the applicable marketplace and payment-provider dispute process, but it does not establish how common fake-capacity devices are.
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