Return the dud for a refund? Did it look brand new coming out of the anti-static bag?
As mentioned, more likely they are “renewed” drives with the SMART data wiped. No competent business would spend the money to have these lie around for many years. (Sure, it’s possible they had only 2 gathering dust.)
I can’t remember what Backblaze’s data looks like, but IIRC Toshiba’s HDD are considered good (enough). I’d pick ’em before I’d buy consumer Seagate drives.
I thought $34 sounded awful for a 500GB HDD, but I guess we have the AI overlords to thank for that.
On that note, I have a new-in-box WD Black 1TB that I should just sell locally. After nearly a decade, it seems unlikely that I’ll ever need it.