I've been looking for some used HDDs and found these.
They have a few hours on them but with a 2.5 million hour rating, it doesn't matter too much for my use.
They come with a 3 month warranty.
They also have an 18tb version for $339: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/256125827048?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mk…
Use coupon HGTNOV to get $20 off.
Among the 17,155 failed HDDs Backblaze examined, the average age at which the drives failed was 2 years and 6 months. So, 2 years used + 3 months warranty, you have an average 3 months after the warranty expires before failure. The ""used for around 2 years" is a deliberate strategy (similarly with new cars, selling between 3 and 5 years). Having said that, these WUH721816ALE6L4 drives are better than average though.
That is a bit misleading. In reality, you are only counting the average of the failures. The number of drives that have failed is small when compared to the total number in use.
A better measure to consider is the AFR (annual failure rate). The highest AFR among the listed WD drives is only 0.29%. Just take a look at Backblaze's Seagate 4TB drives. They have been in service for a very long time and have a relatively high AFR of 2.57%. Out of the total 18,070 drives, there have been 5,258 failures.
I haven't compared the models, and I don't know how long they've been in use, but Backblaze has reported 6 failures out of 2,699 WD 16TB drives and 19 failures out of 14,098 WD 18TB drives.
There might be a bit of a spike in failures around this time, but it's still a relatively small number of drives, so your chances of getting a decent lifespan out of them are pretty good. I'm considering purchasing one of these as a backup drive.
Also, there's no way they are getting rid of them because of failure rates; drives are cheap compared to servers. RAID arrays mean failures are not a huge issue or cost. They were most likely replaced with larger drives; it is often much cheaper to replace the drives than to add servers.
The simple way to look at that, pessimistically, is to assume a guaranteed failure at those rates.
So in 6mo. After purchase, you have 0.29% of the stock that fails.
Less than 1 out of every 300 sold.
Im not a gambling man, but even i'd take those odds.
maybe you should give 1 year warranty so when it fails you actually replace it.
Nice. 6 on the way for a new RaidZ2 pool.
thansk, ordered 2 to go into my NAS
$17.44/TB
Good price. Anyone bought from this seller before?
Bought a monitor from them the other day - arrived interstate within 2 days and was exceptionally well packed and came with tax invoice. New accessories and monitor was in fantastic condition. Obviously this varies on the quality of item they receive and on sell but I was happy!
Bought a PC from them. Good customer service experience. Had motherboard issues at end of warranty period and Metrocom shipped replacement very quickly. Would buy from them again without hesitation.
I have bought several refurbished laptops and PCs from Metrocom (for elderly neighbours) and they have always been good quality and quick. I once was shipped a PC that had a power supply with coil whine and they swapped it for me swiftly with very little trouble.
BFSNS for plus members $30 off = $269
Guessing ex Chia, they also selling mining cards
How noisy are these? I have the WD/HGST DC HC320's 8TBs in my NAS at the moment and they are loud…
Data Centre drives don't need to be quite
quite what?
quiet
so this is too noisy? super loud!!!!!
The 16-18TB Ultrastars were said to be a bit louder than normal, apparently the 20TB models improved the acoustics.
DC550 (This drive)
Idle/Seek 2.0/3.6
https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library…
DC560 (newer model)
Idle/Seek 2.0/3.2
https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library…
Ended up picking up this 4 pack for $1200 with HGTNOV https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/256328117375
Plan to build another Unraid NAS and hide it away where the noise wont be an issue
How did it go?
Waiting for a PCIE to SATA card to arrive to set it up fully with a cache pool and parity drive. Set up two of the drives and it seems OK so far.
Being an enterprise drive, it is likely that these drives have the 3.3v power disable feature. Many consumer power supplies do not fully support the SATA specification, so there is a chance that if these drives have that feature, they will not spin up. However, there is a relatively simple workaround. You can either use a SATA power splitter that connects only 4 of the 5 wires, or you can put some Kapton tape over the pwdis pin.
I have 8 of the 18TB version in my Synology NAS, no mod was needed.
8x18TB!
What do you keep that needs this much storage?
I actually have 2 of these. lol
linux ISOs duh
🏴☠️
ive got 8 of the 22TBs in my Synology NAS… lots of linux ISOs
I think the Synologys don't have the 3.3V SATA pin at all.
I used a Cooler Master V 550w SFX along with the 18TB models like you in my DIY build and had to perform the mod. IMO the easiest way assuming you have a modular PSU is to depin the cable from the PSU side once like in this video: https://youtu.be/n6gQ5ie2Dw0
I have a Synology DS1918+ and they work fine in that. In a desktop it depends on the PSU, I had to use a splitter. Most of my drives where shucked WD white drives.
a molex adapter works too
I have. Good shipping. But have bought around $15/tb from same seller with occasional good ebay codes and GC. So not really a bargain at the moment. Everyday price
You can get it down to the same with ebay codes and GC too.
I used BFSNS to get it down to $269 and then paid with prezzee gift cards.
Just the usual PSA, remember that it's possible to wipe and rewrite SMART data, so the low hours of runtime is not trustworthy from secondhand sellers like this. Just FYI if endurance on the drive matters for you, if it doesn't, then these second hand drives are pretty much the cheapest $/tb you'll find for sale
I didn't know this was possible..damn that really changes my view on buying 2nd hand drives now…
Yeah but there's 17000hrs on them. What you need to be careful of is drives that are at or near zero hours with the seller claiming "never used".
Given the above information, I'm sure if they could wipe the data, I'd assume it's possible to write hours too. 17000 hours is less than 8 months, seems legit but I don't blame anyone with doubt after knowing this
17000 hours is less than 8 months
wut
It's not impossible to do but wiping SMART is a lot easier than modifying those values. In the past it was easier but with current drives it usually requires proprietary tools.
Quick Maffs is off my guy
What planet are you living on? This one has 24 hrs per day, not 70 hrs per day.
@PR0r: Second time today I've heard about AI failing maths. You think maths would be the easiest thing an AI could do.
I tend to think if you’re going to go to that effort to deceive users then you’d advertise a much lower run time than 2 years. Could make them a few dozen and then say they were for an enterprise customer who cancelled server build or something.
4x 16gb listing, same seller, using HGTNOV code is $1000 delivered
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/256089029123
$250 ea // $15.625 per TB
Just cancelled and reordered as bought 8x18TB, bought 2x of the 4x listings, same products saved $150 - thanks for the heads up!!!
Seller was responsive so great experience so far.
Cheers.
Thank you very much, @RedFoxAU.
Nabbed. Thanks OP!
I'm really surprised that people are buying these when you can get a brand new 16TB Seagate IronWolf Pro or Seagate 16TB Exos X18 from reputable local sellers for under $600 with 5 year warranty.
Because that’s twice the price?
And also Seagate 🤮
Yeah; Im no brand snob, they have a few good models, but overall Seagates arent shining through as a good choice currently in the backblaze data.
They're far from bad!
Just given the choice, WD has slightly better statistics.
For me, saving half the price is more important than the warranty.
Because Seagate drives are more likely to fail, I've had 1 WD fail on me ever vs 4 Seagate's (which amazingly pretty much fits backblaze data)
I would need to have 50% of WDs fail and 0% of Seagate's to fail to make spending 2x worth it - This just doesn't happen. Factor in some inflation, decreasing $/tb then it's more like 65% failure rate to be cost effective.
Two of these drives in raid 1 is so much better than one of those drives for the same money. Warrenty doesn't bring back data, but a backup can.
Brand new ones aren't much more.
What are you talking about, brand new is literally more then double the price
I saw one for $389 Brand new
Then prove it?
link?
Seagate is not comparable. Their failure rate is an order of magnitude higher then WD drives and 50% more is still kinda alot anyway
Their failure rate is an order of magnitude higher then WD drives
Please don't make things up, that's totally untrue.
Even Backblaze themselves say that the slightly lower cost of Seagate drives offsets the slightly higher failure rate in their punishing environment.
"In general, Seagate drives are less expensive and their failure rates are typically higher in our environment," Backblaze said. "But, their failure rates are typically not high enough to make them less cost-effective over their lifetime. You could make a good case that for us, many Seagate drive models are just as cost-effective as more expensive drives."
@Nom: How is it untrue? Backblaze numbers themselves show the drives fail at least twice as frequently.
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q2-…
Just because they may be more economical when buying new as a commodity item, doesn't change the fact they are less reliable so buying used you are still better off WD
How is it untrue?
Backblaze numbers themselves show the drives fail at least twice as frequently.
That's absolutely not what these numbers show, you're just drawing a conclusion that isn't represented in the data.
The failure rates are dramatically different across capacities, and the number of different WD drives included in the data (just three models) isn't helping your case.
the fact they are less reliable so buying used you are still better off WD
Again, that's not what the numbers say. If a drive is 5% less reliable, but 10% cheaper then you're better off. Paying an extra 10% in cost for 5% more reliability is financially worse off, not better !
Finally, these numbers are reflecting the reliability of those particular drives in the Backblaze environment. They don't directly translate to what you'll see in your home environment - don't assume they are the definitive guide to drive reliably in any situation other than Backblaze's racks.
@Nom: Backblaze is a data centre you turnip. When they lose a drive they don't lose data, it's duplicated on other drives. When normal people lose a drive what they care about is the data being lost.
Backblaze is a data centre you turnip.
Yes. Was that in dispute ? I think everyone quoting Backblaze data needs to know exactly what Backblaze is.
When they lose a drive they don't lose data, it's duplicated on other drives.
Bingo. Exactly the same applies to home users - when a drive dies (they all die one day) then you need to restore a backup onto your new replacement drive. Hopefully that replacement drive costs you $0 under warranty - if not, you're on the hook for hundreds of dollars.
When normal people lose a drive what they care about is the data being lost.
No, they care about the hundreds of dollars they might need to spend on a new drive, to restore their backup to.
ALL drives fail. If that scenario causes you data loss, there's something very wrong with your backup strategy !
Located in: shenzhen, 广东省, China
New but no warranty vs used with 3 months
I dont think these are new. These are used drives with wiped smart data, hence "new".
Afaik the WD drives cant have the smart data wiped.
Brand new ones can also fail. These are probably good for cold storage given where they are on the bathtub curve.
what's cold storage and bathtub curve?
cold storage is storage that is usually turned-off after back up. bathtub curve reflects that hdds failure rates are higher when new and after they've been running for an extended period when components start to age.
FWIW - I got 4 of these last month (part of a swap of older lower capacity drives in a 20 bay server rack). I had a look at their smart data using HDS and they don't appear to have been wiped. All the data is different and looks as you would expect. All were mfr in DEC 2020. 3 of the 4 Drives have a Power On Time of 723 days, 1 is 885 days. TB Written / Read (if I got my maths right) is 17 / 4TB (for three drives) and 33 / 15tb (for the 4th).
Yep, Chia drives
Does it matter with such low read write?
Chia is a plant - they are saying the drive is made from a plant.
The R/W isnt really indicative of lifespan. I had a drive start throwing bad sectors after only 18TBW yet some drives 80+TBW with no issues, same poweron hours. Environmental conditions such as power and temperature tend to play a bigger part.
Assuming all the others are low, too?
Chia is good sign, once plot is written drives sit idle, so bugger all use..not constantly reading n writing.
What's Chia, and what's this about plot being written to the drive?
@Ulysses31: I mean this sounds like what Wayne7497 was referring to… so not all bad for these drives, maybe?
The plotting process is computationally intensive. Depending on a number of factors, the plotting computer, CPU, GPU, RAM, and/or storage devices (such as SSDs) are heavily utilized. However, this process is only performed when creating a plot. Afterward, plots can typically be farmed for many years, during which the farming computer, as well as the HDDs that store the plots, will remain mostly idle.
https://docs.chia.net/plotting-basics/
Thanks for the links, too.
@redpen: One person we "know" took the gamble, did the checks, and got results. We have NO way of knowing what they're like when we buy them. It's a WYSIWYG/Buyer Beware situation.
Each to their own. But I'm in the camp of not trusting hard drives. I've had enough from all makes/models to know they can and will fail. That's a shtton of data to have duplicates/triplicates (RAID is not a backup). So it becomes extremely niche IMO.
Cheers got two - planning to them in RAID 1 in a NAS
Sadly no SAS drives or would have jumped on a few…
its enterprise and its used you will be lucky to get a year out of it.
I'll let you know next year!
Bought two of the 18tb drives.
I have had wd green 2tb that have been runing for over 10 years and are still going strong
As tempting as it may be, 3mth warranty is a hard no. Even 12 mth warranties blow, considering how fast life blasts by.
Got them delivered today, got the 4x deal. I got to say the packaging for these is not good, each disk had an anti static bag, however they were packaged using bubblewrap internally, which everyone knows is a big nono for hard disks. It was in 2 x 2 formation with little to no bubblewrap between the disks themselves.
also the packaging had no mention externally of it being fragile, i saw the guy throw the box 3 feet when delivering it from auspost.
When you package these you need to use plastic hardshells or hard foam, specifically meant for internal disks.
Follow the rma packaging instructions from Seagate or western digital. I hope the disks are fine, but i am dreading the outcome.
That doesnt sound great. Mine haven't arrived yet. Let us know how they go.
![[Used] WD Ultrastar HC550 16TB 3.5" Enterprise SATA HDD $279 ($269 with eBay Plus) Shipped @ Metrocom eBay](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/51/817951.jpg?h=fbeeb51f)
Used For around 2 years.
Tested, wiped and well packed.
3 Months return to base warranty.