Looks like a very good deal. There isn't much detail about how old these drives are, nor are there many reviews. But it says "Amazon renewed" so it must be legit, right?…. Right?
CamelCamelCamel.
Prob schools
Not all drives are used to store precious childhood memories…
But if you do have to waste storage space on such things, these are perfect. Keep the top shelf gear for Linux ISOs.
I use cheap HDDs as dedicated torrent drives. They are constantly getting written to and then I move the completed files to better storage.
From my experience, old HDDs actually better preserve the data. I.e., once written, disconnected, written again a year later, and SSD will damage the data while being practically unused. Or, if the drive dies, the recovery from HDD has better chances and less headache.
OP never mentioned SSDs, I think OP meant buying a new drive vs this refurbished drive.
From this perspective, the only difference is warranty. Would your data be safer on a newer drive? No, technically and practically it's irrelevant. Warranty never covers your data. The fact of being newer increases risk of getting a child decease because of lack of vendor testing where you will be doing beta-testing.
Asking SMART screenshot to see its condition before purchase still would make sense though.
Would your data be safer on a newer drive? No, technically and practically it's irrelevant.
This drive was released in 2013.
I don't think many people would recommend buying even a 5-year old mechanical drive.
It could have sat in a drawer untouched for 5 years, or it could have run 24/7 for 5 years. It could have been in a NAS, an NVR doing 24/7 recording, or a sporadically-used computer leading to very high start/stop cycles. It's a gamble if you don't know the history of it.
The fact of being newer increases risk of getting a child decease because of lack of vendor testing where you will be doing beta-testing.
It sounds like you're referring to the bathtub curve where drives can suffer failures early in its lifespan.
How do you know a drive that was released 11 years ago isn't at the other end of the bathtub curve? :)
(I didn't neg you btw)
That's exactly why you can ask for the smart screenshot to see it there.
-doing 24/7 recording
And this thing is also logged in SMART.
-How do you know a drive that was released 11 years ago isn't at the other end of the bathtub curve?
Google the model before you buy it.
@Ozzster: Even more to say about 24/7. Choosing between a new Green/Blue WD or 5-year old server I would go for the server one. Even it has a few bad sectors. From my experience, 5 years mileage gives for them way easier than low reliability by design in cheap consumer models which die way sooner regardless of anything.
From my experience, 5 years mileage gives for them way easier than low reliability by design in cheap consumer models which die way sooner regardless of anything.
Better avoid this second-hand consumer-model desktop drive then. :)
That's exactly why you can ask for the smart screenshot to see it there.
Are you expecting an Amazon seller to provide individual SMART test results for each individual drive they sell for $35, and that the Amazon warehouse where the stock is located will be able to send out that specific drive to you?
Google the model before you buy it.
Hmm, not sure if you know what the bathtub curve represents?
@eug: I have never purchased anything used from Amazon, so not sure about this platform. But I did see ads where it was said about the past usage and condition of the hardware. On Gumtree sellers easily send screenshots too.
I get your idea about the curve. If you google the model and have the smart you will know where it is on the curve. If you care.
I have never purchased anything used from Amazon, so not sure about this platform.
This drive is shipped by Amazon. That means the seller sends the whole lot of drives to Amazon who stores it in a warehouse or warehouses around the country. When you buy a drive, Amazon will just ship the next available one from the closest warehouse to you.
That means the seller can't tell Amazon to ship the drive with serial number ABC123XYZ to customer A. So even if the seller had the SMART data for every single drive on hand, they cannot ensure you receive a specific drive.
Bought an HP 4TB refurb from these guys the other day for $90. Arrived in its HP server caddy so I guess it's been spinning 24/7 for 3 or 5 years already (which in my experience means it's now either going to stop very soon, or outlive us all). I actually forgot to check its manufacure date etc, will do that tonight. It's gone in my CCTV NVR for 24/7 recording. It's not of critical preciousness for me. And motion-activated streams from those cameras are also saved to an old NAS, synced to a cloud and backed up to a local USB disk. To be honest, next disk failure in that NAS will probably see a refurb one be slotted in too.
And an Amazon 1 year warranty on it seems OK to me.
Edit: just looking now and I'd have probably gone for 4TB for $50 https://www.amazon.com.au/HGST-Ultrastar-3-5-Inch-Internal-R…
Thats a SAS drive though, which would not suit most people
Good point!
Refurb slow SSHD. I would just pay the extra and get a new 1TB ssd, which would be a lot faster and new.
Crazy stuff. Maybe think of these as lotto tickets - there's a small chance there's someone's old bitcoin wallet still on it from 2013 when bitcoin was $10 ;-)
i remember buying 1tb ssds for $59…
Prices were coming down and now they're all going up again. I don't get it…
its because there was a oversupply of nand
none of the manufacturers were making much money
so they restricted manufacture to 'saleable quantities' and now prices are up
ALSO the AUD is in the toilet as usual
Yeah the aussie dollar certainly doesn't help. So it's kinda like when they were holding back gpu's during covid to push prices up?? Sucks all around lol
Why would you buy this..
To store non-critical data on
Bought a refurbished 2TB one for about $46 from Harris Technology via eBay a few months ago, it's 100% health, showing current remaining life of more than 1000 days.
Still remember I bought a new Toshiba 5TB portable drive at $50 in Officeworks.
I still remember I filled up my fuel tank at 0.1c/L at 7 Eleven 5 years ago.
I remember filling up for -0.3c/L at Woolworths using my 4c off thing.
These are e-waste right?… Right?
At this capacity, probably.
Weird deal
A poor man payes twice.
![[Refurbished] Seagate ST1000DX001 1TB 3.5" SSHD $35 + Delivery ($0 with Prime/ $59 Spend) @ HT Green via Amazon AU](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/89/863989.jpg?h=a69f4dca)
Who is the market of people who are technically literate enough to install HDDs but dont value the safety of their data over saving like $50?