Need is such a flexible term. For enterprise helium filled drives that is a great deal. I got 4 of them. Well see how many days are on them. They are back up to 119.99Man... what a great deal. If only I needed them. I'm pretty sure I bought 10TB HGST He drives that cost me $500 a piece that I'm using now.
I have bought from Goharddrive and asked directly and they told me the drives were unused. Later ones did have use on them. I assume they ship the unused ones first.LOL these will never be brand new, unused spares. If you're going by the SMART "Power On Hours" metric, then you've been fooled by Server Part Deals. They reset the SMART counters on their "refurbished" drives.
It's a great deal at $85; but the price is currently spiked to $120. There are some other options on Amazon if you need to buy something now.
12TB enterprise refurb drives, $89 at Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Ultrastar-HUH721212ALE600-3-5-Inch-Internal/dp/B07Y8GF5M6/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=wd+ultrastar&m=A10GIQVUTYZMGS&qid=1707241750&s=merchant-items&sr=1-9 These are SATA enterprise WD Ultrastar HC 520 drives, so pretty solid generally. Refurbished and sold by goharddrive...forums.anandtech.com
It's a great value for homelabers. The used drive is $90, and goHardDrive gives you a 5 year warranty. Assuming a not-unusual configuration such as 4 drives in RAID-10, a homelab user can save $440 before adding sales tax. Realistically you should buy a 5th drive for a hot spare or off-site backup.What I don't understand is the appeal of buying refurbished hard drives at only a small discount like this. New 12TB HDDs with 3 year warranty are currently $200 and have been less before.
In bulk HDD seem to have a very predictable failure rate. Unless you know the approximate number of power on hours & true (not advertised) MTBF you have no idea how many years of expected storage you are buying.
At least with new drives you have a warranty to measure this (even if failure and RMA is inconvenient) regardless of the true MTBF.
The used drive is $90, and goHardDrive gives you a 5 year warranty.
It does not add up. How does goHardDrive make money with a 5 year reseller warranty on a product most likely missing its most reliable years. Even if they get them as free e-waste you're counting on them existing for years to come. They also wipe the SMART history of some of the drives. And they lied to the OP saying some would be new. Those facts alone are scummy enough to put the their "warranty" in quotes.And to be clear, these so-called refurbished drives are all used system pulls with years of continuous usage.
It does not add up. How does goHardDrive make money with a 5 year reseller warranty on a product most likely missing its most reliable years. Even if they get them as free e-waste you're counting on them existing for years to come. They also wipe the SMART history of some of the drives. And they lied to the OP saying some would be new. Those facts alone are scummy enough to put the their "warranty" in quotes.
I think most people - except those that really like Hitachi - are better off buying a new 12TB for $80 more.
Are you kidding me? You're saying IF a company gets a product for free (e-waste), spends some labor to clean it up, and gets to sell it for $100, that they can't make a net profit?It does not add up. How does goHardDrive make money with a 5 year reseller warranty on a product most likely missing its most reliable years. Even if they get them as free e-waste you're counting on them existing for years to come. They also wipe the SMART history of some of the drives. And they lied to the OP saying some would be new. Those facts alone are scummy enough to put the their "warranty" in quotes.
I think most people - except those that really like Hitachi - are better off buying a new 12TB for $80 more.
Just out of curiosity, please post the Power on Hours and if all the drives are in good condition when you get to evaluate them.I went ahead and ordered 4 of them from Newegg at $85 a drive. I also ordered a new Platinum PSU and a SAS backplane/HDD cage. The SAS cable already came from Amazon.
Exactly, why spend double if you don't have to?If you're like me and discard a failed drive after destroying the platters rather than RMA'ing it, I only need it to work & not be DOA really. The warranty is a feel good bit, unless these were getting hammered most of these enterprise drives spent a lot of time parked. Spending 2x the price to get a "new" drive is a little silly for me, better to invest that $80 into a second drive and backup my data. Or hold that money for a few years and buy a 3x capacity drive with the difference at that point.
And it shows that reliability tanks after 3 years. I consider it questionable if they can service a 5 year warranty profitably, most likely people don't submit claims and that's how they get away with it. More over the price when I wrote my post was $120. It seems to change a lot.Backblaze has tons of data on the failure rates of various hard drives (although IIRC they tend to buy mostly consumer class drives), so you can make a somewhat informed decision and proceed accordingly.
I don't remember all the failure rates off the top of my head, but I don't remember a steep cliff at the 3 year mark. If that was certainly the case (how steep of a cliff?), then I wouldn't recommend used hard drives.And it shows that reliability tanks after 3 years and here you advocate for buying drives considered so question to be given away as e-waste by the original owners. And now resold by a scummy company that wipes SMART data.
We have the OP claiming they told him some will be new:As far as goHardDrive, the consumer can decide what their comfort level is. Actually they generally do NOT wipe the SMART data
I have bought from Goharddrive and asked directly and they told me the drives were unused.
So anytime someone makes a crazy claim about a vendor, I should believe it? And not only that, but then draw a wide, sweeping conclusion about that vendor?We have the OP claiming they told him some will be new:
You know that almost assuredly those are wiped drives and not new. It's a very questionable company. But it's an option, I suppose.
There's numerous claims on numerous forums as to their behavior. But gamble as you like to save a few bucks.So anytime someone makes a crazy claim about a vendor, I should believe it? And not only that, but then draw a wide, sweeping conclusion about that vendor?
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of bad companies, large and small, out there. I have ZERO affiliation with this one, but don't see compelling evidence yet that they are "scummy" or "very questionable." But you do you.
I think it goes without saying that caveat emptor anytime one buys anything used, and doubly so with hard drives.
I will too. I have bought refurbed hard drives from Goharddrive in the past and some had only a few hours on them and some had a lot. Most had very few power on cycles. New HGST 12Tb drives are 3-4x the price.When I get the drives I will check them out for sure. Updates to come.
If you're not a business, who cares if they're refurbed. HGST makes great drives. I sure wish that WD hadn't bought them out. I'm assuming that they kept the tech with their Ultrastar drives. I have a couple of my server drives are WD Ultrastars.I will too. I have bought refurbed hard drives from Goharddrive in the past and some had only a few hours on them and some had a lot. Most had very few power on cycles. New HGST 12Tb drives are 3-4x the price.
I agree these are not mission critical drives. I'll probably use them in a server or some other bulk storage use.If you're not a business, who cares if they're refurbed. HGST makes great drives. I sure wish that WD hadn't bought them out. I'm assuming that they kept the tech with their Ultrastar drives. I have a couple of my server drives are WD Ultrastars.
When I was building my current main rig (in sig) three years ago, I replaced my three HGST 2TB (thrash) drives with new identical drives. Why? Because the older ones lasted 10 years of heavy 24/7 use. Only one was failing, but after 10 years it was an easy call. They were cheap at that point and they arrived brand freaking new. No refurb.
Speaking of servers... I just fixed my home server. Was down for a month. I'm going to miss the silence.
Best price I saw on new ones is 323. Consumer drive might be 80 dollars more. You would have to get over a 50% fail rate to make that a better option money wise.It does not add up. How does goHardDrive make money with a 5 year reseller warranty on a product most likely missing its most reliable years. Even if they get them as free e-waste you're counting on them existing for years to come. They also wipe the SMART history of some of the drives. And they lied to the OP saying some would be new. Those facts alone are scummy enough to put the their "warranty" in quotes.
I think most people - except those that really like Hitachi - are better off buying a new 12TB for $80 more.