Hard Drive Shucking

[RJ45-Dude]

Hi, kinda newbie to the tech world here. I had two questions about hard-drive shucking...

Does it work with any kind of external hard drive (for example, this is my hard drive: https://amzn.to/3og7Zv2), or does it have to be specifically larger external hard drives (for example: https://amzn.to/3I8DYFA)?

Also, when watching tutorials on how to shuck hard drives, I learned that there is a pin on the hard drive itself you must cover up, as this pin controls the hard drive's power. However, in the tutorial, the hard drive had a button, while my hard drive (listed above) does not. Do I still have to cover up that pin?

 

Thanks to anyone who helps.

[RONOTHAN##]

15 minutes ago, RJ45-Dude said:

Does it work with any kind of external hard drive (for example, this is my hard drive: https://amzn.to/3og7Zv2),

It should work as long as there's a 3.5 inch drive in there. There appears to be one in there, so it should work. The main reason people do it on higher capacity drives is that on these lower end ones, it doesn't make financial sense to do it - you lose a warranty, have extra work, and generally aren't saving much, if any money doing this. 

[AbydosOne]

11 minutes ago, RJ45-Dude said:

Does it work with any kind of external hard drive (for example, this is my hard drive: https://amzn.to/3og7Zv2), or does it have to be specifically larger external hard drives (for example: https://amzn.to/3I8DYFA)?

Some (not necessarily all) 2.5" portable HDDs have the USB port integrated right into the PCB, so there's no standard SATA to connect to. Also, generally, the price to capacity just isn't there to warrant it. Usually the 3.5" (larger) drives are where the incentive to shuck comes in. (Even then, IIRC the 6TB WDs are SMR Blues internally; would recommend 8TB and up for CMR higher-performance drives).

 

12 minutes ago, RJ45-Dude said:

Also, when watching tutorials on how to shuck hard drives, I learned that there is a pin on the hard drive itself you must cover up, as this pin controls the hard drive's power. However, in the tutorial, the hard drive had a button, while my hard drive (listed above) does not. Do I still have to cover up that pin?

This is the PWDIS pin, which is technically part of the newest ATX power standard. It uses the 3.3V rail pulled low to start the drive spinning. The downside being that most (all?) PSUs out there today still provide 3.3V over SATA power, and hence will hold the drive spun-down if it isn't fixed. Furthermore, this feature's presence varies from model to model and even drive to drive inside a specific model (call them sub-models). The safest way is to just make sure you don't feed 3.3V to and drive by either taping over the pins or removing the wire from the connector (if it happens to be one of the modular ones), but it isn't always strictly necessary.

 

In regards to this button: I'm not aware of any internal HDDs that have any form of user interface like that. They're all just plug and go as far as I'm aware.

 

Bonus tidbit: the PWDIS actually has a use in server-space (where a lot of the excess drives funneled into the external market come from), so that the system can stagger the spin-up of all the drives in the case of a 24 drive disk shelf, etc., and not overload the PSU. 

[AbydosOne]

2 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

you lose a warranty

Fun fact: you don't lose the warrantee when you shuck. Just threaten the manufacturer with the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act and reporting them to the FTC and they'll generally comply.

 

4 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

generally aren't saving much, if any money doing this

You'll almost always save money doing this for larger drives: WD Easystore 14TB = (currently) $250; WD Gold 14TB (basically the same drive) $385.

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, AbydosOne said:

You'll almost always save money doing this for larger drives: WD Easystore 14TB = (currently) $250; WD Gold 14TB (basically the same drive) $385.

Yeah, I was implying that with the lower capacity drives (~4TB or less). Probably could've clarified a little better. Big drives is where you should consider doing this.

 

Interesting to know about the warranty claims though. 

[RJ45-Dude]

Thanks, guys. Since it's only one terabyte, I don't think I'll shuck it; too much work when I could just get something cheaper with more storage. Thanks anyways.

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, AbydosOne said:

Fun fact: you don't lose the warrantee when you shuck. Just threaten the manufacturer with the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act and reporting them to the FTC and they'll generally comply.

 

 

This assumes that one is in the usa. That doesn't work for other countries.