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is it safe buying 10 year old brand new extnral hdd.

aqarwaen29
By aqarwaen29
in Storage Devices
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Posted

so i keep it short,my friend works in electronic shop.and they had clean up in warehouse/storage.various 10 year old external have been found in there all and never used.

so he offered me to sell some.

would it be safe to use them if they are brand new

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Posted

brand new? yeah

drive wear is mostly related to use over time, so unused, no wear

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Posted
  • Author

and i know for fact they been stored 10 years or more.some of packages paper have turned yellow or has some dirt what come off.

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Posted
47 minutes ago, aqarwaen29 said:

so i keep it short,my friend works in electronic shop.and they had clean up in warehouse/storage.various 10 year old external have been found in there all and never used.

so he offered me to sell some.

would it be safe to use them if they are brand new

As mentioned above, Yes 🙂  That will be fine. Wear on HDD's are from using them.

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Posted
19 minutes ago, aqarwaen29 said:

and i know for fact they been stored 10 years or more.some of packages paper have turned yellow or has some dirt what come off.

Should be fine unless its been manhandled or thrown around in the 10 years its been there.

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Posted (edited)

That drive must be around 1TB size. I hope you're not paying more than 40usd. Remember, a 1TB SSD does not cost much more.

And it's not a big deal then.

I don't know how those bearings age, if the lubricant is stable while not in use. It's not so obvious to me.

Edited by leclod

I'm willing to swim against the current.

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Posted

The primary concern right now are the lubricants present within the bearings, and if the drive is still able to appropriately spin up the platter(s), and properly read/write data. The ICs are probably good, but the mechanical bits are where the concerns lie, and without seeing inside the drive, it's a bit of a tough call unless someone has experience with older drives like that.

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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Posted
1 hour ago, 8tg said:

brand new? yeah

drive wear is mostly related to use over time, so unused, no wear

Assuming the lubricant(s) have not experienced degradation.

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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Posted

all comes down to price............if they're going for really cheap then it's okay..............no warranty too !

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