Is it wise to buy an SSD second hand

[darth_626]

Hi All

 

I would like to buy an SSD to use as a boot drive but also to use as basic storage for files that I'm currently working on, I'm a student so it's just essays, projects etc.

 

I would like to ask if its safe to buy a second hand Samsung 850 Evo 256Gb SSD.

 

Here is the link to the advert (I live in South Africa and our currency is the Rand or ZAR when doing a google conversion): https://www.gumtree.co.za/a-memory-hard-drives/boksburg/samsung-850evo-250gb-ssd/1002061630470910000645109

 

Thank you for your time!

[LienusLateTips]

no

[Pokemoneuro]

Uh yeah, that should be okay. Ask though how much it has been used. I'm always paranoid that I write too much and that the SSD will get faulty. I really shouldn't, but oh well. 

[BluJay614]

4 minutes ago, darth_626 said:

Hi All

 

I would like to buy an SSD to use as a boot drive but also to use as basic storage for files that I'm currently working on, I'm a student so it's just essays, projects etc.

 

I would like to ask if its safe to buy a second hand Samsung 850 Evo 256Gb SSD.

 

Here is the link to the advert (I live in South Africa and our currency is the Rand or ZAR when doing a google conversion): https://www.gumtree.co.za/a-memory-hard-drives/boksburg/samsung-850evo-250gb-ssd/1002061630470910000645109

 

Thank you for your time!

In short, typically no, buying storage second hand is not a good idea.

[Pokemoneuro]

Just now, JDE said:

no

Why not exactly?

[LienusLateTips]

Just now, Pokemoneuro said:

Why not exactly?

The original owner might have excessively written on the SSD, significantly reducing the life span.

[Carfax83]

Well I don't know about wise, but SSDs are certainly buyable second hand provided they were taken care of.  I've sold a few of my old ones myself on Craigslist, and one of the things I did was to mention that the drive had been secure erased, which means that all the data on it was destroyed and completely unrecoverable.  Also, I posted a pic of the drive with Samsung Magician which shows how much writes the drive had, and that it was in good condition.

 

I checked the link and I didn't see that the seller had posted a picture of the drive's Samsung Magician readout, so I would definitely inquire about that before even considering buying it.

[Pokemoneuro]

Just now, JDE said:

The original owner might have excessively written on the SSD, significantly reducing the life span.

Ah yeah, I said that in my post. To ask before buying it if they have written to it a lot.

[Enderman]

Just don't buy used storage if you care about not losing your data.

[LienusLateTips]

9 minutes ago, Carfax83 said:

I checked the link and I didn't see that the seller had posted a picture of the drive's Samsung Magician readout, so I would definitely inquire about that before even considering buying it.

There's more than Samsung Magician to read writes. There's SMART, and other stuff like that

[Catsrules]

15 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Just don't buy used storage if you care about not losing your data.

Just back up your files if you care about not losing you data. Doesn't matter if the drive is Brand new or Used drives they can die.   

As for the question, ask the seller to post the drive usage. Samsung drives have Samsung magician, I believe if you go see it you could bring a laptop with a USB adapter and run Samsung magician right there it doesn't take very long at all.
 

[Enderman]

13 minutes ago, Catsrules said:

Just back up your files if you care about not losing you data. Doesn't matter if the drive is Brand new or Used drives they can die.   

As for the question, ask the seller to post the drive usage. Samsung drives have Samsung magician, I believe if you go see it you could bring a laptop with a USB adapter and run Samsung magician right there it doesn't take very long at all.
 

1) you have no idea how the used drive was treated or in what conditions it was used, so there is much higher probability of losing data if you buy it used.

 

2) drive usage is not everything, some people use drives in very hot or humid environments, or could have been dropped, which also causes degradation that you cannot know by looking at the amount of writes it has.

 

3) you do not need samsung magician, all SSDs have SMART which can be read by any program that reads smart status, such as crystaldiskinfo. It will also give a lot more information than samsung magician.

[Catsrules]

9 hours ago, Enderman said:

3) you do not need samsung magician, all SSDs have SMART which can be read by any program that reads smart status, such as crystaldiskinfo. It will also give a lot more information than samsung magician.

I didn't know that Crystaldiskinfo can read the total writes. that is cool. Ahh but it looks like some SSD do not support the writes. I have an cheap PNY SSD I got on a good and it doesn't show how many writes. Just power on counts and Power on hours.

[rn8686]

Depends how intensively it was used. If just a normal user with only a few TB of Reads/writes a year, it will be fine otherwise it could be a problem.