Second Hand HDD

[epikgamerwmp]

Is it ok to buy 2nd hand hard disk?

I want to get o e for a friend's birthday but I don't have the money for a new one.

[CustomEnchants]

It fully depends on how much its been used

[Spotty]

What is your budget and what capacity would you like?

[GER_T4IGA]

I would not do it unless you do not need the data you put on it. Games for example. Those are redownloadble and therefore disposable.

If you buy an old enterprise drive (if that is even possible anywhere) you can be damn sure they were under 24/7 abuse and if they were in private possesion god knows what they might have done to it.

 

Maybe a refurb unit but I would definitly advise against it.

 

If it is to expensive, what about buying it with anyother friend together or making a gift card (i know, kinda lame).

[epikgamerwmp]

Just now, Spotty said:

What is your budget and what capacity would you like?

2tb capacity and about 50 pounds (GBP)

[epikgamerwmp]

My friend has been complaining for months that they need more storage.

[Spotty]

1 minute ago, epikgamerwmp said:

2tb capacity and about 50 pounds (GBP)

You should definitely be able to pick up a new 2TB HDD for 50 pounds. Look at Western Digital Blue 2TB and Seagate Barracuda 2TB. Both retail new for approximately 50 pounds.

[epikgamerwmp]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

You should definitely be able to pick up a new 2TB HDD for 50 pounds. Look at Western Digital Blue 2TB and Seagate Barracuda 2TB. Both retail new for approximately 50 pounds.

The prices I have seen were up at about £70

[thanos999]

heres one at scan pcs https://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb-toshiba-dt01aca200-35-hdd-sata-iii-6gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-cache-8ms-ncq-oem

 

have a look on amazone as well

[Spotty]

Just now, epikgamerwmp said:

The prices I have seen were up at about £70

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01IEKG402/?tag=pcp0f-21

 

Would you be willing to stretch to 55pounds? Includes delivery and I believe includes VAT (but not actually 100% certain since I'm not in UK)

[Guest]

buy a 1tb hdd new

because you cant be certain on how a used HDD was used, its better to not buy a used HDD unless youre looking for something like dump storage thats not that important, or a place to store games

 

then again i always buy the nicest HDD's i can, so maybe im too picky

i wouldnt buy a used HDD unless i knew exactly how it was used

if it was in someones personal PC, its a safe buy

if it was in a server farm, its probably got a crap ton of hours on it

[Origami Cactus]

Dont buy a used hdd, especially if it is intended as a gift!

If the hdd dies and all his data is lost, who is gonna get blamed? you.

You dont know what abuse used hdds have gone through, so always buy new.

[Razor Blade]

I've bought new hard drives that fail. I've bought used hard drives that fail. All hard drives will fail.

 

Sure depending on how the drive was used could indicate how much life is left. If it was sitting in a NAS box in a closet for a year baking away 24/7 it may be more susceptible to failure. If you can get a S.M.A.R.T report, it could tell you some useful information such as how long it's been run, how many times its been started, and if the drive is still healthy. Of course buying used is still a gamble. You may not have warranty left on the drive. The price should reflect that. Even if there is a warranty, data recovery generally isn't part of it...so if the drive dies the manufacturer replaces the drive but you still lose your data you don't back up.

 

As far as if the drive dies who is responsible? It definitely wouldn't be you. I ALWAYS recommend people backup their important data. Just recently there was a family member that had a drive show pre fail errors. I backed up the data and replaced it with a used (known good) WD 1TB drive I had laying around. I told them to purchase a backup external drive and/or get a cloud service to backup their data and explained that they were lucky that the drive didn't just outright die.