this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023

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Buying used drives from Amazon Warehouse (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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There's a great deal on a drive from Amazon Warehouse, but I'm a bit concerned about the quality of the drive and the fact I can't return it.

Anybody have any experience buying something like this?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

First thing to do is check SMART data to see if there are any fails. Then looking at usage hours, spin ups, pre-fails / old-age to get a general idea how worn the drive is and for how long you could make use of it depending on risk acceptance.

If there are already several clusters relocated and multiple spin up fails, I'd probably return the drive.

Apart from all the reliability stuff: I'd check the content of the drive (with a safe machine) - if it wasn't wiped you might want to notify the previous owner, so she can change her passwords or notify customers about the leak (in compliance to local regulations) etc. - even if you don't exploit that data, the merchants/dealers in the chain might already have.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I will just paste my standard procedure when I onboard any new (or used) drive: Everybody has their own ~~skin care~~ HDD check routine. This is mine:

I first check the SMART status with CrystalDisk, after this a short smart test, full surface check with Macrorit, full h2testw run, CrystalDiskMark, and then I check with CrystalDisk once again if anything besides power on hours did change.

Will take some days for a large drive but in terms of work hours we talk about less than 5 minutes and it covers pretty much anything without being too excessive.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Thank you, this is great advice

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How easy is it to wipe or fake SMART data?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

wipe or fake SMART data

My guess would be that it's stored in some kind of non-volatile memory, i.e. EEPROM. Not sure if anyone ever tried that, but with the dedication of some hardware hackers that seems at least feasible. Reverse engineering / overriding the HDD's firmware would be another approach to return fake or manipulated values.

I haven't seen something like that in the wild so far. What I have seen are manipulated USB sticks though: advertising the wrong size (could be tested with h2testw) or worse.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I've bought used / refurbished (not sure which) with erased smart data. It being all zeros was a clear sign of erased / tampered info. After running badblocks some relocated sectors showed up.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

personally, i would never buy a used drive

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Depends. Are we taking refurbished, or returned sales?

Refurbished is going to have to be hella cheap to consider it for a highly redundant storage of unimportant things maybe raid 10 backup storage it something.

Returned sales are mostly still as good a new and returned for various unrelated reasons. As long as I get full warranty and right to return as if it was brand new, i don't mind.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I run used disks with tens of thousands of power on hours. Yes the risk of each disk dying is higher but only marginally and the cost is dramatically lower. To avoid data loss when they die, I have functioning backups. This system is working really well for me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

oh, yeah, returned drives are a maybe. still gotta check it out to make sure it wasn't returned after being dropped or worse, but it could be fine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah if I had full warranty I would be happy taking a punt but not sure I should take the risk... probably better to wait for a sale

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I've bought several used/refurbished drives from Amazon. Always HGST. I have not had any issue with them yet and some have been going for 4-5 years.

There are caveats though. The ones I bought have had the smart data wiped... So there is no way to know exactly how many hours they really have on them. Also the label is replaced so there no way to see manufactured year. I have no idea how old or beat up these things really are.

I don't put anything important on them. Just backups.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I would be more concerned about shipping from Amazon vs the quality. I stopped ordering drives from them after the last 2 I got from them were shipped in a bag with no padding.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Honestly it is up to the cost and benefit. If the discount is steep (say 25%+ off the normal price) and the warranty is intact, it is worth a try. Ultimately you have to do your backup regardless of the origin of your drives.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I've recently bought a drive from Amazon warehouse. I haven't used much other than for the initialization. Overall all of the used hard drives I've bought from Amazon continue to work to this day. Some hard drives I've bought from Ebay have had issues. I was able to fix one by shucking, but sadly the data was lost from the previous methods I tried. I have another drive that was dead on arrival. One of my most recent drives died alongside with my laptop. I was able to get my laptop fixed via warranty. I sent my hard drive in to Salvage Data for an evaluation, but the lowest estimated quote was around $2500, I only paid for it to be sent back, I may reopen the case to have it fixed in the future.

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