Reconditioned hard drives in the UK?

[Richj73]

Hi all

 

I'm only a budget and would like to use some of my current USB drives removed from their enclosures but also purchase a couple of reconditioned drives.

All the recommendations I can find seem to be for US buyers, could anyone recommend somewhere in the UK apart from eBay?

Thanks

[Dylan]

Hi @Richj73 - Amazon sells reconditioned drives. Just be careful, test them as much as possible and use all available tools to get them as healthy as possible. Reconditioned drives are very high risk.

[Sonic]

You can have good luck with a reconditioned drive, but also a lot of bad luck. If it seems too good to be true, it usually is. This rule applies even when buying new drives.

There have been rumors about Exos drives for a while now. See:
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzegNKKWmck

I’m not against buying reconditioned drives, as long as you know what you’re doing. It also depends on how important your data is. You could, for example, use RaidZ2 instead of RaidZ1, but that would require additional drives, which also cost money.

How many TB do you think you’ll need? You could start with three 4TB or 6TB drives and add another one when you need more space.

I don’t know the UK market very well, but many European suppliers also deliver to the UK. If I search for "refurbished hard disk UK," I see multiple results. If you check the reviews of those companies, you should be able to find a reliable seller.

Oh, and make sure to buy a CMR drive, not an SMR one.

[Theo]

Yeah it's expensive in the UK atm. i personally got my dives from https://serverpartdeals.com/ - i got the manufacturer refurbished 20tb Exos drives, so unlike what @Sonic pointed to you are somewhat more guaranteed to be getting good drives, unlike other places... Plus they come with a 2 year warranty.

IF you really want the longer warranty then your best bet is to get new drives with the ~5 year warranty.

Tax wise, i paid for the duty included in the shipping for simplicity, arguably the price can come close / match some drives on other sites in the uk with the tax added, but again depends on what you're after. For me getting high capacity drives was more worth it vs lower capacity ones.

[Dylan]

@Sonic & @Theo What are you guys doing once you've received the refurb drives prior to installation? I've kept all my drives new but that does get hella expensive. I'm about to purchase SpinRite not only to help maintain drive health but also to pre-check refurbs if I buy those.

(and BTW, I'm a HUGE fan of Dr Parted which can address many drive issues but just doesn't have the capabilities of SpinRite on error correction - at least not as easily - or so I believe.)

[Theo]

1 hour ago, Dylan said:

@Sonic & @Theo What are you guys doing once you've received the refurb drives prior to installation? I've kept all my drives new but that does get hella expensive. I'm about to purchase SpinRite not only to help maintain drive health but also to pre-check refurbs if I buy those.

(and BTW, I'm a HUGE fan of Dr Parted which can address many drive issues but just doesn't have the capabilities of SpinRite on error correction - at least not as easily - or so I believe.)

As mine were manufactured refurbished I was just doing conveyance + short test, to ensure not DOA. Then a long test. 
 

once completed just set up the standard smart tests schedules and let them be. No issues to date.

[Sonic]

In do the same with new hdds. Until now I didn’t buy refurbished disk. But like you said, it’s an expensive hobby.