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good place to buy harddrives?
posted in Hardware
1
#1
0 Frags +

my friend once linked me like a $15-20 1tb hard drive and I don't remember where it was from. I need a new one and I'm wondering if anyone here has a really sweet deal like that again. All i can find on pcpartpicker is $35+ for 1tb hard drives. That's still a steal from the old days when 1tb was at least $55 and $70 for a good brand

my friend once linked me like a $15-20 1tb hard drive and I don't remember where it was from. I need a new one and I'm wondering if anyone here has a really sweet deal like that again. All i can find on pcpartpicker is $35+ for 1tb hard drives. That's still a steal from the old days when 1tb was at least $55 and $70 for a good brand
2
#2
0 Frags +
Oblivionagemy friend once linked me like a $15-20 1tb hard drive and I don't remember where it was from. I need a new one and I'm wondering if anyone here has a really sweet deal like that again. All i can find on pcpartpicker is $35+ for 1tb hard drives. That's still a steal from the old days when 1tb was at least $55 and $70 for a good brand

You'll have to wait for promocodes/blackfriday typically for prices that low. Unless you buy refurbished/crap HDDs.

[quote=Oblivionage]my friend once linked me like a $15-20 1tb hard drive and I don't remember where it was from. I need a new one and I'm wondering if anyone here has a really sweet deal like that again. All i can find on pcpartpicker is $35+ for 1tb hard drives. That's still a steal from the old days when 1tb was at least $55 and $70 for a good brand[/quote]

You'll have to wait for promocodes/blackfriday typically for prices that low. Unless you buy refurbished/crap HDDs.
3
#3
-2 Frags +

make some money reselling soda that you've put in water cups

make some money reselling soda that you've put in water cups
4
#4
3 Frags +

Refurbed electronics are actually usually a REALLY good deal for the consumer here is why:

The item was sent back to the manufacturer for some reason - that could be anything from an incorrect order (I ordered a Black edition HDD but instead received a Green), to a damaged/opened package, listed components were left out of the original package, original package was mislabeled, or the item didn't work and was returned, etc. It could also mean that something was broken and has since been repaired.

Typically, refurbed electronics are MUCH more heavily inspected and tested than standard production models (often they are USED directly to ensure they function correctly - this is particularly true of refurb peripherals such as keyboards) - because the item has to be signed off on by at least one QA tech before it can be sold again.

Now my forewarning here, is that if you intend to buy a refurbished product, particularly something you intend to use for a while (like an HDD), once you find a refurb for sale, you should hunt around for additional refurbs or any news articles regarding recalls. If you see a *lot* of refurbs of one particular item, that means there is some sort of production problem or design flaw in play, and you should avoid purchasing that item unless you're totally desperate or the price is so low that you can't say no.

If you can find a major brand HDD (western digital is my favorite) labelled as a refurb - on Ebay for example (several distributors list refurb items direct to ebay since they sometimes have trouble selling them to retail outlets) I'd jump on it as long as there isn't a recall on or there aren't tons of other refurbs out there at the time.

But when it comes to HDDs, especially if it's your only HDD it pays to wait it out and save up to buy something good, because trying to recover data off of a dead drive is super annoying lol.

Refurbed electronics are actually usually a REALLY good deal for the consumer here is why:

The item was sent back to the manufacturer for some reason - that could be anything from an incorrect order (I ordered a Black edition HDD but instead received a Green), to a damaged/opened package, listed components were left out of the original package, original package was mislabeled, or the item didn't work and was returned, etc. It could also mean that something was broken and has since been repaired.

Typically, refurbed electronics are MUCH more heavily inspected and tested than standard production models (often they are USED directly to ensure they function correctly - this is particularly true of refurb peripherals such as keyboards) - because the item has to be signed off on by at least one QA tech before it can be sold again.

Now my forewarning here, is that if you intend to buy a refurbished product, particularly something you intend to use for a while (like an HDD), once you find a refurb for sale, you should hunt around for additional refurbs or any news articles regarding recalls. If you see a *lot* of refurbs of one particular item, that means there is some sort of production problem or design flaw in play, and you should avoid purchasing that item unless you're totally desperate or the price is so low that you can't say no.

If you can find a major brand HDD (western digital is my favorite) labelled as a refurb - on Ebay for example (several distributors list refurb items direct to ebay since they sometimes have trouble selling them to retail outlets) I'd jump on it as long as there isn't a recall on or there aren't tons of other refurbs out there at the time.

But when it comes to HDDs, especially if it's your only HDD it pays to wait it out and save up to buy something good, because trying to recover data off of a dead drive is super annoying lol.
5
#5
Spaceship Servers
0 Frags +

are you looking for a backup drive or a always on drive?

i mean i got like 5 hard drives of 150gb - 500 gb sizes by salvaging them from old dead laptops/computers, but i hear that you can get refurbished hard drives for backup and stuff from microcenter if you look.

if you're looking for a drive to keep uberimportant data on, i'd suggest just buying them new off amazon

are you looking for a backup drive or a always on drive?

i mean i got like 5 hard drives of 150gb - 500 gb sizes by salvaging them from old dead laptops/computers, but i hear that you can get refurbished hard drives for backup and stuff from microcenter if you look.

if you're looking for a drive to keep uberimportant data on, i'd suggest just buying them new off amazon
6
#6
4 Frags +

#4
Sadly that doesn't work for HDDs.

There's 3 different types of refurbished HDDs:
1. Seller refurbished
2. Manufacturer refurbished
3. White label

1 is at best a glorified open box. The seller has absolutely no way of repairing a damaged HDD so they just try to sell it again as is with no or very limited warranty. At best you get a different box. Look for reviews and check how many complain about the drive being DOA. This is only possible in countries with little to no customer protection laws. They are dirt cheap, but really not worth the gamble.

2 actually work. But they aren't sold as refurbished. The problem is you can't just replace a single part in an HDD. Maybe they'll fix a bent pin but beyond that there's few options. If anything on the circuit board is damaged they replace the whole thing. The drive will report itself as being new and will accordingly be sold as new. If anything internally is damaged then you need to take the whole thing apart in a clean room and assemble it again with the broken part replaced. No one is going to do that manually. It's disassembled, broken parts are thrown out and the rest goes back into a normal production line. You'll never know in that case either.

3 white label HDDs are just weird. That's what happens when either the manufacturer can't be bothered to fix them and just sells them in bulk to a different companies or when a company wants to get rid of old HDDs that they replaced with new, faster, higher capacity ones. There's a few problems with that. HDDs don't have unlimited shelf life. If they have actually been in use it's even worse. For enterprise you generally expect an average of 5 years, then the warranty ends and any HDD that survived until then is sold. So for a computer part they are ancient, slow and will probably die soon anyway.
The companies that sell white label HDDs do test them and have equipment to fix some problems (e.g. bent pins or replacing the circuit board), so yes, they will work, usually have updated firmware and all that, but they are still very old and you have no idea which model you'll get (white label and all that). They are dirt cheap though, so if you don't care about speed or reliability (read: you have enough backups) then you can try it.

Sidenote: Always have backups. EVERY HDD WILL DIE. And you don't know when.

#4
Sadly that doesn't work for HDDs.

There's 3 different types of refurbished HDDs:
1. Seller refurbished
2. Manufacturer refurbished
3. White label

1 is at best a glorified open box. The seller has absolutely no way of repairing a damaged HDD so they just try to sell it again as is with no or very limited warranty. At best you get a different box. Look for reviews and check how many complain about the drive being DOA. This is only possible in countries with little to no customer protection laws. They are dirt cheap, but really not worth the gamble.

2 actually work. But they aren't sold as refurbished. The problem is you can't just replace a single part in an HDD. Maybe they'll fix a bent pin but beyond that there's few options. If anything on the circuit board is damaged they replace the whole thing. The drive will report itself as being new and will accordingly be sold as new. If anything internally is damaged then you need to take the whole thing apart in a clean room and assemble it again with the broken part replaced. No one is going to do that manually. It's disassembled, broken parts are thrown out and the rest goes back into a normal production line. You'll never know in that case either.

3 white label HDDs are just weird. That's what happens when either the manufacturer can't be bothered to fix them and just sells them in bulk to a different companies or when a company wants to get rid of old HDDs that they replaced with new, faster, higher capacity ones. There's a few problems with that. HDDs don't have unlimited shelf life. If they have actually been in use it's even worse. For enterprise you generally expect an average of 5 years, then the warranty ends and any HDD that survived until then is sold. So for a computer part they are ancient, slow and will probably die soon anyway.
The companies that sell white label HDDs do test them and have equipment to fix some problems (e.g. bent pins or replacing the circuit board), so yes, they will work, usually have updated firmware and all that, but they are still very old and you have no idea which model you'll get (white label and all that). They are dirt cheap though, so if you don't care about speed or reliability (read: you have enough backups) then you can try it.


Sidenote: Always have backups. EVERY HDD WILL DIE. And you don't know when.
7
#7
0 Frags +

Newegg.com
Amazon.com
Best Buy
any electronics store
Fred Meyer
Costco
Goodwill bins (not their retail stores)
a guy on the street
from me personally

edit: my point is hard drives are cheap enough that if you have to find the absolute cheapest one maybe put a few more hours in at work...

Newegg.com
Amazon.com
Best Buy
any electronics store
Fred Meyer
Costco
Goodwill bins (not their retail stores)
a guy on the street
from me personally

edit: my point is hard drives are cheap enough that if you have to find the absolute cheapest one maybe put a few more hours in at work...
8
#8
1 Frags +

How would you recommend backing up a hard drive setsul? I have some of my important stuff backed up online but idk how drop box would feel about trying to upload the contents of an entire 1000gb drive

How would you recommend backing up a hard drive setsul? I have some of my important stuff backed up online but idk how drop box would feel about trying to upload the contents of an entire 1000gb drive
9
#9
4 Frags +

was fully convinced that would say hard drugs

was fully convinced that would say hard drugs
10
#10
1 Frags +

#8
The secret technique is having TWO hard drives.
External hard drives are a good idea because if you keep the drive in the same pc lightning strikes or the psu catching fire will still ruin your day.

And before anyone complains about a second HDD being expensive: No, it isn't. How much did you spend on the whole pc? And how much would it cost you if all data was lost?

There are some "cloud" services that allow you to upload a ton of data, but apart from the security and reliability concerns it can take quite a while to upload or download everything.

Just mirroring everything onto a second HDD works fine, maybe once a week, maybe daily, depending on how paranoid you are. There's programs for it to do it automatically as soon as you plug in the external HDD or just need you to click on a single button. Cloud is nice and all but nothing beats being able to just mirror everything back after everything got completely fucked up for whatever reason. You just need a bootable USB stick and you'll have your OS up and running within half an hour no matter what (and a single windows license that you would've otherwise lost costs more than that 2nd HDD) and the rest depending on the size within a few hours. Good luck trying that if you have to download everything.

tl;dr
Online is fine for relatively small, important data (house could burn down, get flooded, whatever, don't want to loose your thesis).
Lots of data, OS -> buy twice the HDDs -> mirror -> no problems.

#8
The secret technique is having TWO hard drives.
External hard drives are a good idea because if you keep the drive in the same pc lightning strikes or the psu catching fire will still ruin your day.

And before anyone complains about a second HDD being expensive: No, it isn't. How much did you spend on the whole pc? And how much would it cost you if all data was lost?


There are some "cloud" services that allow you to upload a ton of data, but apart from the security and reliability concerns it can take quite a while to upload or download everything.

Just mirroring everything onto a second HDD works fine, maybe once a week, maybe daily, depending on how paranoid you are. There's programs for it to do it automatically as soon as you plug in the external HDD or just need you to click on a single button. Cloud is nice and all but nothing beats being able to just mirror everything back after everything got completely fucked up for whatever reason. You just need a bootable USB stick and you'll have your OS up and running within half an hour no matter what (and a single windows license that you would've otherwise lost costs more than that 2nd HDD) and the rest depending on the size within a few hours. Good luck trying that if you have to download everything.

tl;dr
Online is fine for relatively small, important data (house could burn down, get flooded, whatever, don't want to loose your thesis).
Lots of data, OS -> buy twice the HDDs -> mirror -> no problems.
11
#11
0 Frags +

Best buy

Best buy
12
#12
0 Frags +

Alright I'll just get a new one then, assuming #6 is right

yeah it's for main use, not backup. I'm running a 250gb (shit rpm) drive right now since I haven't played many games but going to upgrade my system and I'll need more room to download my games again. I'll probably go with the $50 toshiba 1tb i saw on pcpartpicker. thanks

Alright I'll just get a new one then, assuming #6 is right

yeah it's for main use, not backup. I'm running a 250gb (shit rpm) drive right now since I haven't played many games but going to upgrade my system and I'll need more room to download my games again. I'll probably go with the $50 toshiba 1tb i saw on pcpartpicker. thanks
13
#13
0 Frags +

Get either
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/44Gj4D/seagate-barracuda-1tb-35-7200rpm-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm010
or
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Jjp323/toshiba-internal-hard-drive-hdwd110xzsta

The DT01ACA just isn't quite as fast so the Barracuda is worth the extra dollar.
P300 is slightly slower than the newest Barracuda, but if it's cheaper it's ok.

Get either
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/44Gj4D/seagate-barracuda-1tb-35-7200rpm-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm010
or
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Jjp323/toshiba-internal-hard-drive-hdwd110xzsta

The DT01ACA just isn't quite as fast so the Barracuda is worth the extra dollar.
P300 is slightly slower than the newest Barracuda, but if it's cheaper it's ok.
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