Would you purchase refurbish HDDs?

hdmi said:

A HDD with a POH value of 0 means that the HDD is unused.

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If such a drive is sold as refurbished, I would never trust that figure. There is no way that I can check if that figure really is zero or that someone has found a way to set it to zero.

I always buy my computer components new, not even if it is offered as returned object. And of course, if a shop does send me a returned object as new, I can't check that either.. So I have the habit of not buying any (critical) computer components at shops like Amazon, but only in shops I have experience I can trust them.

GUMBY said:

Yes. My 6TB drives are refurbed. It has been 8 years since I purchased them.

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Yes, it's called playing the odds and in your case, you lucked out.

For every one of you, there could be hundreds of others who don't have the same luck as you have.

For something as CRITICAL as HDDs, I make it a point to buy directly from the manufacturer. Yes, it will cost more but the odds are much better. And I can't emphasize that enough.

And always have backups. The more the merrier, the more the better.

cheaterslick said:

I would never trust my data like this in order to save a few bucks. If you can't afford it, then maybe put it off until you can.



Well there ya go. Now you're getting it. lol...



Then it should be listed as new. Otherwise, they're engaging in funny semantics.

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Not really. It could be a return from a buyer and unused.

Kojack said:

It could be a return from a buyer and unused.

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If it is a returned object, a self-respecting company should mark it as returned and offer it for just a few bucks less.
That's how nowadays many webshops do it: sell the returned items as second-chance.
I still would not buy those, because I the money I spare for this second-chance object never is worth the risks it would have any damage or is not functioning 100%.

Kojack said:

Not really. It could be a return from a buyer and unused.

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So they say.

cheaterslick said:

So they say.

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Well yes. of course. Anyhoo, I decided I will not take the gamble on refurb drives and get 4 20tb exnos new and roll with it. Should give us space for a few years of projects for our various ventures. Thanks to all who responded. Next up...Get windows home server running on the PCI-E drive.

I don’t know about buying a refurbished drive, but I have purchased many used hard drives over the past 20 years, “all Seagate” and not one has ever failed.

RD Mercer said:

I don’t know about buying a refurbished drive, but I have purchased many used hard drives over the past 20 years, “all Seagate” and not one has ever failed.

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Me too. Had one seagate fail me and it was one of those SSHD abominations. It did work better than a full HDD....until it didn't.

Kojack said:

I am comparing apples to apples. I priced the 26tb seagate exnos drive for 469. The new 20tb is 829.00. This is on Aamazon.ca. Those are the prices. So yeah, almost half price.

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Note that's a single specific example. Typically the used electronics, including disks, aren't nearly as discounted on Amazon.

Kojack said:

Not really. It could be a return from a buyer and unused.

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There's usually a reason it was returned.

I remember my old company was running a small data center and always bought their drives from CDW which had corporate discounts.


I know WD used to have occasional sales and promotions along with some good valid online coupons. It's not always based around the listed price.

If you have other people's data (besides your own) then I wouldn't skimp on the price. That's the costs you deal with when you get involved in that kind of business. Somebody could sue you if you lost their data when they later found out it was because you were buying used drives and taking shortcuts.

cheaterslick said:

Then it should be listed as new.

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No, it would not. The meaning of "Amazon renewed" is explained on Amazon website:

@Kojack
As far as I can tell, in terms of guarantee this HDD from Server Part Deals if purchased through Amazon (here's the link again) only includes Amazon's 90-day Renewed Guarantee and Amazon's 90-day A-to-z Guarantee but I guess you could always decide to just ask the seller about it. Whereas if you order this same exact HDD direct from Server Part Deals (as opposed to order it from them through Amazon), according to the description on their official webpage it comes with a 5-year warranty that will be fulfilled through them (that is, not through Seagate). Also as far as I can tell, this difference is going to be reflected in the price.

cheaterslick said:

if you lost their data

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That in fact is one of primary reasons why factory recertified HDDs are in such high demand. These HDDs allow people to save money, which they can then spend towards adding extra backups, which, in turn, makes two boatloads more difference as far as protection goes when compared to HDDs that are made of unobtanium.

hdmi said:

No, it would not. The meaning of "Amazon renewed" is explained on Amazon website:

Amazon Renewed - Amazon Customer Service

Amazon Renewed offers pre-owned, refurbished and open-box products.

www.amazon.ca

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Well that's amazon. They can call it whatever they want to, it's still used as far as I'm concerned regardless of their marketing schemes.

And unless the manufacturer has an online outlet with amazon, like here:


or here:



I wouldn't buy HDDs from third party vendors from there anyway.

hdmi said:

That in fact is one of primary reasons why factory recertified HDDs are in such high demand. These HDDs allow people to save money, which they can then spend towards adding extra backups, which, in turn, makes two boatloads more difference as far as protection goes when compared to HDDs that are made of unobtanium.

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I'm not about to play games with other people's data.

Color me very skeptical....

cheaterslick said:

Well that's amazon. They can call it whatever they want to, it's still used as far as I'm concerned regardless of their marketing schemes.

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It depends. While it is true that Seagate clears the S.M.A.R.T. data causing the POH value to be reset, Seagate Exos HDDs still let you see the Field Access Reliability Metrics (FARM) logs with tools like smartmontools (specifically smartctl -l farm). Page 1 of the log shows Spindle Power on Hours, Head Flight Hours, Head Load Events, Power Cycle Count, and Assembly Date (yYwW). The Assembly Date can be decoded by swapping y with Y for the fiscal year and swapping w with W for the fiscal week number. Seagate fiscal years start on the 1st Saturday of July so, e.g., 3251 decoded as 2315 would be the 15th fiscal week of fiscal year 2023, which is roughly October 2022.

That said, it is perfectly normal for new HDDs to have a few hundreds of flight hours on them, as they too undergo test procedures from the manufacturer. So, according your own personal interpretation, a HDD can only be called "new" if it has a significantly above-average risk of being DOA (Dead On Arrival) as a direct result of the manufacturer never having tested the HDD before it left the factory. As long as the important metrics don't run into the thousands and/or etc., I see no real reason to be allergic. However, I wouldn't order these factory recertified HDDs through Amazon unless Server Part Deals corfirms in writing that these also come with the 5-year warranty from Server Part Deals even if ordering through Amazon. I am guessing that they won't cover the delivery cost even if it turns out that they do include this 5-year warranty, though (but I could be wrong, and asking them never hurts).

cheaterslick said:

And unless the manufacturer has an online outlet with amazon, like here:

Seagate

Seagate Home Page

www.amazon.com

or here:

Western Digital

Shop Western Digital, external and internal storage solutions.

www.amazon.com

I wouldn't buy HDDs from third party vendors from there anyway.

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Like I earlier said, this also depends. Specifically, it depends on who the seller is. AFAIK Server Part Deals are a very far distance away from being an evil seller.

cheaterslick said:

I'm not about to play games with other people's data.

Color me very skeptical....

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That's why I said what I said about adding more backups. In a typical SMB (Small to Medium-sized Business) environment the money is almost always much better spent there, while also adding redundant systems to suit specific needs such as reducing the downtime (optional, but definitely not uncommon, and often required).

hdmi said:

That said, it is perfectly normal for new HDDs to have a few hundreds of flight hours on them, as they too undergo test procedures from the manufacturer. So, according your own personal interpretation, a HDD can only be called "new" if it has a significantly above-average risk of being DOA (Dead On Arrival) as a direct result of the manufacturer never having tested the HDD before it left the factory. As long as the important metrics don't run into the thousands and/or etc., I see no real reason to be allergic.

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I think you know what I mean by "new"... What the manufacturer lists as "new". What they can legally call, "new"

hdmi said:

That's why I said what I said about adding more backups. In a typical SMB (Small to Medium-sized Business) environment the money is almost always much better spent there, while also adding redundant systems to suit specific needs such as reducing the downtime (optional, but definitely not uncommon, and often required).

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And small and medium businesses typically (at least here in the US) 3rd-party out their data to server farms that they have contracts with. It's less hassle and expense for them to do it that way. And this is especially true for cloud services that they otherwise can't afford to have, on site. And for those that still retain their own data centers, what I've been saying all along still stands.

cheaterslick said:

I think you know what I mean by "new"... What the manufacturer lists as "new". What they can legally call, "new"

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Ironically however, factory recertified HDDs may have lower failure rates than new ones because they have been tested twice by the manufacturer. I.e., once during initial manufacture and again during recertification. That plus the fact that Server Part Deals adds a third round of testing, i.e., their own in-house testing (watch the video I linked).

cheaterslick said:

And small and medium businesses typically (at least here in the US) 3rd-party out their data to server farms that they have contracts with. It's less hassle and expense for them to do it that way. And this is especially true for cloud services that they otherwise can't afford to have, on site. And for those that still retain their own data centers, what I've been saying all along still stands.

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In SMB/SOHO (SOHO = Small Office/Home Office), the decision to keep data on-premises rather than moving entirely to the cloud is typically driven by cost predictability, data sovereignty, and performance requirements. While the cloud offers convenience, the following factors make local infrastructure a smarter long-term choice for many professionals:

1. Cost efficiency and "hidden" fees​

• Predictable TCO: For stable, high-capacity workloads (like business archives or large media libraries), on-premises hardware often becomes cheaper than cloud subscriptions over a 3–5 year horizon.
• No egress fees: Cloud providers often charge significant "egress fees" to move your data out of their ecosystem. Local storage allows you to move and access terabytes of data daily with zero extra cost.
• Asset ownership: Unlike a recurring subscription (OpEx), local hardware is a one-time capital investment (CapEx) that provides tangible value and ownership of the underlying infrastructure.

2. Data sovereignty and privacy​

• Control over "eyes": Storing data locally ensures that only authorized personnel have physical and digital access. It eliminates reliance on a third-party provider's security and privacy policies.
• Legal protections: In 2026, concerns over government surveillance (e.g., the US CLOUD Act) make local storage a safer bet for organizations that must ensure their data is not legally accessible to third parties without physical device access.
• Compliance: Certain industries (finance, healthcare, or government) have strict regulatory requirements (like HIPAA or GDPR) that are often easier to manage and audit on a local, private server.

3. Performance and reliability​

• Ultra-low latency: Accessing files over a local 10GbE network is significantly faster than any internet-based cloud service, which is critical for heavy workflows like video editing, CAD, or high-speed data analysis.
• Internet independence: Your local business operations remain fully functional during internet outages. You are not at the mercy of your ISP or a cloud provider's regional downtime.
• High-speed transfers: Large datasets that would take days to upload or download from the cloud can be moved locally in minutes.

4. The 2026 "hybrid" reality​

Most successful SMBs now adopt a hybrid approach rather than choosing one over the other:

• On-premises: Use high-capacity, recertified enterprise drives for "hot" data, large archives, and sensitive client information.
• Cloud: Use the cloud solely for off-site backups (following the 3-2-1 rule or 3-2-2/4-3-2/3-2-1-1-0/CDP/near-CDP/...) and for collaborative documents that require remote access by a distributed team.

hdmi said:

Ironically however, factory recertified HDDs may have lower failure rates than new ones because they have been tested twice by the manufacturer. I.e., once during initial manufacture and again during recertification. That plus the fact that Server Part Deals adds a third round of testing, i.e., their own in-house testing (watch the video I linked).

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Any proof? Any stats on that?

hdmi said:

In SMB/SOHO (SOHO = Small Office/Home Office), the decision to keep data on-premises rather than moving entirely to the cloud is typically driven by cost predictability, data sovereignty, and performance requirements. While the cloud offers convenience, the following factors make local infrastructure a smarter long-term choice for many professionals:

1. Cost efficiency and "hidden" fees​

• Predictable TCO: For stable, high-capacity workloads (like business archives or large media libraries), on-premises hardware often becomes cheaper than cloud subscriptions over a 3–5 year horizon.
• No egress fees: Cloud providers often charge significant "egress fees" to move your data out of their ecosystem. Local storage allows you to move and access terabytes of data daily with zero extra cost.
• Asset ownership: Unlike a recurring subscription (OpEx), local hardware is a one-time capital investment (CapEx) that provides tangible value and ownership of the underlying infrastructure.

2. Data sovereignty and privacy​

• Control over "eyes": Storing data locally ensures that only authorized personnel have physical and digital access. It eliminates reliance on a third-party provider's security and privacy policies.
• Legal protections: In 2026, concerns over government surveillance (e.g., the US CLOUD Act) make local storage a safer bet for organizations that must ensure their data is not legally accessible to third parties without physical device access.
• Compliance: Certain industries (finance, healthcare, or government) have strict regulatory requirements (like HIPAA or GDPR) that are often easier to manage and audit on a local, private server.

3. Performance and reliability​

• Ultra-low latency: Accessing files over a local 10GbE network is significantly faster than any internet-based cloud service, which is critical for heavy workflows like video editing, CAD, or high-speed data analysis.
• Internet independence: Your local business operations remain fully functional during internet outages. You are not at the mercy of your ISP or a cloud provider's regional downtime.
• High-speed transfers: Large datasets that would take days to upload or download from the cloud can be moved locally in minutes.

4. The 2026 "hybrid" reality​

Most successful SMBs now adopt a hybrid approach rather than choosing one over the other:

• On-premises: Use high-capacity, recertified enterprise drives for "hot" data, large archives, and sensitive client information.
• Cloud: Use the cloud solely for off-site backups (following the 3-2-1 rule or 3-2-2/4-3-2/3-2-1-1-0/CDP/near-CDP/...) and for collaborative documents that require remote access by a distributed team.

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Oh I fully agree with that. That would be the right approach.

But renting out services and having everything in the cloud (you can see that with Microsoft, Apple, itself) is the thing these days, and were going to see more and more of it. My last company was a small/medium size company with 1200 employees and they were doing just that. I didn't agree with it but there ya have it. Everything was off-site. It's wasn't my decision to make.

You haven't convinced me.

I also like what they saying over here...

Kojack said:

I have been scanning amazon renewed for all sorts of stuff lately and have seen lots of high capacity HDDs for decent prices, would you buy one?

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I wouldn't buy a used or renewed HDD.