12 TB HGST SATA drives $163 delivered

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Forums › Bargains and Deals › 12 TB HGST SATA drives $163 delivered

prob

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#315590 28-Jul-2024 10:27

Why?

I decided to update my Unraid NAS and replace the (too) many small drives with some bigger ones. According to the stats put out by Backblaze, HGST is the way to go, I focussed on the HGST Ultrastar DC HC520's. These are 12TB drives.

WD was brought by Western Digital and the "WD" UltraStar DC HC520 12TB is a rebadged, HGST drive.

There are used drives available for cheap and I read good reports of their reliability.

Drives have a "bathtub" failure curve meaning they either fail within the first few hundred hours, or survive and then last for many years, so I expect these drives to last for a while.

As far as I can tell these are ex datacenter drives.

Ebay

goHardDrive in the US has the best reputation as far as I can tell so I brought 3 drives on Ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/156046813385

It took about a month for them to arrive. Very clean condition and added them to Unraid.

goHardDrive offer their own 5 year guarantee but that probably means I have to ship them back if they fail (or maybe not).

The drives were in very good physical hours and well packaged.

The 3 drives cost me about $560 delivered or $186 each.

Amazon

I decided to get some more drives and found out that goHardDrive sell through Amazon. Got two more for $327.23 delivered == $163 each. Faster delivery and even better packaging. 3 month only warranty as far as I can tell.

https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Ultrastar-HUH721212ALE600-3-5-Inch-Internal/dp/B07Y8GF5M6/

The 5 drives have been in service for between 2 and 3 years according to the power on hours.

Both times I got a Sata power adapter for each drive as these are Sata 3.2 drives. The Amazon ones also came with some Kapton tape to cover one of the power connectors as an alternative way of using them in rigs that don't comply with Sata 3.2.

Happy Nas, happy life

So, now rocking 24TB in the NAS with 2 drives for parity and a hot spare.

Lets see how they go.

Paul

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#3265486 28-Jul-2024 10:35

I see you don't mention they are Refurbished/renewed drives

That's something you should include in your post as it may put people off buying them

what are the power on hours like in them, or has the SMART data been reset?

freitasm

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#3265491 28-Jul-2024 10:57

@Jase2985:

I see you don't mention they are Refurbished/renewed drives

He does, read again "There are used drives available for cheap and I read good reports of their reliability."

The post was not edited, this is in the original.

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#3265500 28-Jul-2024 11:28

freitasm:

@Jase2985:

I see you don't mention they are Refurbished/renewed drives

He does, read again "There are used drives available for cheap and I read good reports of their reliability."

The post was not edited, this is in the original.

it needs to be more clear though that they are refurbished/renewed drives, that's what they are sold as. one mention in the entire post. it should also be in the title.

also used is not the same as refurbished/renewed

they are a great deal if you are happy to accept they are refurbished/renewed drives

prob

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#3265505 28-Jul-2024 11:52

I took it as read that the post was about used drives.

New ones are NZD 643

https://www.elive.co.nz/product/western-digital-ultrastar-dc-hc520-12tb-nas-hard-drive-huh721212ale604

IMHO the second hand ones should be about $100 each but I can live with getting (almost) 3 for the price of one.

With double parity and a hot backup I feel comfortable with them being second hand.

My main concern was shipping because of some worrying reviews, but eBay and Amazon packed them well.

There are cheaper refurbished drives out there, but I went with this seller because of their good reputation.

The drives range from 25,928 to 29,910 hours with no errors. They are rated for 2,500,000 hours so they are only babies...

Talkiet

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#3265536 28-Jul-2024 13:38

Um. 2500000 hours is 285 years. I didn't even look for the source claiming the 2.5m hours but I already doubt it. I'm reasonablt confident that the bearings won't last that long :-)

29000 hours is nearly 3.5 years. There's some life left in them on average but I wouldn't be trusting them with my data - I would use them as a cold storage backup option though.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

richms

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#3265545 28-Jul-2024 13:47

Any deals on anything larger that people have found? I try to keep my sets of drives to 5 as that makes it easier to move that set to wherever, running storage spaces so its the space off 3.5ish of them before it gets mad at me.

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amanzi

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#3265602 28-Jul-2024 18:13

Thanks for the heads-up - that's a pretty good deal. My gut feel is that the cost savings outweigh the risks, and if your NAS has sufficient redundancy then it reduces the risk further.

michaelmurfy

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#3265609 28-Jul-2024 19:06

amanzi:

Thanks for the heads-up - that's a pretty good deal. My gut feel is that the cost savings outweigh the risks, and if your NAS has sufficient redundancy then it reduces the risk further.

That's my thinking. Years ago I bought and shucked WD external drives that had WD "white label" drives inside, helium filled, almost the same as the WD Reds for twice the price. They're still going strong.

My server can have a single drive fail without data loss and the most important data is backed up anyway. I don't care if I lose my Linux ISO's as they're backed up online anyway.

But for when I need to upgrade I'll likely upgrade with reconditioned drives as these appear to be lasting well for people.

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prob

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#3265616 28-Jul-2024 20:28

Talkiet:

Um. 2500000 hours is 285 years. I didn't even look for the source claiming the 2.5m hours but I already doubt it. I'm reasonably confident that the bearings won't last that long :-)

29000 hours is nearly 3.5 years. There's some life left in them on average but I wouldn't be trusting them with my data - I would use them as a cold storage backup option though.

Cheers - N

2.5m hours is what the manufacturer claims - that's design life. The ARF (annual failure rate) is more meaningful but it is an average.

Reliability:
• Error rate (non-recoverable, bits read): 1 in 10^15
• Load/Unload cycles (40°C): 600,000
• MTBF (M hours): 2.5
• Annualised Failure Rate (AFR): 0.35%
• Availability (hrs/day x days/wk): 24x7

The in-service AFR of this model drive is higher at 0.75 according to Backblaze, but that is still one of the best recorded.

We don't have the mode figure for failures (just the average age of when the drives failed) but most failures happen within the first few hundred hours AFAIK..

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q1-2024/

My old Weston Digital Reds are rated at 1m hours and most of them died within 3 years...

If I get 3 years from these drives I'm winning.

prob

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#3265620 28-Jul-2024 21:17

To be clear, 2 of my 3 WD Reds failed and they were about 4 years old and out of warranty...

CamH

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#3265624 28-Jul-2024 22:01

I purchased one of these off Amazon a couple weeks back, arrived last Tuesday. DOA. Have to send it back at my cost too :(

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Tzoi

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#3265660 29-Jul-2024 01:21

I just received a couple of these, bought off ebay from the same seller. Have upgraded one of my drives and repaired parity, now currently in the process of installing the second one. Were packaged very well

prob

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#3265670 29-Jul-2024 07:39

Tzoi: I just received a couple of these, bought off ebay from the same seller. Have upgraded one of my drives and repaired parity, now currently in the process of installing the second one. Were packaged very well

Amazon listing says free international returns. Are you sure you pay? I also wonder if you can get a refund or replacement drive if you prove doa. Please update us with what happens or least pm me if you can.

prob

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#3265671 29-Jul-2024 07:40

Sorry but I quoted wrong post...

prob

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#3265673 29-Jul-2024 07:44

Tzoi - weirdness but all my attempts to quote your post gives me the wrong post...

Amazon listing says free international returns. Are you sure you pay? I also wonder if you can get a refund or replacement drive if you prove doa. Please update us with what happens or least pm me if you can.

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