While they may slowly be on their way out of everyday PC storage, hard disk drives are here to stay for your mass storage needs. While SSDs offer fewer points of failure and eye-watering speeds, HDDs offer an incredible amount of capacity for a relatively low cost, making them ideal for NAS use. If you want to run a high-capacity storage server, drive capacities in the 10s of terabytes can cost hundreds of dollars, especially if you want enterprise-grade stuff.
Anyone that's been in and around the consumer PC space for a significant period knows that buying used HDDs can be a fool's errand, especially if you're dealing with older drives. However, that doesn't mean it's always a fruitless endeavor. You can find some really sweet deals on used hard drives that won't kick the can anytime soon, and here are 6 ways you can do just that.
6 Buy recertified drives
As long as they've been checked properly, they should work just fine
Source: Unsplash
Source: Unsplash
Buying recertified drives is an excellent way to ensure that they'll actually work upon arrival. Barring any kind of damage in shipping, recertified drives have been tested by the seller and usually given a grade. These drives are typically tested much more rigorously than brand-new drives are before they're put onto shelves.
As far as "recertified" versus "refurbished" goes, many manufacturers use these terms interchangeably. The process that the drives go through from manufacturer to manufacturer is roughly the same. They examine the drives, replace parts if needed, rigorously test them, then put them up for sale at a discount.
5 Buy enterprise-grade drives
They're built to last
Not all hard drives are created equal. Even from SKU to SKU, when they're new, there are hard drives that are purpose built for long-term use in enterprise environments. When redundancy and reliability are paramount, you don't want to be using consumer-grade hardware. Enterprise HDDs are a great buy when they're new, but even when they're recertified or even pre-owned, chances are they still have a lot of life left in them. It takes an awfully long time to run an enterprise drive into the ground, even under heavy workloads.
4 Buy from a reputable seller
Keep an eye out for bad reviews
Just like when you buy any kind of pre-owned hardware, it is important to make sure the seller is reputable. Hard drives are no exception, but luckily there are websites dedicated to selling used enterprise HDDs. ServerPartDeals, as well as direct from manufacturers like WD, can offer great options for used drives. You can also find good deals on eBay, but there's less protection for you, the buyer, if something were to go wrong outside of eBay's buyer protection period.
3 Look for something with a warranty
A lot of re-certified drive sellers offer some kind of warranty
Getting a warranty is especially important when dealing with data. Usually, buying used things will seldom come with any kind of warranty, but if you buy from a trusted source, they'll often provide a limited warranty for recertified drives. Shipping is often the toughest test an HDD will go through, and recertified drives will have been through multiple trips in the mail before they get to you. Even if the warranty is relatively short, such as 30–60 days, that's better than nothing at all.
2 Thoroughly test the drive on arrival
Putting it through its paces will help weed out issues early
So you've received your drive and it fires up. Great, but you're not out of the woods yet. To ensure the wheels aren't going to fall off once you put any kind of sustained load on it, make sure you put it through its paces on its own. Benchmark the drive under various loads, both short and sustained, to make sure it's not going to die right off the bat. Although it won't tell you everything, it's also worth checking the SMART information on the drive to give you an idea of how it was used in the past.
1 Add used drives to a known-good RAID config
The more redundnacy you can have with used drives, the better
Once you've put the drive through its paces on its own, you can throw it in a RAID configuration with known-good drives. So long as you have a configuration that is a redundant one, even if the drive does die, you'll have a much better chance at rebuilding the data. Having an entire array of used drives is a bit more risky, but it's always going to be better than running a single drive or in an array that doesn't offer any kind of redundancy.
It's not as big of a risk as you might think
Buying used hardware will always bring additional risk. It's never going to be completely safe, but as long as you do your homework and take the proper precautions before and after buying, your drives should lead a long and prosperous life. Used drives can be a great way to set up your first NAS, especially if you're on a budget.
