Tech
Alarm bells ring as hundreds of high-capacity hard drives turn up at suspiciously low prices
Cheap can be very expensive: Many advertisements for high-capacity hard drives at rock-bottom prices can be a “poisoned gift” with a much shorter lifespan than advertised.
Over the past month, several online platforms have begun offering hundreds of Seagate-branded 28TB recertified or refurbished hard drives at surprisingly low prices. While the offer is tempting, their provenance, condition and actual lifespan are key issues raising doubts among buyers. Some reports suggest that they may have come from high-use environments such as data centers or even cryptocurrency mining farms, raising serious questions about their long-term reliability. Are they really a bargain or the umpteenth case of cheap getting expensive?
Recertified hard drives at outrageous prices: bargain or bad investment?
Recertified hard drives, also known as refurbished drives, hit various online retailers in February with strikingly low prices, especially in the case of the 28TB Seagate Exos, as reported by TechRadar. These drives, officially priced at around $500 new, began appearing en masse at discounted prices on platforms such as Amazon and eBay, and there is an explanation. The ads with the discounted price are for refurbished drives, which means they are not new from the factory, but have been used and then returned by customers claiming problems, real or not. But even if they are sold with a limited warranty and the approval of Seagate or authorized third parties, the lack of transparency about their actual usage history creates uncertainty for buyers.
The main concern is their possible origin. An article in the German media Heise Online suggests that this is a serious matter: Some of these remanufactured drives have been used in applications with high wear and degradation of their useful life, such as data centers or even cryptocurrency mining farms. In some cases, drives sold as refurbished have been found to have accumulated thousands of hours of use before being sold. Although these units have undergone tests that indicate they are in good condition, the actual hour meter may have been deliberately manipulated by those who returned them. For this reason, their possible prolonged exposure to intensive workloads is certainly a factor to consider and could affect their reliability in the future.
Despite these uncertainties, recertified hard drives can be useful in certain applications. While they are not the best choice for storing sensitive information or important files, they can be useful as secondary storage for large files, temporary files, multimedia content or video game installations, in short, any content that is not critical and can be easily replaced in the event of a hard drive failure. Their low price makes them an attractive alternative for those who simply need large capacity storage for temporary files without having to pay what a new drive is worth. Of course, this type of purchase should always be made from a trusted source and under warranty to avoid unpleasant surprises later.
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