You are lucky these drives are failing immediately. Replacements may, with any luck last a couple of months.

Do you think you will get a refund then?

I would no sooner buy second-hand hard drives than second-hand medicine.

Edited by TinyMongomery (Thu 27-Feb-25 06:32:53)

I think I’d buy second hand drives before I bought a small batch of drives at the same time all from the same manufacturer…

I learned that lesson a few years ago, bought three drives for my ZFS three drive mirror, two drives failed in the first month in the same week, the third started having problems during the rebuild. Their serial numbers weren’t far apart.

My three drive mirror now always drives from at least two manufacturers (picking three different ones can be challenging with the state of the drive industry).

Of course predictably I’ve not had a single drive failure since that.

And before someone asks, yes a three drive mirror is very wasteful of space. But I have less than 4TB of data, so doing it doesn’t cost me much (and getting 4TB of storage with two drive redundancy without a mirror means even more drives).

I expect you got the drives replaced under warranty.

Do you think the same would hold for second-hand drives (especially if bought from an individual rather than a retailer)?

Ebay is pretty good at stepping in if the seller is not playing ball. I have had refunds in the past where the seller said no returns. The drives are all packed up and ready to go via Mrs Postie.

I honestly doubt that eBay gives as long a warranty on second-hand goods as retailers do on new ones. The law certainly doesn't.

I agree that there is no problem if the devices are u/s on arrivial. But if they start packing up a few months down the line....

Hard disks are so cheap nowadays that I wouldn't take the risk personally.

30 days on Ebay to return. I have ordered two new Reds with 5 year warranty described as brand new by the retailer. Not playing with 2nd hand disks any more not worth the hassle.

In reply to a post by Banger:

I have ordered two new Reds with 5 year warranty described as brand new by the retailer. Not playing with 2nd hand disks any more not worth the hassle.

Buying second hand disks is a fools game so glad you finally decided to go for new ones fella as in the long run its the smart move.

Turns out the Ebay drives are both coming from AliExpress from sellers in China. Ebay is the middleman, so went on AliExpress and ordered a new one for £30 delivered. Hope they aren't fakes but seller has good reviews.

If the price seems to be too good to be true….

In reply to a post by Banger:

Turns out the Ebay drives are both coming from AliExpress from sellers in China. Ebay is the middleman, so went on AliExpress and ordered a new one for £30 delivered. Hope they aren't fakes but seller has good reviews.

To be totally frank fella, I would be very worried by the authenticity of a branded product if bought from China so I simply wouldn't do it. I typically buy from reputable companies in the UK on things that I have a dependency on. When I bought some WD Red Plus disks I think I bought from scan.co.uk although lots of one man bands on the web were offering them for below regular price but how can you trust them.