I’m currently a student so I don’t have thousands to spend on hard drives and I’d really love to make a compact storage server with large capacity to do stuff like a Plex server. I’ve been looking and I see good deals on sites like eBay, however they seem too cheap sometimes. What are things I should look out for/should I just not get used hard drives?

I need to mention this would not be for critical data such as personal photos etc. it would just be raw data storage that I could afford to lose- it would just be a pain.

  • morningcupoftea@alien.topBEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    In case OP or any visitors don’t know:

    Recertified ≠ Refurbished/used/preowned.

    Manufacturer recertified means the drive you get is one that passes OEM/factory testing. There’s a certain QA standard that manufacturer recert drives need to meet.

    Refurb etc means you get a gamble drive that probably has SMART data reset so you have no idea what you’re getting. Could be a good deal or a waste of money, very little predictability.

    Personally I’d never buy a refurb—I’d only buy recert or something that a trusted friend has used.