[ale] Refurbished HDDs

Tue Feb 3 13:18:20 EST 2026

And I'm looking for how to remove it.

Hey AI! How do I maximize shareholder value

That's a great idea! Have you thought about firing all of the C-suite? They
make the most money for the least productivity since they all seem to have
teams of minions doing their job for them. I can collate the data provided
by their teams faster and more accurately for far less in stock options.
Shall I continue?

Hmmm....

-- 
James P. Kinney III

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain
at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail.
It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain

*http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
<http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/>*

On Tue, Feb 3, 2026, 8:37 AM Boris Borisov via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> Wow now we have AI overview in gmail.
>
> Alex asked the list for online recommendations for purchasing refurbished
> HDDs, specifically over 10 TB, for a NAS.
> William suggested a link for new HDDs, while Bob recommended new Western
> Digital Caviar drives and using RAID6 for redundancy.
> Alex clarified they are seeking manufacturer refurbished drives due to
> budget constraints, despite having existing redundancy.
> DJPfulio--- shared positive long-term experience with WD Black drives but
> stressed the importance of backups over RAID.
>
> On Tue, Feb 3, 2026, 08:33 Chuck Payne via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
>> Alex,
>>
>> When Jim offers hardware, he offers it. I recived a lot from him. Still
>> grateful for the haul. I just saying.
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 3, 2026 at 7:58 AM Jim Kinney via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Manufacturers don't refurbish hard drives. It doesn't happen. Third
>>> parties "refurbish" by wiping and resetting drive firmware. Manufacture
>>> warranties are void.
>>>
>>> I was not clear in my offer. I'm not asking for money. I just want this
>>> hardware hauled away by someone who wants it. I lack time and interest to
>>> be involved. So, Alex, if you want this stuff, let me know. Once Alex
>>> decides, I'll toss the rest on the group for another rehoming event. I want
>>> to unload the entire space formerly used as my test gear server closet. I
>>> have several thousand systems at work to wrestle with and I no longer
>>> experiment at home with new technologies. At the end of the day, I make
>>> tiny, wearable sculptures from silver and occasionally gold or platinum,
>>> semi and precious stones, and fused glass. I'm done making invisible things
>>> that 99.9% of humans don't understand.
>>>
>>> --
>>> James P. Kinney III
>>>
>>> Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
>>> gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own
>>> tail. It won't fatten the dog.
>>> - Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
>>>
>>>
>>> *http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
>>> <http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/>*
>>>
>>> On Mon, Feb 2, 2026, 11:54 PM Alex Carver via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm no stranger to drive failures but I'm also not exactly flush with
>>>> cash enough to buy a dozen drives at over $300 each. Recall I wasn't
>>>> asking about used drives, I asked about manufacturer refurbished which
>>>> is a bit different.
>>>>
>>>> This is going in a NAS already, redundancy is part of the process but
>>>> there's other backups, too.
>>>>
>>>> On 2026-02-02 10:20, Bob Toxen wrote:
>>>> > It's been my experience that high quality disks, such as the Western
>>>> > Digital Caviar series, will last 5 years and should be replaced at
>>>> > that time!!!  I find most other brands to be suboptimal, e.g., expect
>>>> > a head crash and catastrophic loss of all data.  The Caviar Black
>>>> disks
>>>> > spin at 7200 RPM and carry a 5 year warranty!
>>>> >
>>>> > I've had poor luck with Seagate.  YMMV.
>>>> >
>>>> > I realize that a RAID array is redundant but is it worth being cheap
>>>> to
>>>> > hopefully replace every failed disk before another one also fails?
>>>> >
>>>> > Understand that the MTBF is less than that for one disk increased by
>>>> > being able to continue until two disks fail.  This is because,
>>>> assuming
>>>> > all disks of the same type and time in service are more likely to fail
>>>> > around the same time, same as incandescent light bulbs.
>>>> >
>>>> > I suggest, if you use refurbished disks, pick a RAID mode, such as
>>>> RAID6,
>>>> > with double redundancy due to two different parities that can
>>>> withstand
>>>> > two disk failures in the array.
>>>> >
>>>> > Wikipedia's "RAID" entry is excellent.
>>>> >
>>>> > If the cost isn't out of your pocket buy new WD Black!
>>>> >
>>>> > Bob
>>>> >
>>>> > [Bob's political comment suppressed by Bob]
>>>> >
>>>> > On Sat, Jan 31, 2026 at 06:25:39PM -0800, Alex Carver via Ale wrote:
>>>> >> Anyone have recommendations for an online place to buy refurbished
>>>> HDDs (not
>>>> >> SSDs)? I want to add a few more drives to the NAS.
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> Ale at ale.org
>>>> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
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>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Terror PUP a.k.a
>> Chuck "PUP" Payne
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