[ale] Refurbished HDDs

Jim Kinney jim.kinney at gmail.com
Wed Feb 4 13:33:10 EST 2026


No problem.

I have 18+/- 2TB 3.5" Dell SAS 6G bps drive, a Dell drive array and sleds
with sas2sata interposers. Array supports both. Cables and a pci card come
with it.

You haul. My knee hurts.

-- 
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 Wed, Feb 4, 2026, 2:30 AM Alex Carver via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> I'm not in Georgia to take them and I really am looking for TB-sized
> disks so I will say thanks but I am declining the offer.
>
> On 2026-02-03 05:33, Chuck Payne via Ale 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
> > <mailto: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
> >     <mailto: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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> >
> > --
> > Terror PUP a.k.a
> > Chuck "PUP" Payne
> > -----------------------------------------
> > Discover it! Enjoy it! Share it! openSUSE Linux.
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