[ale] Refurbished HDDs

Boris Borisov bugyatl at gmail.com
Wed Feb 4 13:45:02 EST 2026


Are you guys are trying to make backup of the whole internet :)

On Wed, Feb 4, 2026, 13:33 Jim Kinney via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> 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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