[SOLVED] Anyone have experience with Amazon Renewed hard drives?

[theR00k]

This may be a bad idea to consider but has anyone used Amazon Renewed hard drives? I'm thinking it may be worth a risk if I purchase 6 renewed drives (same model & capacity) and run it at RAID 6 as a NAS. If any drive fails within the warranty period, I should be able to get another renewed drive.

Feedback is appreciated.

 

[punkncat]

Where I cannot say specifically about their hard drives, every renewed by Amazon product I have ever gotten was as good as buying new.

 

[Barty1884]

Used/renewed/refurbished hard drives always have additional inherent risks...... although there is always a decent degree of risk involved regardless, even new.

Consider whether you would implement a RAID 6 array if you were not considering purchasing 'renewed'? If yes, then the risk is fairly well mitigated, and I'm assuming you're saving money vs. new.

If RAID 6 is only being considered as an additional failsafe because you're considering 'renewed' drives, then the rationale becomes less sound.

RAID 6 gives you the potential for two-drive failures, at the expense of capacity (depending on alternatives) and read/write speed (vs most potential alternatives).

What kind of prices are you looking at, vs. new for like kind/quality/capacity?

 

[theR00k]

I would implement a RAID 6 whether I was buying new or renewed drives.

The product I've been looking at is the Seagate Constellation ES.3 drives 4tb.

ST4000NM0033, ST4000NM0053

New drives go for $105 - $180

Renewed ranges for ST4000NM0033
1 year warranty: $55
5 year warranty: $71 - $80

I'm also open to suggestions on other options to consider.

 

[USAFRet]

Renewed by whom, specifically?

Why a RAID 6?
What is your actual backup scenario?

 

[mdd1963]

'renewed by Amazon'

= Quick formatted, no errors

If CrystalDiskInfo is not showing errors, any spinning drive might have a few years left...; some last 5-10 years.

Enterprise Drives tend to be better than consumer drives...(or that's the theory!)

RAID 6 of course allows failure of up to 2 with no data loss....

A single SATA SSD provides the read throughput/IOPS of 4-5 drives anyway, unless you need the capacity of 8 each 4 TB drives in a larger RAID....

 

[USAFRet]

If CrystalDiskInfo is not showing errors, any spinning drive might have a few years left...; some last 5-10 years.

Or might die next week.
I've had that happen.

 

[theR00k]

Or might die next week.
I've had that happen.

New drives could theoretically die within a week as well.

To your question, I'm currently using an external Hard Drive as my backup but would need to consider more backup options. My goal is to build a 6-HDD NAS with RAID 6 as cost effectively as possible. Not sure if RAID 6 is optimal for a 6-HDD NAS. I'd like some feedback on that as well.

 

[USAFRet]

New drives could theoretically die within a week as well.

To your question, I'm currently using an external Hard Drive as my backup but would need to consider more backup options. My goal is to build a 6-HDD NAS with RAID 6 as cost effectively as possible. Not sure if RAID 6 is optimal for a 6-HDD NAS. I'd like some feedback on that as well.

Absolutely new drives can die early. I've had it happen.

As for the NAS...whatever RAID still needs a true backup. RAID is for physical drive redundancy, not data redundancy.

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

(the RAID 5 in that has been undone, in favor of JBOD. The initial RAID 5 was just an experiment)

 

[theR00k]

Did you implement JBOD with a backup but no RAID?

 

[USAFRet]

Did you implement JBOD with a backup but no RAID?

Yes.

Each of my systems run a nightly backup to the QNAP NAS volume. 8+8+8 JBOD.
The QNAP NAS runs its own weekly backup to a QNAP TR-004 enclosure, 4+4+4+4, also JBOD.

No RAID needed.

AS stated, the QNAP was originally 3+3+3+3, RAID 5. Swapping to 4+4+4+4, with a RAID 5 rebuild in between each new drive...that rebuild took 6-7 hours.
Similar as to replacing a dead drive in that.

Right then, I decided that the RAID was not really doing anything of any importance. Replacing a dead physical drive is just as easily handled by the actual backup. Along with all the other things a true backup protects against.

 

[popatim]

I'm curious if by JBOD you mean independent drives (ie 4 drive letters) and not one large drive that a true jbod would present?
I've always assumed that's what you mean at least.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm curious if by JBOD you mean independent drives (ie 4 drive letters) and not one large drive that a true jbod would present?
I've always assumed that's what you mean at least.

In the QNAP, JBOD is one volume across several drives. Fills them up in sequence.

The 3x 8TB circled in red.
Drive 4 is the 480GB SSD system drive and small shared space.

 

[popatim]

Ahh. Ok. I should have assumed the opposite since i know you know your terms. LoL

 

[USAFRet]

Ahh. Ok. I should have assumed the opposite since i know you know your terms. LoL

I can't say enough good things about this Qnap and its OS.
Feature rich. rock solid, 3 1/2 years, 24/7.

 

[theR00k]

Follow up question for the forum: What is the best utility to stress test hard drives? Crystal Disk has already been mentioned. Any recommendations for HD Tune or other apps?