I'm looking to buy a pair of 12TB SATA hard drives, one to use inside my Dell Precision 3620 tower desktop PC, and the other to place in an external Inateck USB 3.0 enclosure as a backup for the first drive. I use FreeFileSync to backup files from one drive to another.
The internal drive would be used for file storage, video editing, media playback, etc. The one used externally would be purely a backup for the one used internally.
I can't afford to buy two 12TB drives in new condition. I need to keep the combined cost of the two drives under $250, ideally closer to $200-$220 or so.
The main two websites selling refurbished and renewed drives that seem to have the best reputations are ServerPartDeals and GoHardDrive.
I've looked through the options that they have currently in stock in my price range, and found that the best options seem to be the following:
1) Seagate BarraCuda Pro ST12000DM0007
Factory recertified with a 3 year warranty for $109.95 from GoHardDrive:
https://www.goharddrive.com/Seagate-ST12000DM0007-12TB-3-5-Hard-Drive-p/g01-1314-cr.htm
Manufacterer recertified with a 2-year warranty for $114.99 from ServerPartDeals:
https://serverpartdeals.com/product...-6gb-s-256mb-3-5-manufacturer-recertified-hdd
2) Seagate Enterprise Capacity ST12000NM0127
Renewed (presumably by the seller rather than the manufacturer) with a 5-year warranty for $99.99 from GoHardDrive:
https://www.goharddrive.com/Seagate-ST12000NM0117-12TB-3-5-Enterprise-HDD-p/g01-1530.htm
Seller refurbished with a 1-year warranty from ServerPartDeals for $89.99 (with the description "Up to 39k power on hours. Tested with 0 errors, 0 bad sectors, 0 defects. SMART details intact."):
https://serverpartdeals.com/product...k-rpm-sata-6gb-s-512e-sed-3-5-refurbished-hdd
3) WD HGST Ultrastar HC520 HUH721212ALE601
Refurbished (presumably by seller) with a 3-year warranty for $89.99 by GoHardDrive:
https://www.goharddrive.com/WD-HGST-Ultrastar-HUH721212ALE601-12TB-HDD-p/g01-1549-cr.htm
Seller refurbished with a 1-year warranty for $105.99 from SeverPartDeals:
https://serverpartdeals.com/product...e601-0f29596-12tb-7-2k-rpm-sata-6gb-s-3-5-hdd
From what information I could glean so far, enterprise drives (which comprise all of the options I've mentioned except for the BarraCuda, which is a consumer drive) tend to be more durable and capable of lasting more years than consumer drives.
However, they are allegedly also noisier. This might be acceptable within reason. Since the two drives would be used near me (one inside my computer and another near it in an external enclosure) noise matters to me more than it would to, for example, someone who has a NAS in their basement where they won't hear it. However, I'm already accustomed to the noise from multiple 6TB Western Digital Black WDC WD6003FZBX-00K5WB0 drives, so anything that's roughly near that level of noise should be acceptable to me.
However, I have read that the Ultrastar drives have a feature known as Protective Wear Leveling (PWR) to spread lubrication evenly, which causes them to thump every five seconds, even when idling. If this is true, I don't think I'd want one of those, because I'd probably find that irritating.
I've also read that both the Ultrastar drives and the Seagate enterprise ones have a power disable feature designed for use in data centers that could cause them not to work properly in a normal computer setup, but apparently this can be remedied by placing a piece of tape over a specific pin before plugging it in. Here's a video showing how it's done:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1JMM2bxVUc
So it seems that my options are between a consumer drive (BarraCuda) which supposedly is likely to last less time but may be quieter and can readily be used with no modifications, and enterprise drives which tend to last longer but need a modification to work properly and might be noisier.
Also, when it comes to buying options, some of the drives are available factory recertified, while others are seller refurbished. I've heard conflicting claims about which is better.
One school of thought is that manufacturer recertified drives are more reliable, since they have been inspected by the original manufacturing company and certified, with some people saying that they are more thoroughly inspected and tested than brand new drives. However, other people claims that the companies (Seagate, WD, etc) merely run a few quick scans and erase the SMART data, while seller refurbished options may have more extensive quality checks and may keep the original SMART data, which can be helpful in identifying how much the drive has actually been used. I'm not sure what to believe as to whether is the better option, or whether there's truly much difference at all.
Considering what I want to use the drives for, what is probably my best option?
The internal drive would be used for file storage, video editing, media playback, etc. The one used externally would be purely a backup for the one used internally.
I can't afford to buy two 12TB drives in new condition. I need to keep the combined cost of the two drives under $250, ideally closer to $200-$220 or so.
The main two websites selling refurbished and renewed drives that seem to have the best reputations are ServerPartDeals and GoHardDrive.
I've looked through the options that they have currently in stock in my price range, and found that the best options seem to be the following:
1) Seagate BarraCuda Pro ST12000DM0007
Factory recertified with a 3 year warranty for $109.95 from GoHardDrive:
https://www.goharddrive.com/Seagate-ST12000DM0007-12TB-3-5-Hard-Drive-p/g01-1314-cr.htm
Manufacterer recertified with a 2-year warranty for $114.99 from ServerPartDeals:
https://serverpartdeals.com/product...-6gb-s-256mb-3-5-manufacturer-recertified-hdd
2) Seagate Enterprise Capacity ST12000NM0127
Renewed (presumably by the seller rather than the manufacturer) with a 5-year warranty for $99.99 from GoHardDrive:
https://www.goharddrive.com/Seagate-ST12000NM0117-12TB-3-5-Enterprise-HDD-p/g01-1530.htm
Seller refurbished with a 1-year warranty from ServerPartDeals for $89.99 (with the description "Up to 39k power on hours. Tested with 0 errors, 0 bad sectors, 0 defects. SMART details intact."):
https://serverpartdeals.com/product...k-rpm-sata-6gb-s-512e-sed-3-5-refurbished-hdd
3) WD HGST Ultrastar HC520 HUH721212ALE601
Refurbished (presumably by seller) with a 3-year warranty for $89.99 by GoHardDrive:
https://www.goharddrive.com/WD-HGST-Ultrastar-HUH721212ALE601-12TB-HDD-p/g01-1549-cr.htm
Seller refurbished with a 1-year warranty for $105.99 from SeverPartDeals:
https://serverpartdeals.com/product...e601-0f29596-12tb-7-2k-rpm-sata-6gb-s-3-5-hdd
From what information I could glean so far, enterprise drives (which comprise all of the options I've mentioned except for the BarraCuda, which is a consumer drive) tend to be more durable and capable of lasting more years than consumer drives.
However, they are allegedly also noisier. This might be acceptable within reason. Since the two drives would be used near me (one inside my computer and another near it in an external enclosure) noise matters to me more than it would to, for example, someone who has a NAS in their basement where they won't hear it. However, I'm already accustomed to the noise from multiple 6TB Western Digital Black WDC WD6003FZBX-00K5WB0 drives, so anything that's roughly near that level of noise should be acceptable to me.
However, I have read that the Ultrastar drives have a feature known as Protective Wear Leveling (PWR) to spread lubrication evenly, which causes them to thump every five seconds, even when idling. If this is true, I don't think I'd want one of those, because I'd probably find that irritating.
I've also read that both the Ultrastar drives and the Seagate enterprise ones have a power disable feature designed for use in data centers that could cause them not to work properly in a normal computer setup, but apparently this can be remedied by placing a piece of tape over a specific pin before plugging it in. Here's a video showing how it's done:
So it seems that my options are between a consumer drive (BarraCuda) which supposedly is likely to last less time but may be quieter and can readily be used with no modifications, and enterprise drives which tend to last longer but need a modification to work properly and might be noisier.
Also, when it comes to buying options, some of the drives are available factory recertified, while others are seller refurbished. I've heard conflicting claims about which is better.
One school of thought is that manufacturer recertified drives are more reliable, since they have been inspected by the original manufacturing company and certified, with some people saying that they are more thoroughly inspected and tested than brand new drives. However, other people claims that the companies (Seagate, WD, etc) merely run a few quick scans and erase the SMART data, while seller refurbished options may have more extensive quality checks and may keep the original SMART data, which can be helpful in identifying how much the drive has actually been used. I'm not sure what to believe as to whether is the better option, or whether there's truly much difference at all.
Considering what I want to use the drives for, what is probably my best option?
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