Used to be my main source of disks, but these days there are better ways and it is easier to know exactly what you are getting.
this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
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Well.. out with it then!
Not the person you replied to, but my first 9 HDDs were all shucked from external WD enclosures (MyBook, Elements, EasyStore), but the last one I bought used from serverpartdeals.com. I think it was about $120 for a 14TB WD server drive. Thus far all is well with it after about a year.
Personally I think it's a bad idea
There's lots of things that can go wrong and most of the time those drives are made in super controlled environments because they can be extremely sensitive. It's just not worth the headache
It's completely fine and was one of the most common ways to add a cheap new drive back in places like /r/datahoarder. The WD enclosures are super easy to take apart with guitar picks and old credit cards. The USB controller just slots into the SATA port and is held in place with a single Philips screw. I've been running these in my server since as far back as 2018 (usually adding 1-2 every year or two) without a single issue.
A lot of external drives are just internal devices with another controller and casing around. I had a 4TB I used with my laptop, and tore apart the casing and just plugged it into my desktop when I built one. Unless you start hammering the external case around, the drive will be fine.
Shucked drives are usually the drives that are rejected for internal use because of quality issues. They might work fine, they might not. Be careful with them and remember, RAID is not a backup.
maybe if you buy them from aliexpress, but WD/Seagate USB drives have better warranty than internal drives and at the same time they need to withstand more abuse from users (of course that warranty is void the moment you shuck them)
for some people is normal to keep an hdd in the backpack and carry it around all the time (for me is unconceivable)
Yeah! The practice is called drive shucking (kinda like Oysters) and you just need to be considerate of the limitations. The drives often end up cheaper, but lose warranty support once they're shucked. They'll also occasionally be slower than a normal drive or have an odd connector, but that is rare since it's usually cheaper to go with something 'off the shelf'. If you Google it though you should usually be able to find the handful of drive SKUs they'll use in whatever external you're planning to shuck.
oysters?
Edit: OP originally wrote "Osters." No need to downvote.
Indubitably.
Ozone!
I think I'd buy 2nd hand quality server drivers before I'd shuck.
Indeed. That's how I populated my NAS with 3 10TB drives and saved around 120 dollars total, and this was 4 years ago.
These are the ones I got: https://a.co/d/8x58jBY
The only extra thing was disabling the 3v pin, and that was it. Been running rock solid all this time.
Just make sure to research what disks are in the external housings you're planning on getting, as not all drives need to have pins removed/covered.
I did once. Well, more along the lines of "what did i buy this thing for, can use the HDD as is". The HDD had additional contact points at the bottom. Don't remember if they worked as is and what i did with them.
Why create yourself a headache and still get substandard and no-warranty drive. If you want cheaper drives go for reconditioned/refurbished/used drives. Same risks, better product. Old enterprise SAS drives are cheap and many still have plenty of heath in them.
And maybe some juicy data to recover 😏 honestly, which enterprise sells its old drives? That is calling for a data leak, isn’t it?
Many sells, some just wipe them, some just contains encrypted data. If you happy with just used drive eBay is full of surprises.
The ones that aren't forced to care by regulators. So basically anyone that isn't finance or defense.
😳
Do you have places where you can buy those old business drives? Are there websites for this market?
Do keep in mind that you need a SAS controller for that, which can cost between $50-200
This is what I did when I had to refurb a laptop. Swap the drives, reinstall the OS, snd hand it all to the user. All your files are on this usb drive.
Thats when you find out who understands folder structure and who doesn't.
I guess it shows how out of touch (old) I am that it's completely bewildering to me that there could be people who do not understand folders ... on a computer. Phones, tablets, yeah, I get that, those actively make it harder and harder to access the folder structure. But computers?
NOOO who would ever do that.
a lot of people it seems :>
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