Bad luck buying hard drives

[zxcvbob]

I bought a refurbished 2TB 5900 RPM Seagate drive from Amazon; Amazon was the seller, not a third party supplier.  I got refurbished instead of new because the new drives were Amazon Marketplace.  When it got here and I plugged it in, first it made loud scraping noises as it spun up.  Then it showed up in Disk Management as a 4GB 7200 RPM drive (I doubt they ever made a drive with that configuration) and the SMART data was not accessible.  I downloaded Seagate Seatools (which also said 4GB) and ran its diagnostics and the drive failed immediately.  I sent it back to Amazon and gave a bad review.

Then I ordered a IBM Ultrastar 2TB drive from gohardrives.com.  It's not clear from the listing whether it's a refurbished drive or new old stock (IBM got out of the HDD business a few years ago) but I think it's new.  It got here today.  Manufactured in 2011.  I plug it in, and it spins up and starts clicking (but not very loud) and it gets hot.  The computer doesn't even know it's there (I tried both Windows and Linux.)  I tried both a USB to SATA adapter and installing the drive internally and it acts the same both ways.  I emailed GHD and they've already sent me an RMA number and a prepaid shipping label.  I fully expect the replacement drive they send me to be DOA.

If the Seagate drive and the IBM drive acted the same way I'd suspect my computer BIOS (it is set to IDE emulation, btw).  I will try the next drive in several different machines.

Just a run of bad luck, or am I overlooking something?  Or maybe I shouldn't expect sub-$50 HDD's to work.

[cordex]

Hard drives are something I always recommend buying new. I also like to stick with HGST or Western Digital for spinning platter drives. Seagate has a long history of high AFR. I don’t have much experience with IBM drives but that one sounds like a server drive with lots of hours.

[bedlamite]

I agree with Cordex. Hard drives I'd get new. I prefer Western Digital and get them from Newegg.

[Brad Johnson]

Another vote for new.

On something like a computer where refurbishment usually means they swapped in whole, unmolested parts, I've no problem. I have a couple of refurb Dells from the outlet store now. On something like a hard drive where any refurbishment other than maybe reflowing a couple solder joints means cracking the case, I'm out. New drives are cheap. WD 2tb Blue, $50. Red, $79. Black, $113. Gold, $115. Ultrastar, $122.

A final aside... I'm inferring from your choice of drive that your data is critical enough to require enterprise-level drive reliability. If so, words/phrases like "refurbished" and "new old stock" shouldn't even be in your vocabulary.

Brad

[WLJ]

Then I ordered a IBM Ultrastar 2TB drive from gohardrives.com.  It's not clear from the listing whether it's a refurbished drive or new old stock (IBM got out of the HDD business a few years ago) but I think it's new.  It got here today.  Manufactured in 2011.

2011? IBM sold off their HDD division to Hitachi in 2003

[lee n. field]

Western Digital

Skip the Western Digital Green drives.

words/phrases like "refurbished" and "new old stock" shouldn't even be in your vocabulary.

I've seen refurb computers come with drives that are way old, and (surprise!) the HD failed "prematurely".   

[WLJ]

And forgot to say before hitting enter.
HDDs are a crap shoot even when new and I would generally avoid refubs in their case. Equipment can be replaced, data far too often can not.

[WLJ]

Skip the Western Digital Green drives.

Their platter system isn't too bad but their boards often just roll over and die without warning. Often you can order a replacement controller board for ~$20-$30 if you need to get data off of one

[zxcvbob]

IBM sold off their HDD division to Hitachi in 2003

I knew they sold it off but didn't remember exactly when.  It's interesting that this disk is still branded IBM.

A final aside... I'm inferring from your choice of drive that your data is critical enough to require enterprise-level drive reliability. If so, words/phrases like "refurbished" and "new old stock" shouldn't even be in your vocabulary.

I don't need enterprise-level reliability.  I bought it because it was cheap.  At least right now there is no important data on this machine.  I'm interested in cheap and reliable, and don't care much about speed.  (that's why I started with a Seagate drive, 5900 RPM should run cooler and quieter than 7200)

I opened the case on this machine for the first time yesterday and was surprised that it has a 2.5 inch drive (in a 3.5 drive bay) instead of a 3.5".  It might make sense to put a small SSD in for a boot drive — I won't need a mounting adapter — and a platter drive in the 2nd drive bay to store data.

[WLJ]

I knew they sold it off but didn't remember exactly when.  It's interesting that this disk is still branded IBM.

IIRC they started sporting Hitachi labeling almost immediately after that. Makes me wonder if someone is playing around with labels. 2011-12 is when the Hitachi HDD division was split up between WD and Toshiba  

[K Frame]

I thought IBM still had IBM-branded but Hitachi-made hard drives for some years afterwards. Deal they worked out with Hitachi.

[WLJ]

I thought IBM still had IBM-branded but Hitachi-made hard drives for some years afterwards. Deal they worked out with Hitachi.

Could be fuzzy memory and all but I seem to remember replacement HDDs for Thinkpads started sporting Hitachi Travelstar labels around that time. Could have been different for 2.5s vs 3.5s I don't remember.

And on further thought 2011 could be the refub and/or recert and not the manufacture date

[WLJ]

I for one am glad to finally see some movement away from the blasted things to SSDs. SSDs 1T and under are fairly cheap now. Once larger sizes drop in price, and they should pretty rapidity if current trends continue, bye bye HDDs

[WLJ]

My first HDD was 5.25 Seagate ST-225R connected connected by cables to an ST-11R controller. A whole whopping 20mb, thought I would never run out space. I've got single photos larger than that entire HDD now.

[Brad Johnson]

Same 20mb for me, but as a full height 5.25" drive that was card-mounted and required a full length ISA slot (8bit, had to rock the latest and best, don'cha know...).

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1988/h177.html

Remember to park the heads before powering down the machine.

Brad

[WLJ]

Same 20mb for me, but as a full height 5.25" drive that was card-mounted and required a full length ISA slot (8bit, had to rock the latest and best, don'cha know...).

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1988/h177.html

Remember to park the heads before powering down the machine.

Brad

$800 in 1988 = $1,737.78 in today's dollars according to an inflation calc.
Think about for a moment, $1,737.78 for 20mb.

[WLJ]

Almost afraid to run this through an inflation calc. Not sure what year, maybe 1980 based on when the company was around.

[WLJ]

And if you want to go back to 1956 here's what 5mb looked like. Price, millions
Could you imagine their reaction to a $25 ($2.67 in 1956 dollars!) 256gb USB stick?

[lee n. field]

I knew they sold it off but didn't remember exactly when.  It's interesting that this disk is still branded IBM.

I don't need enterprise-level reliability.  I bought it because it was cheap.  At least right now there is no important data on this machine.  I'm interested in cheap and reliable, and don't care much about speed.  (that's why I started with a Seagate drive, 5900 RPM should run cooler and quieter than 7200)

I opened the case on this machine for the first time yesterday and was surprised that it has a 2.5 inch drive (in a 3.5 drive bay) instead of a 3.5".  It might make sense to put a small SSD in for a boot drive — I won't need a mounting adapter — and a platter drive in the 2nd drive bay to store data.

In the parts cabinet at the shop I don't even think we have an 3.5 drives any more.

[lee n. field]

My first HDD was 5.25 Seagate ST-225R connected connected by cables to an ST-11R controller. A whole whopping 20mb, thought I would never run out space. I've got single photos larger than that entire HDD now.

When I started in the field in 1991, those were extremely common to see.  Not new at that time, but extremely common.

2 or 3 years ago I had a customer hand me a defunct Seagate MFM drive.  Full height 5.25, I think 10 megabyte capacity.  It had come out of one of his CNC machines.

[lee n. field]

Same 20mb for me, but as a full height 5.25" drive that was card-mounted and required a full length ISA slot (8bit, had to rock the latest and best, don'cha know...).

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1988/h177.html

Remember to park the heads before powering down the machine.

Brad

I remember those.  HD with controller on an 8 bit ISA bus card.  Oh, what were those called?

--edit to add--

"Hardcard"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcard

[WLJ]

I remember those.  HD with controller on an 8 bit ISA bus card.  Oh, what were those called?

Hardcard
Hardpack
Drivecard
Easycard
Slot Machine
& some others depending on who made it

[WLJ]

This ring a bell with some old time computers users?
debug g=c800:e

I can't remember what I had for lunch but the crap from the 80s I'm remembering  

[lee n. field]

This ring a bell with some old time computers users?
debug g=c800:e

I can't remember what I had for lunch but the crap from the 80s I'm remembering  

Zenith computers had a hotkey combo that would drop you into a BIOS based monitor program, that would let you do a lot of that kind of stuff.

[AJ Dual]

Another vote for HGST. Toshiba if you can find it.

As always the Blackblaze statistics are useful.

https://www.backblaze.com/b2/hard-drive-test-data.html