best value shuckable drives as of sept2022?

[Twice_Shy]

Last time I posted this was over two years ago. This is the same question it's only wondering whether or not anything has changed since then...

Back then the 10/12/14tb western digital external USB drives were the best deal going when on sale, nonshingled I believe and needing a power plug mod to work if shucked but I planned to keep them external for the moment.

I need a few more shuckable external drives on short notice (planned to use as external for now to mirror some data, and a separate future use/eventually repurpose inside a server once I finally get it built/life got in the way kicking it a few years down the road unfortunately) that are the best value per terabyte, strongly preferring 12's (because thats about matched to the size of an LTO8 volume) over 10's or smaller even if the latter are cheaper. Really don't like shingled even at a discount because it will matter more when used internally. It's not a hard absolute no, but I view them as worth significantly less because they won't have the 'second life' then. Though if there are some 8's or 10's shingled and radically cheaper per TB I could still find a use for them, just without the plan to use as internal drives in the future server.

What are the current best drives, and what are the going rates on and off sale to watch for if i'm trying to find these in the next... two months or so?

 

[Sean Ho]

If SAS is ok:

$115 ST12000NM0027 Very Low Hours REF Seagate 12TB SAS 12G 7.2K 512e LFF HDD 763649089743 | eBay
$130 Wester Digital Ultra Star HUH721212AL5204 12TB DC HC520 SAS 3.5" Hard Drive | eBay

 

[kpfleming]

What does 'shuckable' mean here?

 

[Stephan]

From to shuck, like in shuck a cherry to remove the stone. Meaning you buy a WD Book USB drive, open it up (there are a bunch of YT videos how to do it without destroying the plastic case) and remove the usually white-label HGST 7200rpm enterprise 10-14 TB SATA drive. Usually in WD's case there is a SATA to USB3 translation PCB screwed on, have to remove that as well. You are left with a normal SATA drive. Price is usually 50% of what the drive would have cost otherwise as OEM or retail. Some drives, which you can't tell by the label, use the "3V3 pin" which is now called DevSleep (pin 3). If you transplant the drive into your own case you have to be careful not to have 3.3V on this pin through some legacy cabling, otherwise the drive will not wake up. I just removed 3V completely from my cabling, drives only need 5V and 12V. It's a feature, e.g. for staggered spin-up. Sometimes pricing is really good, because HGST aka WD made too many drives and this is their way to offload them into the market. Quality also really good for whitelabel HGST variants. Check reddit r/datahoarder for more info on what is in what case.

 

[kpfleming]

Ahh... although I've never heard the term used for cherries, but certainly for corn, where the analogy would make more sense

 

[Stephan]

Oh dear, very well possible that I pulled the wrong vegetable out of the linguistic hat. ;-)

 

[kpfleming]

'vegetable'?

 

[Sean Ho]

If you need SATA: ShuckStop

 

[Sundar]

If you need SATA: ShuckStop

Can anyone reach shucks.top? I get a DNS failure

 

[T_Minus]

Can anyone reach shucks.top? I get a DNS failure

Works for me

 

[Sundar]

Yes - works for me now. My DNSSEC validating DNS server was rejecting broken DNSSEC for shucks.top

 

[Twice_Shy]

Sometimes pricing is really good, because HGST aka WD made too many drives and this is their way to offload them into the market. Quality also really good for whitelabel HGST variants. Check reddit r/datahoarder for more info on what is in what case.

So does anyone know if things are the same now that they were then? Has anyone here shucked drives recently and found the same good drives or noticed changes to anything else?

I saw links to used SATA drives but i'm out of internal bays and ports and card slots, I need like two USB externals to migrate and mirror some data first, even if I might get other drives later to fill out the future server. :- P

 

[Twice_Shy]

If you need SATA: ShuckStop

Also THANK YOU that link is SUPER useful, my only missing piece of information is what drives are contained inside and when that last was. (ie that it hasnt changed in 2-3 years)

 

[msg7086]

At this stage it might be cheaper to buy chia drives at a low price. Also bare drives are sometimes cheaper now. (Got 3x 16TB red plus for $204/ea pre-tax earlier this year.) Check Exos and Red family from time to time and you may be able to find some interesting prices.

There was a huge overstock on WD enterprise in China, and chia 16TBs are sold for $150/ea there right now if you know where to buy.

 

[Sean Ho]

Thus far all WD shucks 8TB and above have been HGST DC drives, CMR.

SATA PWDIS on the 3.3v line is not necessary for staggered spinup; it was conceived in order to power cycle individual drives without rebooting the whole server.

 

[Twice_Shy]

At this stage it might be cheaper to buy chia drives at a low price. Also bare drives are sometimes cheaper now. (Got 3x 16TB red plus for $204/ea pre-tax earlier this year.) Check Exos and Red family from time to time and you may be able to find some interesting prices.

There was a huge overstock on WD enterprise in China, and chia 16TBs are sold for $150/ea there right now if you know where to buy.

What are chia drives? :-/ I suppose using an external USB dock or something is an option if it's a normal SATA drive. I don't know where to buy.

 

[msg7086]

Chia drives are drives bought for mining chia around last May. People bought stack of large capacity enterprise grade / externals to mine it, and now chia isn't worth much, some are selling those overstock drives as used. Chia has very low workload on drives, so if maintained properly they are now in a great condition to buy at a low price.

 

[Twice_Shy]

Chia drives are drives bought for mining chia around last May. People bought stack of large capacity enterprise grade / externals to mine it, and now chia isn't worth much

Okay i'm definately intrigued at those prices... i'd either use them in a dock or find a way to make room internally temporarily when it's a pretty big price difference. If anyone can suggest a lead or where i'd go looking (since i assume ebay is not it), in PM if they don't want to make it publically, i'd be grateful... I definately need SATA for the moment because I don't have SAS in the machine I need to use, and I don't have room to put in a card either. (else i'd go for those $115 12tb SAS's which would be perfect)

 

[msg7086]

Other than that, newegg is currently putting 16TB seagate on sale.

Seagate Expansion 16TB External Hard Drive HDD - USB 3.0, with Rescue Data Recovery Services (STKP16000400)
+ $70 off w/ promo code SLBBW667, limited offer

Making it $249.99, or $15.625/TB

 

[Twice_Shy]

Other than that, newegg is currently putting 16TB seagate on sale.

That's the best per TB price going for externals and might be a buy with no other good alternatives right now, do seagates shuck as nicely as western digital if i'm sure i'll eventually do that? Any idea if it's shingled, or what quality of drive is inside?