EXPIRED WD DC HC520 12TB $75

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Samir

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Im sure the testing could be more extensive, but its a multiday process for each drive/box.

Since they come with 6-36mo warranty to us they each get tagged/inventoried as taken out of box and put into a shelf for testing.
Multiple failures in one box and the box is rejected and usualy a claim with freighter.
Then tracked out that period in use for any claims back to supplier for refund.

If you consider that "do you feel lucky" then sure.

First i notice is that the somewhat flimsy cardboard seperators are still intact, abuse that box in shipping and they will tear/seperate.
If they were torn with drives loose and metal on metal impacts between them and i would be concerned.
Yes it is. But that's what a lot of us are doing with used drives (and even new ones) to catch doas and warranties while they still have coverage.

It all depends on how long you have the drive in service before it is pulled. If you run them beyond 30k poh, any with long-term subtle damage start to show their weakness. And that's the stuff that isn't caught in any initial testing and is only discovered over time ime.

That cardboard is too flimsy to begin with imo unless each drive is wrapped in protection other than the esd bag. I would never ship a number of drives like that unless I put that box in another box with more packaging.
 

Samir

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What I see in the picture weighs 20kg and no cardboard ribs can hold this weight in place even with no abusive handling. Those side gaps has to be filled no matter with what
If they were heavier cardboard they might have held, especially considering the foam on top and bottom that if packed tightly enough would have helped the cardboard stay in place, even this thin stuff.

There's so many little things that can be done to ensure safe shipment, but it's all about speed to save labor costs. But if one wants to do that, then just get foam shipping clamshells for the boxes and be done since that's fast and easy and works.
 

Cruzader

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Jan 1, 2021
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That cardboard is too flimsy to begin with imo unless each drive is wrapped in protection other than the esd bag. I would never ship a number of drives like that unless I put that box in another box with more packaging.
Welcome to the new enviromentaly focused world of shipping hardware.

The outer box in his picture does not look like the correct one tho, the short fins on sides should touch box all around.
But a foam layer in top/bottom + just cardboard seperator like that is getting more and more used.

Cardboard used to be just refurbishers when they came, you can get brand new drives from large brands/vendors like this now.
The 1 drive per box or thick styrofoam holders are going away.

Ive started to hoard the few styrofoam ones i get now, to keep them for handling/storing drives in.
(The plastic trays for cpu/ram are also on the list to be replaced by cardboard soon from what ive heard from a few reps.)
 
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Samir

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Welcome to the new enviromentaly focused world of shipping hardware.

The outer box in his picture does not look like the correct one tho, the short fins on sides should touch box all around.
But a foam layer in top/bottom + just cardboard seperator like that is getting more and more used.

Cardboard used to be just refurbishers when they came, you can get brand new drives from large brands/vendors like this now.
The 1 drive per box or thick styrofoam holders are going away.

Ive started to hoard the few styrofoam ones i get now, to keep them for handling/storing drives in.
(The plastic trays for cpu/ram are also on the list to be replaced by cardboard soon from what ive heard from a few reps.)
Interesting. Makes sense from the environmental aspect if it does the job. But I guess it will take a couple of iterations before the product works as intended. Have you ever felt the cardboard core from a fax machine roll? Cardboard can be made brutally tough if warranted. And there's cardboard insulation like stuff in bats is really good too for packaging. I guess it will take someone to make a revolutionary new cardboard product...
 

Samir

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The higher end boxes have 1 corrogates layer on internal dividers and often 2 on outer box itself.
And the insert will always be a tight fit so it cant shift in the box.
View attachment 31872
Definitely stronger for sure than what was shipped by this seller, but I still think that with such weight even those can collapse pretty easily. Having something stuffed in the openings all around will go a long way to prevent damage even in the event of a large shock. Honestly this role is actually ideal for those air pillows that normally don't do diddly squat except pop or bounce around with a drive in a box.
 

Samir

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If there's a size limitation with SAS2 then I'm not aware of it.
I don't think there was really a size limit with sas1 either, but I know certain controller firmwares had a 2TB/3TB limit. Not sure if that was completely before SAS2, hence why I stated the caveat. Best for the person to post the exact model of the card--then we could say for sure.
 
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Filez

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1695879075647.png

This is my card, I can hear noise from hdds but not showing up. Also noticed 'ata1: comreset failed (errno=-16)' during boot. Any idea?
 
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I picked up a few of these, mine were packaged well. SMART data indicates most of the drives had POHs of around 14d, one had only 4d. They are cooking away on badblocks now without any issues. One drive seems to read a fair bit faster than the others, not really sure what to make of that. Starting to wish I bought more but time will tell.
 
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Raspy_Pi

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Jul 1, 2022
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I have an update on my poorly package drives
I ran long SMART tests and have done 2 complete passes of badblocks on all of the drives and to my surprise they all appear to be functionally fine, at least for now.
Some of them had ~40 power on hours and some had ~500 and all of them have been made between January and February of 2022
Drives with ~40 power on hours had ~55TB of writes on average and drives with ~500 power on hours had 120TB-200TB of writes according to SMART.
Load cycles appear to be between 10 and 52 for all of the drives.
 
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ano

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we are running checks on first 15 now, then 15 more arrive next week.
 
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Samir

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I have an update on my poorly package drives
I ran long SMART tests and have done 2 complete passes of badblocks on all of the drives and to my surprise they all appear to be functionally fine, at least for now.
Some of them had ~40 power on hours and some had ~500 and all of them have been made between January and February of 2022
Drives with ~40 power on hours had ~55TB of writes on average and drives with ~500 power on hours had 120TB-200TB of writes according to SMART.
Load cycles appear to be between 10 and 52 for all of the drives.
Great to hear! Thank you for the update. I keep forgetting how much tougher sas drives seem to be compared to sata when it comes to shipping hits. It will be interesting to see if any future failures indicate any type of pattern.