Experience with second hand HDD

[DrDoug]

Have been trying for ages to buy an FW800 enclosure for an external HDD.

Have not found a cheap one, so was going to get a SATA dock.

Have now found a second hand shop selling a FW800 enclosure, complete with a used 2TB drive.
It is this, second hand for £85
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/TX538ZM/A?afid=p228|GBUK&cid=AOS-EMEA-SHOPIP-GoogleBase-UK

Not sure if I should buy it, bin the old HDD and fit a new HDD. Or is there some way to test the age/reliability of the old HDD?

thoughts gratefully appreciated.

D

 

[ChrisA]

..
Not sure if I should buy it, bin the old HDD and fit a new HDD. Or is there some way to test the age/reliability of the old HDD?

Finding the age is easy. Every drive has a date code printed on it. open it up and look. Reliabilty? There is no way to know. I'd say it is is working now that is a good sign. drives either fail early or last a long time and you know this one did not fail early. Figure on about five years of life on average but it varies wildly

Buy a used drive only if the price is about 1/2 or less that of a new drive.

 

[DrDoug]

Thanks for that info Chris, good to know.