Thoughts on refurbished external hard drives

[chris1184]

I just pulled the trigger on a WD 1tb My Book Studio Edition LX...just wondering what people's thoughts/experiences are with refurbished external hard drives...it was a great buy as I only paid like 70 bucks for it with expidited shipping...I usually buy new but since I have spent a bunch of money on my iMac and other accesories recently i did not want to go spending even more cash. Anyone have any negative or positive stories?

edit - i have a 6 month manufacturer warranty on the item.

 

[Dresevski]

Nothing to be worried about. Chances are probably the same that you have an issue with that versus the new one. A company like WD checks their stuff. I buy refurbished whenever I can.

 

[roland.g]

Personally I don't like the idea of it. To me it is almost as bad as when a guy I knew asked where he could get a used car battery.

 

[chris1184]

cool, i can agree with the both of u..i won't worry about it too much i guess though...ill mostly be using the harddrive for logic pro files when i am recording..and some pics...the really important stuff i'll just upload to my amazon cloud

 

[Stan Mikulenka]

Hi chris,
I don't think that a modern HD can be 'repaired' for any REASONABLE COST to them + selling it & making a profit on it...
All they can afford to do (with-in these parameters) is check it & if it's not completely bricked wipe it clean...that's about all you CAN expect so I'd say that you're playing a gamble with (one of) most important parts of your computer just to save a few $...
(That you will have a 'complete' warranty for it doesn't help if it breaks again when is in your computer).

 

[Dresevski]

He's looking for an external so if it fails the worst case is obviously losing all of the data, no need to mess with the computer. All HDD's have areas that are bad and the drive is automatically moving data from these places. Refurbished also doesn't mean that it was returned for any bad reason, could've been a cosmetic or financial issue. I had my iPhone replaced once because one of the buttons was loose, while the phone worked perfectly it just didn't seem worth it to keep it. It's already ordered so stick with it and grab a new one if it fails (good idea about the important files, need to keep those in multiple places).

 

[chris1184]

He's looking for an external so if it fails the worst case is obviously losing all of the data, no need to mess with the computer. All HDD's have areas that are bad and the drive is automatically moving data from these places. Refurbished also doesn't mean that it was returned for any bad reason, could've been a cosmetic or financial issue. I had my iPhone replaced once because one of the buttons was loose, while the phone worked perfectly it just didn't seem worth it to keep it. It's already ordered so stick with it and grab a new one if it fails (good idea about the important files, need to keep those in multiple places).

yep, thanks!

 

[bushman4]

First, keep in mind that a external hard drive is something that you are going to use for storing info and pictures, backing up etc. In the event this drive fails you're screwed.
When you purchase a 'refurbished' hard drive theres no way of knowing what was wrong with it for it to be reclassified 'refurbished'. It could have been an open box or a resistor that burned out. Why take a chance. Sometimes saving $20 bucks leads to more headaches than its worth.