I think you'll find most recertified products have a warranty so are they going to break too? Like any storage it always pays to have several backups of precious data. I bought recertified WD products in the past and they're still going strong.

Tbh you shouldn't rely on any external hard drive even if it's brand new with a 5 year warranty. Always keep a backup of your backup. Then one one fails you can buy another and duplicate.

Agree its not good for an only backup of important data/photographs BUT would be a good cheap decent brand drive for plugging into a tv etc. Always a use for something.

Yup never buy second hand/ refurbed hdds...

Normally these have a 5 year warranty!!

Great deal for someone who wants a cheap drive to port files from one place to another, for example someone who wants to use a non-networked media player or take one on the road. Or as an external steam drive for a laptop with a small SSD, for example, or even an external drive for an Xbox One (your saves are in the cloud, and you don't need to back up the games).

I'm also not sure that your files themselves are significantly more at risk on this device than a new disk. Like you, I wouldn't probably take the risk. But hear me out: you'll notice that Western Digital don't sell recertified internal disks. They only sell recertified enclosures.

In my experience of disks in enclosures, it is usually the electronics in the caddy that go first, before anything to do with the drive.

I would think it is quite likely that none of the disks in these recertified drives have ever mechanically failed. It's probably not even economical to try and repair a disk which has failed in that way.

What you're likely to be buying is a new disk in refurbed enclosure or a used disk in a new enclosure, or possibly a used disk with new electronics on it... but you're not likely to be buying a refurbed disk in my opinion.

So if you get a used disk, sure that's not ideal because mechanical drives have a limited lifespan. But while they CAN fail at any time, on average they also tend to fail near the beginning of their lives or after a certain longer time... and if the disk is used, you're probably past that first risky period, and somewhat closer to the later one. But if it's new you're at the exact same risk as if you paid full price, because you have a new disk.

If the enclosure fails, your files are probably safe. If the files on the drive matter to you, then a warranty doesn't. Because you will almost always void your warranty opening a caddy and trying to recover files.

In short, this is a great deal for someone who wants a portable disk for files that aren't unrecoverable. It's probably not even as bad as you might think for other purposes.

​I'm glad. That's how it should be. point making was that WD if total confidence in the product should be backing it up with a full warranty. Why arnt they?. if your not concerned about data loss ( which presume is the reason why people buy these anyway in first place. Unless just want extra capacity ) then go for it. Hindsight wonderful thing . But of little after the event.

Same here, looks like new

Yes it is.

It can't be used inside if your aim is to upgrade the internal hdd. If you want to make a back up copy of your internal drive then it can be used via the usb port. So far seagate is the only one that can be ripped apart to replace the internal hdd. This is one has the usb on the main board so no good for replacing any internal drives.