Wow. Shocker.
If you look hard enough, you'll find someone who has received a defective new drive in the past. From any manufacturer.

Just shucked a few of these drives and noticed how easy it is to get the plastic casing open without leaving any damage. 2 plastic picks on either side at the back and the plastic case just slides apart - should be easy to reassemble should the drive fail within 6 months.

Also, both drives are labelled as being manufactured in Jan 2016

For the benefit of the FUD spreaders out there: "Recertified" means, regardless of the reason, the drives have been refurbished by WD and have passed the same stringent QA tests they subject their new drives to. However, as these are not new they cannot sell them as such. Which is why they offer them at a vast discount, and why they don't provide the same warranty as a new drive which they sell for twice the price or more.

By all means, don't let this stop you from continuing to spread your BS every time a deal pops up - I just thought I'd remind you how wrong you are, and how stupid you look, when you do.

I worked in consumer electronics for many years with a big name. It is a universal rule that over 70% of returns from retailers will have nothing wrong with them at all. When studied the largest single reason for return was 'buyers remorse'. Also some retailers will return stock that they couldn't sell claiming it was returns rather than run promotions.

Less than 10% of returns, and less than 3% for a simple product like this, will be faulty. Only a tiny fraction of manufacturer refurbished products that are sold again ever get returned for a fault that wasn't detected at screening, it isn't worth the time for a manufacturer to send out bad product because they'll only have to deal with the consequences. Actually manufacturer refurbished products don't make any profit, they are just a good way of clearing a warehouse without putting anything in landfill (which you have to pay for). Refurbished products are often just a break-even line.

If you cannot understand why this is the case then thankfully you're one of the customers that a brand would prefer!

I got one these a few months back but never opened it. Better test it soon.

why would WD send someone a faulty drive ? , it's probably happened in transit after been dropped on the floor or thrown about in the back of a van

Crystal disk info. It's free.

where do you find the 'power ons' and 'hours usage' information for your drive? looked in the WD DataLifeguard Diagnostics but can't find it.

thanks

Three posts up someone has received a defective drive even after all their "stringent" tests.

I treat it as a lottery having received many good and bad drives from them.

When they send you a drive that fails their own diagnostic straight off the bat how confident can you be in their testing?

how long does it take to get through 3 cycles on a 4tb drive lol..

i'm just running the extended test on WD Data Lifeguard and the estimated time is 40 hours!! :astonished: perhaps my computer is getting old..

Well got my 4Tb yesterday and did an extended test which halted due to 'Too many bad sectors'
Back it goes - waste of time!!!

Ok I caved and got another after returning the last one (3tb "New" version from deal a couple of weeks ago) due to reallocated sectors etc. This one (it was a WD Blue 5400rpm drive inside) has been pretty good I must say, no reallocated sectors, the drive is 28 hours into its burn in test and is looking good :thumbsup: only another 24 hours to go before it completes the third pass of the "pre clear" test.

Come on!

8 hours for my extended test (4TB) and 11 hours for a full erase just to make sure. Will use it as USB for a while and then rip out the HDD and put it into my server.

I bought a 6Tb a few weeks ago, and a 4Tb a couple of days ago, i did an extended test it took 29hrs !!!
it didn't find any errors.

You sound more paranoid than Donald Trump.

Thanks!

I got mine today - same as yours. 12 power ons 0 hours usage.

Now £64.99!

Same here got 4 x 3tb greens runnign 24 x 7 on my server and solid as a rock, im just running out of space now lol

someone has already posted to try 'WD data lifeguard tools' (google it, it's a free download) , I'm using the extended test, its been going 21 hours with 9 hrs to go .. if it passes that then i;ve no worries using it to backup data.

Just a heads up... they have reduced the price by £2 to £64.99!!!

Have several WD drives including some old 1TB ones, some WD Red 3TB and, a few weeks ago, the 6Tb version of this deal.

They're all just sitting there... working with no drama 24/7 in my server... as you would expect :thumbsup: .

What do you use for stress tests?

My previous recert I did nothing with, just plugged it in and off I went. Been connected to my xbox one for about 2 years now and not had a problem yet.

I've just received mine (New version for £74.99) and currently transferring my Steam library to it. Getting good speeds in CrystalDiskMark (it's 3 times faster than an old internal 2.5 I've been using) so chuffed overall.

who would buy a new one then if they gave a year or more warranty with these ones, your getting it at nearly half price.

6 months at this price is good enough for me, if it lasts past the 6 months there is no reason why it shouldn't last for years like a brand new drive, unless you know better and you can tell me why it shouldn't last longer ?

yes but you wont have any warranty (only 6 months as it is is very poor and shows lack of confidence)

drives inside these tend to be blue/green

it sounds more like you have a vendetta against WD, that doesn't justify your reasoning against buying refurbs. I have a WD hard drive which has lasted over 10 years- that is the extent of my experience.

well when should i give it heat, in 2 years time when the drive is still working ?
a hard disk is not just mechanical, it has a controller pcb on the drive and one in the case, they can fail, along with the motor, R/W heads and the platters can become damaged or worn.

I would have thought the WD recertifield drives at worse will have had a PCB replaced, or have had some sectors marked as bad, I doubt WD are going to start changing the motors, heads or platters on them.

backblaze.com/blo…17/
from the stats it looks like Seagate drives are less reliable than WD drives.

I've just received this 4TB version (I ordered it on the 27th as I had seen the offer on the WD website and not on here) , like the 6TB version I bought a few weeks ago, it looks new, after running crystaldiskinfo, unlike my 6TB (it had a power on count of 0) this has a power on count of 12 but 0 power hours, as on the 6TB one it has a raw reallocated sector count of 0. (no extra bad sectors)

In simple terms both appear as new and have no extra bad sectors, but like I did with the 6TB version I'll run some stress tests for a day or so.

I dont know why some people are worried becuase it is recertified, most faults if it was a fault and not user error , will probably be down to either a faulty psu or one of the controller pcb's and if this has failed it doesn't mean it will fail again, the only concern i would have is if it was returned because it had bad sectors, from a manufacturing fault eg dust, had been knocked and the platters were scratched. this is the reason you should stress test it.

Hi sorry, possibly a dumb question but which recertified My Book would be better? the New Model 4tb £74.99 or the 'Old' model 4tb £66.99? Can't see a huge amount of difference apart from age and price!! Thanks

Unraids "pre clear" utility set to 3 cycles - never had anything fail if it gets through that :smile:

Also have people who have ordered received a confirmation email of some kind?

I've received absolutely nothing so a bit concerned..

I'd also like to know the same.

Never had a problem with a WD drive. Unlike the 4 Seagate drives I've had die. My concern with these 'recertified' drives is why don't WD or any other company give you a full warranty on these drives if they are so sure they are OK? These have also been replaced by a newer model that comes with a 3 year warranty.

Is there a specific program/application you used to run those tests? Including the 'burn in' test you mention?

Many thanks much appreciated.

h2testw software is good to run. Takes a long time, depending on the size of the drive. Otherwise you have S.M.A.R.T data (unless it's wiped). Software out there that reads the data. CrystalDiskInfo is one. Use the drive as normal but don't put anything important on it for a while (unless it's backed up).

How did you check that?

How would you advise to go about doing this testing? Is there a program that does it? Or manually (if so how?)

Just ordered one of these as my first ever HDD purchase - I have very little knowledge on hard drives, so any advice much appreciated!

Anyone worrying about the reliability of these drives, I'll add my experience. Purchased many of these over the past few years and they've always been just fine. All are still working but I'd advise you to unplug or turn off the product if you're not using it as this in my usage increases its life span and reduces the risk of drive failure by a significant amount.

I love that people ask a question on these deals that has already been answered at least 3 times already on the very same deal. Please people, stop being lazy and read through the comments first otherwise you just become the 7th person asking if these can be removed from the enclosure...

I bought the 3tb refurbished deal a couple of weeks ago - turned out when I smart checked it - it had a "reallocated count" and "reported uncorrect" in the low figures (sub 10) but on doing a burn in test before loading into the NAS this ran into the hundred's before I pulled the drive and returned it. Fair play returns were hassle free, but its somewhat soured my taste of WD that they let a pretty obvious faulty drive through on recertified status (and seagate etc etc etc)

In my experience of deals on here, people who give things heat can often be pretty stupid. The heat of deal rarely if ever, relates to quality, reliability etc. People just seem to vote on price which is pretty shortsighted when it comes to something like a mechanical hard disk that's going to take 4TB of your data with it when it fails....

I've probably owned 30+ drives over the years. Never seen 2 from the same company fail in such a short a period of time, particularly when they've only been lightly used. Why do you think WD have so many of these "recertified" drives? They're substandard.

I bought a 6TB drive a couple of weeks ago the case looked new, the Smart raw stats using CrystalDiskinfo states the drive had 0 hours Power-on and Reallocated Sector Count of 0, so unless WD had reset these settings it appear the drive is new with no extra defective sectors.

I'm happy with this drive that I've just bought this 4TB version.

As for WD , they seem to be doing pretty well, their shares are up by 36% this year whiles Seagates are down by 15%.

If it helps, I have two refurbished WD drives which I purchased two years ago, both are still going strong. They both had low 'power on' counts and hours when I checked on arrival.

That's a great sample size to come to that conclusion and tell everyone to not buy WD...

WD? I've just had my second WD drive fail in as many years... pure junk.

You saying you never turned one inside out when times were hard?

Can you tell me one thing please, can you take out HDD out from this device ?) i need big hdd for my PC

Condoms

Chewing gum

And toothbrushes

Shoes and pants.

What won't you people buy second hand?

I bought a 2TB drive last year and just once 12 months were out in march this year it broke down :disappointed:

Couldn't resist, this is too cheap!

Can this be used as Xbox one memory?

Thanks :smile:

would these be reliable for my blu ray rips hdds mounted inside pc for playback ? i would prefer 8tb drives but way to expensive. im looking at about 8tb media storage for now and plan on getting another for backup maybe a cold storage hard drive.

Hmm wondering if I should get two for redundancy in my server...

Or I could use my 2 2tb for important stuff and this for stuff I won't cry over if I lose it!

Is it any different except for being portable? If I want to keep it in one place I assume this is a bargain?

Is this compatible with PS4?

I had that with some speakers I bought. I put them on ebay instead and made a £20 profit.

Maybe step back and think of the implications of the maunfacturer's term of recertified rather than the term refurbished that is repeatedly incorrectly applied in your rant. Then consider if a drive can actually be economically refurbished in both yours and the true interpretation of the word. You will likely come to the conclusion that the drives being sold as recertified have not been refurbished as there is no repetitively practical economical way of refurbishing drives. Then consider if a recertified product's warranty period (that thas been selected to not cause detriment to the new equvialent product's sales) actually has any indication of the expected longevity of the product. Regardless of any revised conclusion, your opinion is respected.

Would this be good to use as a NAS off an Asus 3200AC ?

No it will only work left :wink:

Would this work with the PS4? I currently have a Western Digital external HDD connected to mine and install most of my games to it. I assume this should work right?

Love it!

yes it will but your better off getting a portable drive for the xbox

Will it work on Xbox?

They come with actual recertified drives (most prob blues these days as they phased out greens)

here's what they look like the right one is the recertified one



see details here
hotukdeals.com/dea…658

As was stated earlier, if manufacturers gave the same warranty for recertified (not refurbished) then nobody would buy new.

Every hard drive I've ever bought that has failed, has done so many years down the line and way out of warranty.

And these would have been new.

Many manufacturers of all manner of goods give a 12 month warranty, even when the expected life of a product is far longer.

Would I buy a new 4TB HDD when the manufacturer only expects it to last for 6 months?

No but then this is not the case.

Every HDD I've ever bought that has failed has ALWAYS failed straight after the warranty expired. These companies are not stupid and know full well how long their products will last.

Would you buy a new 4TB HDD when the manufacturer only expects it to last for 6 months??? I certainly wouldn't lol. This isn't even new but refurbished so it's even worse. If these manufacturers really want to sell refurbs and act like they are as good as new, they should give the same warranty on them as new units - the fact that they don't tells you everything.

You can argue all you want about how it's a used hard drive with unkown history and more likely to fail or less likely due to additional checks but you have to agree that it's a bit stingy that WD only give you a 6 month warranty. If they truly believed in their refurbished products they would give you at least 1 year.

Saying that I purchased a refurbished 4TB Cloud drive over 18 months ago and its been fine even after removing from the enclosure (my cloud software is crap).

I don't know a whole lot about external hard drives - never used them, but I am looking for a decent sized HDD to put in my PC. Can I buy this and take the HDD and put it in my PC (is it a 3.5 inch SATA?) - or is there some propriety stuff going on inside that'll prevent that?

how fast is it

Check your router, you may simply be able to plug this into your router to network it.

Otherwise you need a NAS/PC (or WD MyCloud or something similar)

Hot. Especially if you can pull them for internals. 6tb £104.99 too

You Drive a Hard bargain.

..I'll show myself out.

I'm just a bit suspect of the Green hdd. My experience of them is only bad. If the controller card goes, you're basically stuffed. I had a 1tb MyBook World that had my full music collection and family photos on it. My mate had a 1tb drive in his PC. His went first and was fixed with a new controller card. And the day I fitted his card, mine went as well. I bought a new card and sent both it and my old card to the US to have the chips switched, it cost £89 + postage, and it never worked.

Not WD reds but greens and in the larger drives WD blue

Your comment has little substance. Are you able to elaborate and show graphs, studies, good evidence?

On the contrary; I would argue that you are "mad" to suggest a company like WD would be trading re-certified hard drives putting their reputation on the line if they were strictly for madmen and fools. No offence meant, really. I am waiting to be enlightened. For all I know that IS the case. A game they play on the naive and the risk-takers which they somehow continue to get away with.

Can these be used for Plex? :smile:

I want to pull the trigger, but the scare story's and comments on here make me think twice. I know the people who were unfortunate enough to have one of these die are probably the ones making all the noise, but then I'd still expect to see more comments from people who have had a problem-free experience shutting those comments down. I skimmed the comments and the negative outweighs.

In light of the above, anyone who has had success should speak up! Maybe the 1000+ heat is an indicator of that? or, do people just click hot because it looks like a bargain on the surface?

do you get WD RED drives in these please anyone??

People are mad to buy a refurb'd mechanical hard drive.

not in the slightest. ok they are both black box shaped devices that have hard drives in them but that's where the similarity ends.

NASes have network cards in so they can be plugged straight into a router, so any machine on your network can access the files, the NAS also has multiple drives that can be raided together for redundancy and some protection should a drive fail, you won't lose all the data - your question is really quite a large topic, I suggest you go research what a nas is as there is plenty of info out there about them, and come back with some questions.

Can these drives be opened up and used inside a pc? What are their spin speeds?

because they are cheap? when you spend 150-200 on a new drive your paying for that 2 year warranty. if you test a drive propery and its no had 1000s hrs use, these are a bargain

Well said for users. However I would thoroughly test any drive I purchase, whether that be used from eBay, new off Amazon or recertified from WD. Simply because I want to know it does have any faulty sectors out the box.

For any users new to this opinion, google western digital data lifeguard. Download and do an extended test on the drive. A 4tb model will take probably 4-6 hours however your results may vary and could be slower if plugging into a usb 2.0 port.

This will give you confidence going forward and will also tell you if there are any problems.

Hope this helps.

I would thoroughly test any recertified drive bought from WD.

I've experienced a 25% failure rate when buying recertified. (not this particular model)

Failures:

[1] Dead on arrival - powers up but not seen
[2] Freezing - when reading data from the drive at particular sectors it will become unresponsive and has to be physically re-plugged, witnessed on multiple machines at the exact same point; failed WD's own diagnostic
[3] Disconnections - when reading data the drive will randomly reappear causing all operations to fail; tried various cables and ports with no difference, logged as a "controller error"

If I hadn't tested each drive thoroughly 2/3 of the failures would have gone unnoticed for a while.

The recertification process can't be that thorough or extensive but they are cheap and you can end up with a fully working drive.

Will this work with a ps4?