I’d suggest using crystaldiskinfo to view the smart data to see if there is anything concerning in there. Keep in mind all forms of storage media will die, it’s just a matter of when. As long as you are prepared for these drives to die and have backups id says it’s a good deal.
this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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I just got Ironwolf pro 16 Tb from Aliexpress for $170 including taxes.
Check that they're actually 8tb. Usually when drives that cheap are opened up, it's USB sticks that have custom firmware to pretend to have 8tb, and you'll really only have something like 8gb. It'll overwrite the data as you keep writing to it, so you may not notice it until a while from now. Even if they feel heavy. Some of them have weights added to throw you off. Take a look at https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/9wimlo/when_you_buy_a_cheap_external_ssd_from_china/
(Sorry for the reddit link, but that's where the images are)
SMART Stats?
It's like buying a car and asking "did a get a good deal" without stating anything about the car.
Very very high chance they are fake. The smart data can be wiped. Also they can modify it so it looks like the drive has 8tb space but really it doesn’t and you won’t know until you try and load data to it.
But really, 8tb for $35? Come on, that’s the definition of “if it sounds too good…”.
They are used right? That's a good but realistic price for a 5+ year old retired enterprise 8tb drive.
Run extended smart tests on em.
Definitely check SMART, but don't post it here per Rule #9. Post at r/techsupport
9. r/techsupport exists.
r/Datahoarder is not a sub for tech support,
r/techsupport is for posts which could have been a google search, e.g. a post with CrystalDiskInfo screenshots with the title "is my drive ok?". Literally every question about SMART status*. Audio recordings of "is this click noise normal?" More technical questions are allowed, e.g. "what is the optimal ZFS configuration of a 24 disk array" or "how else can i automate the archiving of this [thing]"*
Hope for the best. Expect the worst.
There are a ton of 8/10tb SAS drives hitting market right now. Most are reman FRUs from what I’ve seen. I’ve bought about a dozen myself with good luck so far.