this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2023
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Bought a couple of Exos 7E10 8TB drives, warranty status says "initially sold as part of a larger system, contact seller". It means I can't take advantage of their five years warranty, doesn't it? (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I admit they were way too cheap for what they are (like 15% cheaper than same-size Ironwolf), so I gambled it haha there were no indications that these drives were OEM or similar.

Back to issue at hand: since I can't personally have the five years warranty on these, only the original purchaser can, and I have no way to know who they are and when they bought them, I should just return them, right? And maybe buy the next ones only from authorized sellers?

edit: also, now that I think about it, and before I make the same mistake twice, there's no way I can get enterprise drives as a normal consumer, can I, at least not brand new? I expect any enterprise drives I can find will have the same issue, i.e. bought by someone else for servers or similar, and then resold, correct?

edit 2: actually WD sells enterprise drives on their website, so my previous assumption about it was wrong

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Chances are enterprise drives will last far longer than 5 years easily in my experience, but in my opinion 15% off isn't enough to justify not having a warranty. I see those sales often enough on legitimate drives.

Enterprise drive sales aren't restricted in anyway, you just need to buy them from a reputable seller. I personally would avoid Amazon, there are tons of "deals" like the one you found on there and they don't make it obvious. A legitimate seller example - https://www.connection.com/product/seagate-8tb-exos-7e10-sata-6gb-s-512e-4kn-fastformat-3.5-internal-hard-drive/st8000nm017b/41308811?cac=Result

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I was a bit off, they were 15% cheaper than the Ironwolf on the same website/from same seller (156, not USD, vs 179, not USD).

For a better comparison, I went to WD's official store and for what I spent on these two 8TB Exos (312, not USD) I can get two 4TB Red Plus (310, not USD). Can't make a direct comparison with other Seagates because their "buy now" section redirects me to Amazon, which, as you said, is not the best since they allowed third party sellers, but on there the 8TB Ironwolf is 250 (!!).

As you already know, I'm not in the US so I can't buy from there. Unfortunately, Seagate's "buy now" section (which should be official retailers) brings me to either Amazon or other chains that don't have much else besides portable drives.

At this point I have two options, really: try again the same online store (which is kinda like Amazon, many third party sellers), but getting Ironwolf, which should be more likely to be "legit", and of course check them as well when they arrive, or settle for two 4TB WD Red Plus (which isn't ideal as I'm already nearing 2.5TB total, but should allow me to get by a while longer) bought directly from WD.

edit: looking at the link you provided, I paid 30% less for my Exos. Would that sway you towards keeping it without warranty (apart from the seller's, which is one year I think)? Mind that I don't need enterprise-grade drives, and I think even NAS drives are overkill for my needs. For example a WD Blue with its 55TBW per year might be enough for me (that's 150GB a day everyday for a year, which is above my average writes), ~~but those don't come big enough (I need 6TB min to be comfortable)~~ nevermind, they do come in 8TB size, just at a lower spinning speed (5640rpm), but they cost more (267) than the Ironwolf, and are SMR and have 128MB cache. Sounds like a bad deal!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I’ve been buying used 8TB HGST SAS drives on eBay for $50USD each, so far no issues but I really don’t care if they die. Basically disposable at that price point.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

That's fair, I paid three times as much though so I do care a bit more haha

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hook them up, run a SMART test and see what their powered-on hours and error-rates look like. If it's not a significant fraction of the MTBF, chances are you'll be fine -- assuming you're using them in a RAID or ZFS array where a drive loss is not necessarily catastrophic.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Sorry for late reply, app kept saying "this account is being verified" and I coulnd't comment or anything else.

Anyways, I kept them. One drive loss won't be catastrophic (got two mirrored and also spare backup), so I decided to go for it!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

They're probably 5 years or older anyway, or do you know the manufacturing date?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

No I don't, ~~I wrote it in the OP haha~~ unless there's a way to know it by looking up the S/N. Have to check.

How can you be so sure they're older? They were sold to me as new and they did come in the usual sealed plastic wrap.

Anyway I don't think saving some money is worth more than a full warranty, so I'm basically set on returning them and get something else

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think you're looking in the wrong places for the info you want You got what are known as OEM drives. These are primarily sold in bulk to system integrators like Dell/HP/etc. they are noticeably cheaper, but do not have a long warranty. Typically they have 90 days, which is enough to cover infant mortality. After that, the OEM basically self-insures - they have to eat the cost of replacement, but that's offset by the lower price.

What you're probably looking for are Retail drives. These have multi-year coverage directly from the manufacturer.

Read the terms of sale carefully- sometimes the seller is the one offering the longer warranty, same as an OEM. Then consider if you trust them to honor that warranty, especially considering that it will be a direct expense to them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Sorry for late reply, app kept saying "this account os being verified" and I coulnd't comment or anything else.

Anyway, yes, the store I bought them from is a legit store and provides warranty, so I decided to keep the drives!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Actually, I found something: "DOM: 07JUN2022". I guess that's "Date of Manufacturing"?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

yep, looks good. should be new then, since they were still in packaging.

You have to decide for yourself if not having to send it back and the reduced price is worth not having a warranty from the manufacturer. does the seller have to provide warranty anyway in your country? I think this would be the case in my country, if the seller is a business, irrelevant what warranty seagate gives you

Some anecdotal evidence, take it or leave it :-) I have a 12x 4 year old Exos 7E8 (the previous generation) and I've not had any failure yet since I bought em. In the past, I had many (many many..) failed seagate drives but never within the warranty span

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Sorry for late reply, app kept saying "this account os being verified" and I coulnd't comment or anything else.

In the end I decided to keep them, considering the store provides warranty! Loving the gigantic storage amount I have now haha