• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Refurbished Hard Drives with 0 Power On Hours

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
1,237 (0.30/day)
Location
California, unfortunately.
System Name Sierra ~ Server
Processor Core i5-11600K ~ Core i3-12100
Motherboard Asus Prime B560M-A AC ~ MSI PRO B760M-P
Cooling CM 212 Black RGB Edition ~ Intel Stock Cooler
Memory 64GB (2x 32GB) DDR4-3600 ~ 32GB (4x 8GB) DDR4-3200
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon RX 6950 XT ~ EVGA GeForce GTX 970
Storage 4TB Samsung 990 Pro with Heatsink NVMe SSD ~ 2TB Kingston NV1 NVMe SSD + 500GB WD Blue SATA SSD
Display(s) 2x Dell S2721QS 4K 60Hz ~ N/A
Case Asus Prime AP201 - Open Frame Chassis
Power Supply Thermaltake GF1 850W ~ Thermaltake Smart 500W
Software Windows 11 Pro ~ Proxmox VE
Benchmark Scores Laptops: Dell Latitude E7270, Dell Latitude 14 Rugged 5420.
I bought a bunch of refurb hard drives recently. All of them had 0 hours on them, but that's obviously impossible because a. they are refurbished, not new and b. two of them had partitions on them already. I've read reviews of other buyers saying the same things (signs of use, but 0 hours). Basically, it seems they reset the SMART data. I'm curious if there is any way I can get the true SMART data from the drive and "correct" the power on hours. I don't care if they have a milllion hours, I just want it to be accurate. Thanks.
 
Joined
Feb 18, 2012
Messages
2,715 (0.61/day)
System Name MSI GP76
Processor intel i7 11800h
Cooling 2 laptop fans
Memory 32gb of 3000mhz DDR4
Video Card(s) Nvidia 3070
Storage x2 PNY 8tb cs2130 m.2 SSD--16tb of space
Display(s) 17.3" IPS 1920x1080 240Hz
Power Supply 280w laptop power supply
Mouse Logitech m705
Keyboard laptop keyboard
Software lots of movies and Windows 10 with win 7 shell
Benchmark Scores Good enough for me
I know this sounds weird, but I have had more luck with refurb HDs than new drives. if its refurbished correctly by the HD company they can be quite good drives.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2013
Messages
5,413 (1.42/day)
Location
Everywhere all the time all at once
System Name The Little One
Processor i5-11320H @4.4GHZ
Motherboard AZW SEI
Cooling Fan w/heat pipes + side & rear vents
Memory 64GB Crucial DDR4-3200 (2x 32GB)
Video Card(s) Iris XE
Storage WD Black SN850X 4TB m.2, Seagate 2TB SSD + SN850 4TB x2 in an external enclosure
Display(s) 2x Samsung 43" & 2x 32"
Case Practically identical to a mac mini, just purrtier in slate blue, & with 3x usb ports on the front !
Audio Device(s) Yamaha ATS-1060 Bluetooth Soundbar & Subwoofer
Power Supply 65w brick
Mouse Logitech MX Master 2
Keyboard Logitech G613 mechanical wireless
Software Windows 10 pro 64 bit, with all the unnecessary background shitzu turned OFF !
Benchmark Scores PDQ
short answer: nO

Are these spinners ? Because IF they were actually refurbed by the OEM, they were most likely securely wiped multiple times and the smart data erased and reset, for which they would have the proper tools to do so. But then if this was true, there should be NO partitions on them either.... but I doubt if they kept the smart data on file anywhere too, so getting it would probably be a strong NO also....

However, if you got them from some other source, you should go back to them for a complete, detailed explanation, or a refund/replacement....

that's what I would do, like, yesterday.

But I am not in the habit of buying refurbed HDD's either :)
 
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
1,237 (0.30/day)
Location
California, unfortunately.
System Name Sierra ~ Server
Processor Core i5-11600K ~ Core i3-12100
Motherboard Asus Prime B560M-A AC ~ MSI PRO B760M-P
Cooling CM 212 Black RGB Edition ~ Intel Stock Cooler
Memory 64GB (2x 32GB) DDR4-3600 ~ 32GB (4x 8GB) DDR4-3200
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon RX 6950 XT ~ EVGA GeForce GTX 970
Storage 4TB Samsung 990 Pro with Heatsink NVMe SSD ~ 2TB Kingston NV1 NVMe SSD + 500GB WD Blue SATA SSD
Display(s) 2x Dell S2721QS 4K 60Hz ~ N/A
Case Asus Prime AP201 - Open Frame Chassis
Power Supply Thermaltake GF1 850W ~ Thermaltake Smart 500W
Software Windows 11 Pro ~ Proxmox VE
Benchmark Scores Laptops: Dell Latitude E7270, Dell Latitude 14 Rugged 5420.
short answer: nO

Are these spinners ? Because IF they were actually refurbed by the OEM, they were most likely securely wiped multiple times and the smart data erased and reset, for which they would have the proper tools to do so. But then if this was true, there should be NO partitions on them either.... but I doubt if they kept the smart data on file anywhere too, so getting it would probably be a strong NO also....

However, if you got them from some other source, you should go back to them for a complete, detailed explanation, or a refund/replacement....

that's what I would do, like, yesterday.

But I am not in the habit of buying refurbed HDD's either :)

At least one of the refurb drives came from goharddrive which has a good reputation. I'm not worried about it. I just want to know the true power on hours.
 

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder
Joined
Nov 22, 2005
Messages
28,472 (4.25/day)
Location
Indiana, USA
Processor Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory 32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s) RTX 2070 Super
Storage 500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache
Display(s) Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28"
Case Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s) Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software Windows 10 Pro x64
At least one of the refurb drives came from goharddrive which has a good reputation. I'm not worried about it. I just want to know the true power on hours.

Not possible. They smart data is stored in flash memory. So once it's flashed back to 0, there is no way an end user is going to recover the old data that was wiped from the flash memory.
 

Chloefile

S.T.A.R.S.
Joined
Dec 16, 2012
Messages
10,877 (2.64/day)
Location
Finland
System Name 4K-gaming
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Motherboard Gigabyte B550M Aorus Elite
Cooling Custom loop (CPU+GPU, 240 & 120 rads)
Memory 32GB Kingston HyperX Fury @ DDR4-3466
Video Card(s) PowerColor RX 6700 XT Fighter
Storage ~4TB SSD + 6TB HDD
Display(s) Acer 27" 4K120 IPS + Lenovo 32" 4K60 IPS
Case Fractal Design Define Mini C
Audio Device(s) Asus TUF H3 Wireless
Power Supply EVGA Supernova G2 750W
Mouse Logitech MX518 Legendary
Keyboard Roccat Vulcan 121 AIMO
VR HMD Oculus Rift CV1
Software Windows 11 Pro
Benchmark Scores It runs Crysis remastered at 4K
Cleaned EEPROM?
 

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
40,435 (6.61/day)
Location
Republic of Texas (True Patriot)
System Name PCGOD
Processor AMD FX 8350@ 5.0GHz
Motherboard Asus TUF 990FX Sabertooth R2 2901 Bios
Cooling Scythe Ashura, 2×BitFenix 230mm Spectre Pro LED (Blue,Green), 2x BitFenix 140mm Spectre Pro LED
Memory 16 GB Gskill Ripjaws X 2133 (2400 OC, 10-10-12-20-20, 1T, 1.65V)
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon 290 Sapphire Vapor-X
Storage Samsung 840 Pro 256GB, WD Velociraptor 1TB
Display(s) NEC Multisync LCD 1700V (Display Port Adapter)
Case AeroCool Xpredator Evil Blue Edition
Audio Device(s) Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZxR
Power Supply Seasonic 1250 XM2 Series (XP3)
Mouse Roccat Kone XTD
Keyboard Roccat Ryos MK Pro
Software Windows 7 Pro 64
I bought a bunch of refurb hard drives recently. All of them had 0 hours on them, but that's obviously impossible because a. they are refurbished, not new and b. two of them had partitions on them already. I've read reviews of other buyers saying the same things (signs of use, but 0 hours). Basically, it seems they reset the SMART data. I'm curious if there is any way I can get the true SMART data from the drive and "correct" the power on hours. I don't care if they have a milllion hours, I just want it to be accurate. Thanks.

Aircraft engines sometimes when rebuilt are zeroed out, so shouldnt be a big deal
 
Joined
Oct 30, 2008
Messages
1,901 (0.34/day)
Processor 5930K
Motherboard MSI X99 SLI
Cooling WATER
Memory 16GB DDR4 2132
Video Card(s) EVGAY 2070 SUPER
Storage SEVERAL SSD"S
Display(s) Catleap/Yamakasi 2560X1440
Case D Frame MINI drilled out
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply Corsair TX750
Mouse DEATH ADDER
Keyboard Razer Black Widow Tournament
Software W10HB
Benchmark Scores PhIlLyChEeSeStEaK
They replace or updated the main board, its not rocket science.
 
Joined
Jan 17, 2010
Messages
12,280 (2.37/day)
Location
Oregon
System Name Juliette // HTPC
Processor Intel i7 9700K // AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Motherboard ASUS Prime Z390X-A // ASRock B550 ITX-AC
Cooling Noctua NH-U12 Black // Stock
Memory Corsair DDR4 3600 32gb //G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 3600
Video Card(s) ASUS RTX4070 OC// GTX 1650
Storage Samsung 970 EVO NVMe 1Tb, Intel 665p Series M.2 2280 1TB // Samsung 1Tb SSD
Display(s) ASUS VP348QGL 34" Quad HD 3440 x 1440 // 55" LG 4K SK8000 Series
Case Seasonic SYNCRO Q7// Silverstone Granada GD05
Audio Device(s) Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 // HDMI to Samsung HW-R650 sound bar
Power Supply Seasonic SYNCRO 750 W // CORSAIR Vengeance 650M
Mouse Cooler Master MM710 53G
Keyboard Logitech 920-009300 G512 SE
Software Windows 10 Pro // Windows 10 Pro
Refurb can have 0 hours, Ive seen it many times. Don't think they would even bother to change the data. Probably a problem with the PCB

Manufacture's don't do shit to returned drives, but get them working. So there not going to secure erase, or anything else. Just get it working
 

rtwjunkie

PC Gaming Enthusiast
Supporter
Joined
Jul 25, 2008
Messages
13,909 (2.43/day)
Location
Louisiana -Laissez les bons temps rouler!
System Name Bayou Phantom
Processor Core i7-8700k 4.4Ghz @ 1.18v
Motherboard ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 6
Cooling All air: 2x140mm Fractal exhaust; 3x 140mm Cougar Intake; Enermax T40F Black CPU cooler
Memory 2x 16GB Mushkin Redline DDR-4 3200
Video Card(s) EVGA RTX 2080 Ti Xc
Storage 1x 500 MX500 SSD; 2x 6TB WD Black; 1x 4TB WD Black; 1x400GB VelRptr; 1x 4TB WD Blue storage (eSATA)
Display(s) HP 27q 27" IPS @ 2560 x 1440
Case Fractal Design Define R4 Black w/Titanium front -windowed
Audio Device(s) Soundblaster Z
Power Supply Seasonic X-850
Mouse Coolermaster Sentinel III (large palm grip!)
Keyboard Logitech G610 Orion mechanical (Cherry Brown switches)
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (Start10 & Fences 3.0 installed)
I know this sounds weird, but I have had more luck with refurb HDs than new drives. if its refurbished correctly by the HD company they can be quite good drives.
OP: I’ve also had zero problems with refurbished hdd’s. They usually get better quality control on the way out than the new drives. For them to all be reading as if new doesn’t concern me.

Besides, you really don’t have any kind of reference to watch a drive for problems if it had 250,000 hours used and many other categories are in warning because of “no life left.” If done right, it’s nearly new, and that’s how you should view it.
 
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
1,237 (0.30/day)
Location
California, unfortunately.
System Name Sierra ~ Server
Processor Core i5-11600K ~ Core i3-12100
Motherboard Asus Prime B560M-A AC ~ MSI PRO B760M-P
Cooling CM 212 Black RGB Edition ~ Intel Stock Cooler
Memory 64GB (2x 32GB) DDR4-3600 ~ 32GB (4x 8GB) DDR4-3200
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon RX 6950 XT ~ EVGA GeForce GTX 970
Storage 4TB Samsung 990 Pro with Heatsink NVMe SSD ~ 2TB Kingston NV1 NVMe SSD + 500GB WD Blue SATA SSD
Display(s) 2x Dell S2721QS 4K 60Hz ~ N/A
Case Asus Prime AP201 - Open Frame Chassis
Power Supply Thermaltake GF1 850W ~ Thermaltake Smart 500W
Software Windows 11 Pro ~ Proxmox VE
Benchmark Scores Laptops: Dell Latitude E7270, Dell Latitude 14 Rugged 5420.
Thanks folks. I won't worry about it :)
 
Joined
May 19, 2016
Messages
321 (0.11/day)
I bought 10 WD 80 gig 2½" drives, supposedly from Dell laptops that were not ever sold. (printed on WD label as Dell). As being installed & having os installed, they were 'used'. They were wiped/formatted/whatever, & sold as used. Cost me $5.45 each, (plus tax & shipping). I have used about 5 or 6 of 'em. I install all sorts of os's on 'em, ubuntu/mint/etc, flavors. What I like I clone to maybe 500 g hdds (I use a kingwin power dock) then use partition wizard free to 'claim' the whole 500 g's. They have never let me down, so far.

Did the same with 6 120 gig hdds- Toshiba/fujitsu/WD about $7.00 each, all still good.

With the power dock, cloning 80 g takes ± 1/6 th the time as 500 g, then reclaim the 420 ± gigs with whatever OS.

-corne-
 
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
1,237 (0.30/day)
Location
California, unfortunately.
System Name Sierra ~ Server
Processor Core i5-11600K ~ Core i3-12100
Motherboard Asus Prime B560M-A AC ~ MSI PRO B760M-P
Cooling CM 212 Black RGB Edition ~ Intel Stock Cooler
Memory 64GB (2x 32GB) DDR4-3600 ~ 32GB (4x 8GB) DDR4-3200
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon RX 6950 XT ~ EVGA GeForce GTX 970
Storage 4TB Samsung 990 Pro with Heatsink NVMe SSD ~ 2TB Kingston NV1 NVMe SSD + 500GB WD Blue SATA SSD
Display(s) 2x Dell S2721QS 4K 60Hz ~ N/A
Case Asus Prime AP201 - Open Frame Chassis
Power Supply Thermaltake GF1 850W ~ Thermaltake Smart 500W
Software Windows 11 Pro ~ Proxmox VE
Benchmark Scores Laptops: Dell Latitude E7270, Dell Latitude 14 Rugged 5420.
Well, one of the refurb drives already has pending sectors. It's going back for a refund. The rest are fine so far.
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2008
Messages
1,349 (0.23/day)
Location
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Processor i7-3770K
Motherboard Biostar Hi-Fi Z77
Cooling Swiftech H20 (w/Custom External Rad Enclosure)
Memory 16GB DDR3-2400Mhz
Video Card(s) Alienware GTX 1070
Storage 1TB Samsung 850 EVO
Display(s) 32" LG 1440p
Case Cooler Master 690 (w/Mods)
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi Titanium
Power Supply Corsair 750-TX
Mouse Logitech G5
Keyboard G. Skill Mechanical
Software Windows 10 (X64)
At least one of the refurb drives came from goharddrive which has a good reputation. I'm not worried about it. I just want to know the true power on hours.

They've been selling server pulls and refurbs with reset S.M.A.R.T. data for years and while the drives have a questionable reputation, just by the nature of what they are using and how they are doing it, their customer service is ok, from what I've heard. You can do some searching over at Slickdeals with "goharddrive" as your query and see lots of posts about them. I would make sure that you backup any data you care about that is stored on these drives! There's no telling how many tens of thousands of hours they've been running for and what kinds of problems they've had in the past.
 
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
1,237 (0.30/day)
Location
California, unfortunately.
System Name Sierra ~ Server
Processor Core i5-11600K ~ Core i3-12100
Motherboard Asus Prime B560M-A AC ~ MSI PRO B760M-P
Cooling CM 212 Black RGB Edition ~ Intel Stock Cooler
Memory 64GB (2x 32GB) DDR4-3600 ~ 32GB (4x 8GB) DDR4-3200
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon RX 6950 XT ~ EVGA GeForce GTX 970
Storage 4TB Samsung 990 Pro with Heatsink NVMe SSD ~ 2TB Kingston NV1 NVMe SSD + 500GB WD Blue SATA SSD
Display(s) 2x Dell S2721QS 4K 60Hz ~ N/A
Case Asus Prime AP201 - Open Frame Chassis
Power Supply Thermaltake GF1 850W ~ Thermaltake Smart 500W
Software Windows 11 Pro ~ Proxmox VE
Benchmark Scores Laptops: Dell Latitude E7270, Dell Latitude 14 Rugged 5420.
They've been selling server pulls and refurbs with reset S.M.A.R.T. data for years and while the drives have a questionable reputation, just by the nature of what they are using and how they are doing it, their customer service is ok, from what I've heard. You can do some searching over at Slickdeals with "goharddrive" as your query and see lots of posts about them. I would make sure that you backup any data you care about that is stored on these drives! There's no telling how many tens of thousands of hours they've been running for and what kinds of problems they've had in the past.

I'm using all these drives in an Unraid server with double parity so it should be ok.
 
Joined
Jul 21, 2015
Messages
501 (0.16/day)
Goharddrive (and all their puppet accounts like apethouse) are not refurbishers, they are recyclers. Their refurbishing process consists of taking it off a pallet of server pulls, zeroing it out, clearing the SMART data, slapping their sticker on it, and throwing it in a static bag. I got burned by them years back, and I highly doubt they've changed their ways.
 
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
1,237 (0.30/day)
Location
California, unfortunately.
System Name Sierra ~ Server
Processor Core i5-11600K ~ Core i3-12100
Motherboard Asus Prime B560M-A AC ~ MSI PRO B760M-P
Cooling CM 212 Black RGB Edition ~ Intel Stock Cooler
Memory 64GB (2x 32GB) DDR4-3600 ~ 32GB (4x 8GB) DDR4-3200
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon RX 6950 XT ~ EVGA GeForce GTX 970
Storage 4TB Samsung 990 Pro with Heatsink NVMe SSD ~ 2TB Kingston NV1 NVMe SSD + 500GB WD Blue SATA SSD
Display(s) 2x Dell S2721QS 4K 60Hz ~ N/A
Case Asus Prime AP201 - Open Frame Chassis
Power Supply Thermaltake GF1 850W ~ Thermaltake Smart 500W
Software Windows 11 Pro ~ Proxmox VE
Benchmark Scores Laptops: Dell Latitude E7270, Dell Latitude 14 Rugged 5420.
Goharddrive (and all their puppet accounts like apethouse) are not refurbishers, they are recyclers. Their refurbishing process consists of taking it off a pallet of server pulls, zeroing it out, clearing the SMART data, slapping their sticker on it, and throwing it in a static bag. I got burned by them years back, and I highly doubt they've changed their ways.

Yeah, I returned the WD that started growing pending sectors a week ago. Now another drive (from another mass "refurbisher" on eBay) is coming up with SMART errors. Ugh.
 
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
226 (0.13/day)
Of course they wiped the smart data :)

depends how much your time is worth, ever had a drive fail when rebuilding the array from a failed drive? ya not fun. I just go with 8 or 10tb reds pulled from externals, used to get hgst but im not sure who owns or makes them now ;( have about 30x8tb reds going and still adding more to the mix, 0 have failed so far.
 
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
1,237 (0.30/day)
Location
California, unfortunately.
System Name Sierra ~ Server
Processor Core i5-11600K ~ Core i3-12100
Motherboard Asus Prime B560M-A AC ~ MSI PRO B760M-P
Cooling CM 212 Black RGB Edition ~ Intel Stock Cooler
Memory 64GB (2x 32GB) DDR4-3600 ~ 32GB (4x 8GB) DDR4-3200
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon RX 6950 XT ~ EVGA GeForce GTX 970
Storage 4TB Samsung 990 Pro with Heatsink NVMe SSD ~ 2TB Kingston NV1 NVMe SSD + 500GB WD Blue SATA SSD
Display(s) 2x Dell S2721QS 4K 60Hz ~ N/A
Case Asus Prime AP201 - Open Frame Chassis
Power Supply Thermaltake GF1 850W ~ Thermaltake Smart 500W
Software Windows 11 Pro ~ Proxmox VE
Benchmark Scores Laptops: Dell Latitude E7270, Dell Latitude 14 Rugged 5420.
Of course they wiped the smart data :)

depends how much your time is worth, ever had a drive fail when rebuilding the array from a failed drive? ya not fun. I just go with 8 or 10tb reds pulled from externals, used to get hgst but im not sure who owns or makes them now ;( have about 30x8tb reds going and still adding more to the mix, 0 have failed so far.
Yeah, I have 6 8tb drives shucked from wd externals. I should have just got more of those instead of the crappy used drives lol
 
Joined
Sep 11, 2019
Messages
184 (0.11/day)
Processor Intel 13700K
Motherboard Asus Z690 DDR4
Memory 32GB DDR4 3600Mhz CAS16
Video Card(s) Gigabyte 4070 Ti
Display(s) Samsung C32HG70 - 32" 1440p
Case Silverstone GD-07B
Audio Device(s) Schiit Modi+Magni 2 Uber - Sennheiser HD595
I know this sounds weird, but I have had more luck with refurb HDs than new drives. if its refurbished correctly by the HD company they can be quite good drives.
OP: I’ve also had zero problems with refurbished hdd’s. They usually get better quality control on the way out than the new drives. For them to all be reading as if new doesn’t concern me.
You can add another "generally had pretty good luck with refurb drives" vote. Rtwjunkie could be onto something in that they may receive a bit more testing/validation. Of course I'm talking manufacturer refurb'ed drives. Whatever service the OP used sounds like something different altogether.
 
Joined
Jan 17, 2010
Messages
12,280 (2.37/day)
Location
Oregon
System Name Juliette // HTPC
Processor Intel i7 9700K // AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Motherboard ASUS Prime Z390X-A // ASRock B550 ITX-AC
Cooling Noctua NH-U12 Black // Stock
Memory Corsair DDR4 3600 32gb //G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 3600
Video Card(s) ASUS RTX4070 OC// GTX 1650
Storage Samsung 970 EVO NVMe 1Tb, Intel 665p Series M.2 2280 1TB // Samsung 1Tb SSD
Display(s) ASUS VP348QGL 34" Quad HD 3440 x 1440 // 55" LG 4K SK8000 Series
Case Seasonic SYNCRO Q7// Silverstone Granada GD05
Audio Device(s) Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 // HDMI to Samsung HW-R650 sound bar
Power Supply Seasonic SYNCRO 750 W // CORSAIR Vengeance 650M
Mouse Cooler Master MM710 53G
Keyboard Logitech 920-009300 G512 SE
Software Windows 10 Pro // Windows 10 Pro
NVM Necro thread
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top