March 20, 201412 yr Author ah, thanks for pointing that out. although one user reported the drive inside is a HDS5C4040ALE630, which has a 3 year warranty. not sure how hitachi works that but i know other companies have warrantied the drives inside instead of the unit as a whole.
March 20, 201412 yr Possibly, every manufacturer is different someone will accept the S/N and process warranty, some will want a receipt, i am no expert in these matters. But I would not go for this one. I got the 5900 version (silver sides) for the same price, longer warranty (granted I cracked the case open). Them only wanting to warrenty for 1 yr is a bad sign.
March 21, 201412 yr If I was going to harvest a drive, this is one I would harvest. These drives have the lowest failure rate on the BackBlaze review. It is cheaper to warranty a shorter time. Explains the lower price for the external drive. I have a server full of Hitachis, not one has given first bit of trouble. All 3+ years old. If you roll the dice and come up snake eyes you will be out $139 and own a piece of junk. Otherwise, you'll be a happy camper. Wanna play?
March 21, 201412 yr ... although one user reported the drive inside is a HDS5C4040ALE630, which has a 3 year warranty. not sure how hitachi works that but i know other companies have warrantied the drives inside instead of the unit as a whole. Yes, the HDS5C4040ALE630 is exactly the drive inside I've got. Did not check the warranty though. Also, just for everyone's information: this enclosure is one of the toughest I've ever ripped apart. After separating the cover (look for thin split, use brute force - all the usual) inside the case there is an additional molded plastic cage surrounding the drive, glued in, positioning the drive in the center of enclosure. No easy way to break the cage open, I've ended up cutting the rest of the enclosure in half with multifunction tool (vibro-knife? vibro-saw?). The SATA-to-USB adapter PCB is also bracketed in plastic and bolted in. And awkward in shape, too. No reusable parts, all trash, except for power unit and USB-3.0 cable. Good thing the enclosure is super-spacious and next time instead of trying this and that I will simply cut it in half first thing. If you don't sink the blade more than, say, 3-5 mm, you wouldn't touch the drive itself. As I said, there is plenty of space between the outer shell of the enclosure and the drive inside.
March 21, 201412 yr ... although one user reported the drive inside is a HDS5C4040ALE630, which has a 3 year warranty. not sure how hitachi works that but i know other companies have warrantied the drives inside instead of the unit as a whole. Yes, the HDS5C4040ALE630 is exactly the drive inside I've got. Did not check the warranty though. Also, just for everyone's information: this enclosure is one of the toughest I've ever ripped apart. After separating the cover (look for thin split, use brute force - all the usual) inside the case there is an additional molded plastic cage surrounding the drive, glued in, positioning the drive in the center of enclosure. No easy way to break the cage open, I've ended up cutting the rest of the enclosure in half with multifunction tool (vibro-knife? vibro-saw?). The SATA-to-USB adapter PCB is also bracketed in plastic and bolted in. And awkward in shape, too. No reusable parts, all trash, except for power unit and USB-3.0 cable. Good thing the enclosure is super-spacious and next time instead of trying this and that I will simply cut it in half first thing. If you don't sink the blade more than, say, 3-5 mm, you wouldn't touch the drive itself. As I said, there is plenty of space between the outer shell of the enclosure and the drive inside. There is a youtube video of cracking open the 3T version, which doesn't seem as bad as what you are describing. In the old days, a harvest was easy. Remove 4 screws. Done. If it broke, put it back in and return it. But the last time I did a harvest, it was tougher. No youtube then. I got a nasty cut prying the evil contraption apart. If you are considering doing this for the first time, I'd suggest researching the instructions to remove it. The drive manufacturers REALLY don't want you doing it. And some pretty talented engineers have done their best to make it hard as h3ll. Add that to the loss of warrantability, and you'll pay an extra $20 bucks for the internal version. But if the price difference is $50, or $100 - the risk and effort becomes more justified. One more thought - some people are recommending preclearing them in the enclosure. Good idea in principle. You can break in the drive and return it if the smart report looks iffy. USB 3.0 becomes important, and the drive must let you see the smart report (I wasn't sure you could do that with a USB drive but evidently you can). The trick is to keep the drive cool while you are preclearing it. Running it in a sweatshot for 24+ hours (those external cases are made to look sexy but often have no fans and the drives run very hot) may be a good way to induce a marginal drive to failure, but could equally take a big bite out of the lifespan of the drive at the same time. (You'd probably not want to take your new car to the Indianapolis speedway and run it at top speed for 500 miles on the 4th of July before you started using it to drive to work everyday. )
March 21, 201412 yr Author can anyone that has cracked one of these open check the warranty status on the bare drive?
March 21, 201412 yr can anyone that has cracked one of these open check the warranty status on the bare drive? I got one of these about 12 months ago. Was old stock at the time. As in the drive was minted ~6 months earlier according to the print on the drive (if I remember correctly). Warranty check said "Invalid Serial" when I just put in the one unRAID reports. When I remove PL2331 off the front and end up with an 8 digit serial (what I remember being on the drive) it shows 3 months left (6/16/2014). So that should put the warranty at about 2 years - if it has one at all. Edit: Found the box it came in. It has what looks like a date of 4/2013 on it so I didn't get it as long ago as I thought and it must not have been old stock. That puts the warranty at just about a year. And more importantly the serial that works (sans the PL2331) is the serial on the box. So it looks like the warranty and serial on these are the same in or out of the case based on this.
March 22, 201412 yr can anyone that has cracked one of these open check the warranty status on the bare drive? Full 14-syms serial number, as reported by preclear_disk.sh -l, reports as incorrect serial number. After removing, as BobPhoenix suggested, the first 6 syms (PL1331 in my case) and using only the last 8 syms, I've got "Our records indicate that your warranty period has expired. If you believe that your hard disk drive is still within its warranty period, please contact a HGST technical support center." And this is the drive I've bought 11 days ago from Newegg.
March 22, 201412 yr ...and yes, the last 8 syms of the serial number of the bare drive are exactly the same as S/N marked on the enclosure. Go figure.
March 22, 201412 yr ...and yes, the last 8 syms of the serial number of the bare drive are exactly the same as S/N marked on the enclosure. Go figure. What I think it means is that broken open there is no warranty since the only valid serial number is for a drive in an enclosure (my opinion not a proven fact). YOU really did get old stock if it is already expired. I believe I got mine from B&H Photo last summer now but certainly I didn't get it 12+ months ago like I originally thought - which should put the warranty at 1 year.
March 22, 201412 yr ...and yes, the last 8 syms of the serial number of the bare drive are exactly the same as S/N marked on the enclosure. Go figure. What I think it means is that broken open there is no warranty since the only valid serial number is for a drive in an enclosure (my opinion not a proven fact). The serial number - last 8 symbols - on the bare drive, and on the enclosure, are exactly the same. And this is the only information which HGST server had got from me. I don't see how the server knows I've got this serial number by opening the case and not by just reading it from the enclosure sticker. YOU really did get old stock if it is already expired. ... Old stock bought 11 days days ago from Newegg? I don't think so. Too bad I don't have my own explanation. Except, of course, an another conspiracy theory "they cheat!", but I hate conspiracy theories. Besides, they don't work.
March 23, 201412 yr The serial number - last 8 symbols - on the bare drive, and on the enclosure, are exactly the same. And this is the only information which HGST server had got from me. I don't see how the server knows I've got this serial number by opening the case and not by just reading it from the enclosure sticker.My thought was that the actual serial used on a bare drive was the whole number not just the last 8 but I just checked and it is just the last 8 so you are correct they probably would never check/known.
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