Western Digital 2TB Black refurb for $39.99

[xen]

Each 2TB drive is $39.99 (the same drive in Amazon $51.00). The Sale ends Wednesday.  I picked up 3 drives and will search for a drive utility to test them

 

Western Digital RE4-GP WD2003FYPS 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236410

 

Warranty - Limited Warranty period (parts): 90 days (Extended 1Yr. for $5 or 2Yrs. $10). I don't recommend. I have used warranties in the past and they send you a check for the drive purchase price (which is $39.99), but they will not send you a replacement drive (which is preferred because the original dollar amount will unlikely be enough to purchase another drive of the same capacity).

[garycase]

... I picked up 3 drives and will search for a drive utility to test them

 

Nothing to search for -- just download WD's excellent Data Lifeguard for Windows [ http://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?lang=en#WD_softwarepc ]

 

Run a quick test; then an extended test; then do a Full Erase (writes zeroes to the whole drive -- earlier versions of Data Lifeguard called this option "Write Zeroes" ... the latest version calls it "Erase");  then repeat the quick test and the extended teste.  Any drive that completes this cycle with no errors is fine.

 

[mr-hexen]

Also, those are not "black" drives. They are RE4 drives (Raid Edition).

[xen]

Garycase, thanks for the link.

 

There is also an excellent tutorial on youtube from Spaceinvader One (he has a different name on this forum). He has a tutorial on the "Preclear" plugin that checks that disk as well.

 

http://tinyurl.com/gsoszyk

 

I am in at step 1 of 5 (5 hours so far) checking the first of three disks.

 

Also, was this a good buy? I thought so but would like some input on the pros an cons (the obvious con one, being refurb).

 

Thanks!

[garycase]

It was a reasonable buy.  These are excellent drives; but a bit dated, so you won't have the performance of a more modern drive.  They have 500GB platters, so the areal density is lower than more modern drives, which would have 1TB platters.  So they're a bit heavier (4 platters instead of 2) and slower -- since only half as much data/revolution passes by the R/W heads.

 

But they're nevertheless very good drives -- they're enterprise-class drives with very heavy duty mechanicals and should last a long time.

 

And at $20/TB they're certainly a good value => a new drive would have cost you $30-40/TB for a consumer-grade drive and a good bit more for a new enterprise class drive.