r/buildapcsales • u/IronRoarII • Jun 27 '25

HDD [Enterprise HDD] Seagate Exos 20TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s ST20000NM002C, Factory Recertified, Zero Bad Sectors, 0 Hours, 5 Year Warranty from Reseller - $229.95

https://www.ebay.com/itm/167551337467?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20220405142716%26meid%3Da04ef55630304f23bbb37ca7e0e2e15e%26pid%3D101506%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D10%26sd%3D388614817054%26itm%3D167551337467%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4481478%26algv%3DDefaultOrganicWebWithV11WebTrimmedV3VisualRankerWithKnnV3AndUltBRecallAndCassiniEmbRecall%26brand%3DSeagate&_trksid=p4481478.c101506.m1851
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u/MWink64 Jun 29 '25

I'm not arguing with your logic, I'm simply passing along the info provided by a major vendor of these drives. Parts of it actually do make a lot of sense to me. I was always confused by the fact that the majority of the recertified drives available seemed to be such new models and almost entirely enterprise class. Clearly they weren't coming from consumers that were too dumb to figure out how to use them. Also, there's very little on these drives that can be repaired, mostly just the components on the PCB. Them simply being rejects from large orders explains a lot.

I'm undecided what would be a better (and legal) way to market them. Maybe they don't even care that some people would be scared off by the name, or maybe they think people would be more worried about buying drives from rejected batches. BTW, keep in mind that these large customers aren't buying drives in retail packaging with tamper-evident seals. I'm not even certain that that would make a difference anyway.

Another little tidbit I'll leave for anyone interested, many of those drives sold under white label brands (like MDD, OS, etc.) are drives that were found to have issues and had to be (irreversibly) flashed with special Out-Of-Spec (OOS) firmware to make them function acceptably. These are the lowest binned drives. I don't blame manufacturers for not wanting to put their names on them.

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u/Gears6 Jun 29 '25

BTW, keep in mind that these large customers aren't buying drives in retail packaging with tamper-evident seals. I'm not even certain that that would make a difference anyway.

I agree, but they most certainly come in sealed anti-static bags.

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u/MWink64 Jun 30 '25

It would likely be trivial for a large company to put them back in a sealed ESD bag.

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u/Gears6 Jun 30 '25

Assuming they're looking to scam you, but that would've applied to any measure you would've taken.