At TechMikeNY, we are all about capitalizing the value of IT equipment to its maximum.  Why throw something out when it has potentially years of production still in it?  When you consider the growing issue of e-waste, it’s a no-brainer that both the consumer and the global population benefit from quality refurbished IT equipment. 

As you’ll see in this post, nothing fits this bill more than refurbished hard drives (Spoiler Alert: They are worth it because they're built to last!)

Refurbished Hard Drives – Facts

• Hard drives are built to run for many, many thousands of hours. Even 10K to 20K of production hours can be a fraction of their intended lifetime. 
• The return rate for refurbished hard drives is extremely low. Our in-house data for TechMikeNY refurbished drives shows it at 1% or below.
• Guess what? New hard drives can fail too.  Based on a study by a cloud provider, Backblaze, a hard drive has a higher chance of failing in its first year of operation than its second.  That may seem counter-intuitive, but it is a known phenomenon with hardware and systems that defects are likelier to present themselves early in a device’s lifecycle.  A refurbished hard drive is reliable because it has already passed that initial defect phase. 
• What about SSDs? While SSDs lose storage capacity over a very long time, they are more resilient to physical handling and jostling due to the lack of moving parts (compared with the “spinning” platter and read/write needle of a traditional HDD).

ARE REFURBISHED HARD DRIVES WORTH IT? – MISCONCEPTIONS AND MYTHS

• MYTH: “A refurbished hard drive no longer has its manufacturer’s warranty.” If the hard drive is within the manufacturer’s warranty period, it is covered, regardless of how many times it has changed hands or is considered refurbished.  For example, Western Digital’s drives will often come with a 5-year warranty.  The exception to this is out-of-warranty damage to a drive (in which case, whether it is refurbished or not is irrelevant) and some OEM drives, which would, in most cases, be covered by the OEM warranty and not the drive manufacturer. 
• MYTH: “OEM drives are better.” Aside from the fact that OEM drives tend to be significantly more expensive, most OEM drives are simply rebranded drives that are identical to the commercially available drives from the manufacturer.  The only nuance is some OEM drives may have alternate firmware.
• MISCONCEPTION: “I won’t be able to get a manufacturer warranty for my server with refurbished drives.” If the server you are using is refurbished, you will not be able to regardless since the specifications vary from the original factory configuration.  If the server is new, any hard drive failures would be covered based on the previous point of the drives’ manufacturer's warranty.  The good news: refurbishers often offer warranties.  TechMikeNY offers a standard one-year warranty and extended warranties for purchase that cover all server components.  You are covered!

Final Thoughts

Hard drive manufacturers have been perfecting their production techniques for a while now.  Hard drives – especially from established manufacturers – are built to last.  Why not take advantage of this designed longevity by purchasing a refurbished hard drive?

Have more questions on the reliability of refurbished hard drives?  Drop us a line at info@techmikeny.com.  We’d love to hear from you!