Late last year I decided to take a chance on some recertified ironwolf 10TB drives, and they seem to be doing well so far. (I was encouraged to try them after seeing LTT experiment with these kinds of drives from server parts deals)
However, my offsite backup truenas machine now appears to have a dying ironwolf 4TB (3 months out of warranty!💩) due to failing smart tests, but when looking for a replacement drive, I can only find new ones (and a new 4TB costs as much as the 10TB did for me a year ago).
I’ve heard seagate has made an official ebay shop for recertified drives - have they been cracking down on the practice in general? Was the idea of these drives simply too risky? Am I just terrible at searching for deals online?
In my experience, they come in waves. They come either as data centres seek to replace or renew existing drives, but as a result, there aren’t as many lower capacity drives available. Lately, I’ve only seen 10+TB drives under a recertified banner, though you can find lower capacity drives that are “refurbished” instead. They will have the power-on hours to match though, as these are the refuse from those sorts of drive replacements.
You may find better luck with local used marketplaces if you only need cheap storage. Otherwise, they do seem less common if you don’t need large capacity drives.