Need a 5TB or larger SATA drive for home lab server

[timeshifter]

I need a 5TB or larger hard drive for my in shop server. It doesn't run anything mission critical. The machine is used for learning and experimenting. It's a Lenovo TS440 with SATA drive bays, Xeon processor, 20GB RAM in case that helps.

I ordered a Toshiba drive on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013JPLKQK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

But it arrived DOA. I was worried when I saw noticed the label looked funny. It seemed to have shifted, wasn't square. The top edges were curled up a little. Looked like adhesive off to the lower right was smeared.

When I powered it up I heard clicks and screeching sounds. It was never recognized properly by the system. Obviously I'm returning it, already called that in.

Did I just get a bad one, one that had been dropped or mistreated? Should I try another one, or go a different direction? What drive would you recommend?

 

[Sky-Knight]

Fraudulent drive... send the thing back and leave the seller a nasty review... Stupid Amazon.

My current goto for platter drives in the rare case I need them are the WD Golds: https://www.amazon.com/Gold-Enterprise-Class-Hard-Drive/dp/B01AV168FS

Yes, they cost more, but they are STUPID fast for what they are. I've got a 6TB in this rig now.

The WD Black is a bit cheaper, https://www.amazon.com/Black-6TB-Performance-Hard-Drive/dp/B0792GSD6N

But you'll note the huge price discrepancy here... that toaster you got is well... too cheap to be true.

 

[Alexey]

Did I just get a bad one, one that had been dropped or mistreated? Should I try another one, or go a different direction?

You just got a bad supplier. You should try another (supplier).

 

[Romaniac]

Fraudulent drive... send the thing back and leave the seller a nasty review... Stupid Amazon.

They really opened up the flood gates to anyone and everyone.

 

[timeshifter]

Fraudulent drive... send the thing back and leave the seller a nasty review... Stupid Amazon.

Wow, you're right. Didn't even think of that. I did go looking for pictures of that model drive to see what the sticker was supposed to look like, but when I saw some of the pictures I thought they weren't accurate. Now it makes sense. The top cover is completely different. It's a completely different, dead drive with the sticker (and box) stolen from a good drive.

I bought it from Amazon, not a 3rd party seller on Amazon. Or so I thought.

Who the hell is Amazon.com Services, Inc.?

edit: never mind, "Amazon.com Services, Inc" shows up on all orders I've placed when it was "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com."

Arrggghhh!

 

[timeshifter]

So, can anyone identify what the actual drive is? Here's some more pics...

 

[seedubya]

The board is this one https://www.hdd-parts.com/18093021.html - Western Digital 1TB

 

[lcoughey]

Yup, you bought a western digital with fake label and a very fake size.

 

[labtech]

Recommendations:
-Stop buying drives off of Amazon (Amazon is just an online retailer, therefore you don't have contact with the actual vendor; by the way, lots of fake reviews on Amazon); this video may help a bit:

-For HDDs, stick with even capacity (2TB, 4TB, 6TB, etc). Typically, the odd capacity drives are lower quality.

 

[timeshifter]

Stop buying drives off of Amazon (Amazon is just an online retailer, therefore you don't have contact with the actual vendor; by the way, lots of fake reviews on Amazon); this video may help a bit:

Don't know what you mean by "contact with the actual vendor". The seller was Amazon, not a 3rd party.

That video was interesting, but not really related to this problem.

 

[nerd2u]

Can't really blame Amazon they have no idea the vendor is shipping fraudulent items.

The good thing is Amazon's return policy is awesome.

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[Porthos]

The seller was Amazon, not a 3rd party.

Any seller can put stock in Amazons warehouse. That is part of what prime is all about. The 3rd parties just dont want to pay the "extra" fees to store the merch in the warehouse.
That drive looks like a "scammers" return item that was shipped back out as new.

 

[JoelM]

So who understands how the scammers make money if the unit is just going to be returned & I'll get my money back?

Perhaps I don't think creatively enough and am missing a good way to make money. LOL. Just kidding on that part.

 

[Sky-Knight]

So who understands how the scammers make money if the unit is just going to be returned & I'll get my money back?

Perhaps I don't think creatively enough and am missing a good way to make money. LOL. Just kidding on that part.

This circumstance reeks of some idiot peeling the label off the good and bad drives, and slapping it on the bad drive to make the return. Then another idiot decided to put it back on the shelf because the return reason was probably "I didn't need it" or something equally dumb. Then it was resold.

As for the fraudsters on Amazon, China makes all sorts of things, all they do is put a semi-legit label on it and they often "work well enough" to get past the return window. Customer only finds out they've been had when they try to warrant the part with the manufacturer.

I use Amazon for all my components, but I also run the serial numbers of everything that comes in. After that I don't care much, because if the SN works, the MFG will warrant the thing, and I'm covered.

 

[timeshifter]

For HDDs, stick with even capacity (2TB, 4TB, 6TB, etc). Typically, the odd capacity drives are lower quality.

Can you or anyone expand on this thought?

 

[Porthos]

Can you or anyone expand on this thought?

All i can add to this is in my experience, I have seen more failures over the years with the odd size drives.

 

[Alexey]

Can you or anyone expand on this thought?

I would guess that odd capacity means one of the sides is defective from production (below quality threshold) and was disabled. The platter which has one side defective is probably more likely to have the other side also defective.

I would reiterate that it is a slightly educated guess.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Can you or anyone expand on this thought?

I've got no scientific data to back this up, but my experience matches this thinking as well. The odd numbered TB sized disks seem to fail faster.

 

[lcoughey]

I would guess that odd capacity means one of the sides is defective from production (below quality threshold) and was disabled. The platter which has one side defective is probably more likely to have the other side also defective.

I would reiterate that it is a slightly educated guess.

You would be correct.

Another common thing we see is Seagate 2TB DM series drives...some with 2 platters and 4 heads, others with 3 platters and 5 heads and others with 3 platters and 6 heads, with 1 or more heads disabled. The variants with 2 platters and 4 heads are much more reliable than those with the 3 platters, likely because they already sucked before they were downgraded.

That is based on my experience. Other data recovery guys can chime in, if they wish.

 

[labtech]

I would guess that odd capacity means one of the sides is defective from production (below quality threshold) and was disabled. The platter which has one side defective is probably more likely to have the other side also defective.
I would reiterate that it is a slightly educated guess.

Very much so... During manufacturing, disks/platters come out with lots of defects. Even the good disks already have defects. Hence, in the firmware we keep track of defect-lists.

Upon testing, the manufacturers does not discard fairly good disks. They instead, reduce the drive's capacity (go from 6TB to 5TB), may alter the mechanics and, of course, modify the firmware to fine tune for those changes.

Same thing happens with flash chips. Top quality goes to the best SSDs and smartphones, then somewhat less quality goes to cheaper smartphones and cameras, then CF Cards, SD Cards, then flash drives and so on.