this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
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[–] sefra1@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Yes, tip number 1: never buy an used HDD

Tip number 2: check smart if there are relocated sectors return it

Tip number 3: run badblocks on the drive, (-w mode) and if there are no errors then check smart again, if there are errors or relocated sectors return the drive

Good luck!

[–] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes, tip number 1: never buy an used HDD

That's not a good tip.

[–] sefra1@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It's the best tip, buying an used HDD is asking for trouble

[–] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What kind of HDD? for what purpose? For what budget?

"Don't buy used" is a dumb tip because it means nothing and addresses nothing.

I use a WD Enterprise HDD from 2012. I bought it used. It passes all tests with flying colours, zero issues so far... it keeps a mirror of my backup. It's not my main backup, it's a copy of a copy. Guess what? I paid an extremely low price for it as a student on a budget, yet it was already proven useful many times both for the backups but also to keep my torrents seeding for longer, and it if does indeed fail... no biggie, not even my backup is compromised.

There are excellent refurbished HDDs too. Either way, "don't buy used" is the kind of blanket statement somebody cosplaying as a infosec home lab data specialist comments on Lemmy, but means absolutely nothing and offers no useful advice.

[–] sefra1@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've never cosplayed as an "infosec home lab data specialist", but I've had many bad personal experiences with used harddrives, drives that were working perfectly fine but failed after few months from several sources.

[–] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 1 points 1 day ago

And that anecdote somehow means "never buy used drives, no matter what variables are at play"

[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Incorrect again.

[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Your tip 1 isn't good for all situations. I have a 4 drive RAID 10 setup I have zero issues putting a used drive in after I test and inspect. Used doesn't mean trash, it's all situational.

Also, backup backup backup.

And "used" could be used wrong here, I typically use serverpartdeals and get 20TB+ drive sizes, refurbished. They come with a 5 year warranty and will get them replaced if there are issues.

[–] sefra1@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

Well, that's good to know, I've always avoided those drives and tend to pay extra for smaller drives so I can get them new.

[–] Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.org 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes, tip number 1: never buy an used HDD

Why shouldn't one? Because SSDs are more reliable or what?

[–] sefra1@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Because there's a rather high likelihood that the HDD has been mistreated and will fail soon, it's a gamble. Or at least I've had bad experiences with used hard drives personally.

If you the seller has warranty and you don't mind the hassle of shipping back and possibly paying for the return shipping and pray that everything goes smoothly and you actually get the money back or a working replacement then it can be a good option, I personally rather not go through all that stress.

[–] BennyInc@feddit.org 118 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Tip: keep refreshing the tracking page every 60 seconds. This makes the parcel travel even faster.

[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 23 points 3 days ago (1 children)

No it's like bittorrent downloads, if you look at it it goes slower!

[–] x4740N@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

For me it goes faster for some reason when I look at it but gets slower when I look away

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[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Make sure you use a red theme (maybe with flames) for your browser.

[–] MarauderIIC@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago

Little known fact: refreshing the tracking page not only tells the company that you are invested in your package's arrival time, this telling them to prioritize it, it also pumps electrons into the cardboard so that it is attracted to the fastest moving delivery vehicle.

(Just kidding, neither of these things are true.)

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

if it's a traditional/old style with a spinning magnetic disc, listen for clicking sounds as it reads, if you hear clicks it's probably about to die, don't put anything valuable on it.

[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I don't buy used HDDs, or brake pads, or helmets, or climbing rope, or...

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago
[–] RickAstleyfounddead@lemy.lol 1 points 2 days ago

You can install Linux on it. And occasionally backup all personal files

[–] shneancy@lemmy.world 52 points 3 days ago

theatrically turn away from the tracking page and make it feel like you don't care, it can smell your fear, the same way a printer does, and it'll then arrive a day after you need it the most

[–] Beacon@fedia.io 33 points 3 days ago (2 children)

If it's a spinning disk hard drive then do a low level format i.e. do a security write zeros on the whole disk (be sure to delete all partitions first). This will try to write a zero to every single sector, and any bad sectors will be removed from use.

[–] redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 3 days ago

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Badblocks

dd /dev/urandom after if you're encrypting the disk

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (5 children)

I don't think you need to delete the partitions separately, since it's just a table at the very beginning of which parts of the disk belong to which partition?

So if you dd zeroes over everything, the first thing that gets deleted is the partitioning table

I might be wrong here, or maybe it doesn't apply to every situation, but that's how I've understood it to work

Also a tip for OP: don't write zeroes over it, but random data (dd if=/dev/urandom ...). It's a bit more secure as it makes it harder to see the size and location of the encrypted data on the disk

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[–] Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 3 days ago

When it finally arrives you should run some tests to ensure the drive is not bad. This repo is a decent resource: https://github.com/Spearfoot/disk-burnin-and-testing

[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 3 points 2 days ago

Infamous advice after purchasing questions

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 25 points 3 days ago

Any tips?

yeah, wipe that shit, especially an MBR if present.

... or, if you're evil, run photorec /s

[–] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Don't look at it.

Boot into a linux live usb

Run dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/<driveid>

I probably didn't get that perfect, but, close enough. Look it up on the internet or check the man page idk

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

When it comes to old drives, looking is half the fun.

[–] deltapi@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I bought a used external HDD for the interfaces - esata, usb3, FireWire 800. Lets me move data at max speed between my iBook, MacBook, pc...

...turns out it was stolen. :(

[–] skulkbane@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Recover the data on it. Burn it with fire. Cry because you saw what it was.

Ask yourself why there is a school report on an animation studio on the "new" laptop your "stepmothers" mother bought and used towards the end as she lost her senses thinking people were spying on her trying to hide everything from "the them" deleting what ever she thought was spying on her.

[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 5 points 3 days ago (3 children)
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[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You guys are ordering packages?

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

I used to order packages when I had money a long time ago. It was pretty cool. AMA.

[–] ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 3 days ago (6 children)

use data recovery software to find out what used to be on there

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[–] dumbass@aussie.zone 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

This is why I stopped ordering from wish, I study the tracking like I'm investigating the cartel.

[–] Engywuck@lemmy.zip 8 points 3 days ago

No kidding, once I was able to exactly follow the route of my laptop shipped from Lenovo (China) on flightradar after a careful study of carrier/parcel number/tracking events time and don't remember what else. It was literal real time tracking. Don't even remember how I did it.

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[–] ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What kind of HDD did you get?

I'm trying to decide between a PATA IDE drive for authenticity or getting a new controller board for my PS2 to use a SATA drive I already have laying around. It'd certainly be easier to use the sata drive but like... Authenticity tho

[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Emulator and save the PS2 for all posterity?

[–] ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago

Naur lol.

The PS2 is already slightly modded, got it at a retro shop.

Since the seals are broken, and work has already been done I have no qualms about modding it further.

Also I don't have an emulator that can output to a CRT sooooo...

I just need freeHDloader and OPL on it because the motors in the optical drive are beginning to burn out.

[–] x4740N@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

This was me when I was ordering the parts for my gaming pc

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