this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2025
123 points (94.2% liked)

Selfhosted

50445 readers
583 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam posting.

  3. Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
ruud@lemmy.world
CannaVet@lemmy.world
Loki@lemmy.world
HybridSarcasm@lemmy.world
devve@lemmy.world
HybridSarcasm@lemmy.hybridsarcasm.xyz
123
Buy HDD on sale now or wait for Black Friday? (www.westerndigital.com)
submitted 1 week ago by impudentmortal@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
50 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

There's currently a sale on the Western Digital website. I was thinking of getting the Red Pros since they're high capacity and relatively quiet. In a previous post I made on the datahoarders community, I was looking for an HDD that was basically silent since the NAS will be next to my desk where I WFH.

Currently, two 18 TB drives are going for $620 or about $17.22 per TB. Not the best deal but definitely better than their normal price. I know a lot of people like buying used drives but the ones for sale are usually loud enterprise edition drives which won't work for me. Should I buy the drives now or wait until BF for a possibly better sale?

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] splendoruranium@infosec.pub 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I know a lot of people like buying used drives but the ones for sale are usually loud enterprise edition drives which won’t work for me. Should I buy the drives now or wait until BF for a possibly better sale?

HDD prices haven't really moved in any meaningful way over the course of the past years and I don't recall them ever moving significantly even during special promotions (short of pricing errors). I strongly suggest to treat high-capacity hard drives as the luxury consumables that they are and just buy them as needed. Unless you particularly enjoy bargain hunting as a passtime I really don't think it's worth the effort and opportunity costs in this particular context.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 days ago

passtime

pastime. Spell-check was right.

[–] ClydapusGotwald@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Have you checked serverpartdeals? They normally have good prices on refurbished and recertified drives

[–] impudentmortal@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I checked them and GoHarddrive but they usually only have enterprise hard drives and like I said in my post, those would be too loud to sit right next to me.

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

I bought iron wolves off them and they aren’t loud. Sat in my synology for years next to me.

[–] unphazed@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

Honestly with Electronics Presidents Day and Prime Days are usually the better deals (just not on Amazon). BF and Cyber Monday are inflated and discounted scams anymore

[–] Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 days ago

Aren’t these the drives that WD has set to throw warnings after 3 years, regardless of whether or not there’s anything wrong with the drives?

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Black Friday is a decent deal if you’re buying a larger volume of drives. If you’re only planning on buying a few, you don’t have to wait for to. That being said, a ln unimpressive sale is better than no sale.

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 days ago

given the possibility for dumbass to push for 100% tariffs on chips, i'd buy now (since i'm sure it will affect everywhere not just america).

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 111 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Black Friday sales aren't shit anymore, I waited until last black Friday and no good drives ever went on more than like $5 discount.

With all drives being imported and tarriffs in the US being a total shitshow you should buy ASAP.

[–] Xylight@lemdro.id 8 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Irrelevant but its funny how in English "x aren't shit anymore" can mean it got better or it got worse simultaneously

[–] Diurnambule@jlai.lu 3 points 6 days ago

Thanks is was confused, why he seemed angry to speak about something getting better.

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 days ago

Actually I think I meant to write "arent worth shit" but had a tired brain fart

[–] jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.works 60 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Honestly I'd recommend buying refurbished drives and using them in a RAID array so that you can easily replace one for cheap(ish) if it goes bad.

before anyone says "RAID is not a backup" yeah I know but you can't deny its capability to function as such. 3-2-1 always applies.

serverpartdeals.com

Set up an alert for when the drive you want goes on sale/in stock

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 6 days ago

Value the redundancy, make backups of data that can't easily be replaced.

Aint that hard to learn.
Can you sleep loosing a movie on your disk?
Can you also sleep loosing an entire photo album on your disk?

[–] Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

to be fair, the drive in question is a NAS drive, which is not a backup drive by its intended default usecase, unless you slapped it in a nas thats stored as a cloud storage in an offsite location.

its just a matter of people understanding that data redundancy is not a backup, just a level of data safeguard, as it only partially covers some of the forms of data loss and not all of them (e.g not immune to physical methods of data loss like fires, floods and stuff)

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago (1 children)

RAID is carrying a spare tire in your car. Backups are like having an extra car in the garage in case your primary geta totaled.

It's possible you'll never need either one, but if you pop a flat, a whole extra car is overkill.

It's not a perfect metaphor, since most people don't have a spare car.

[–] osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org 13 points 1 week ago

Most people don't have a RAID to fall back on either, and I would argue most cars' donuts or spares haven't been checked since the car was new so I think it holds up better than you're giving it credit for lol

[–] Jackusflackus@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

As someone who has worked in the it industry doing server work for 20+ years, definitely cannot agree with used drives. Always buy new if you can. Refurb drives are a huge risk whether or not they could have subsequent issues after being repaired. If you value your data, do not buy refurbs.

Edit - also consider most refurb drives are prob only a year warranty vs a probable 5 year on new WDs. To save a couple bucks, totally worth the extra warranty period.

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

Also from the industry, can confirm.

[–] StopSpazzing@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

I used to think that way too, then realized, who gives a fuk if using 321 backup method and have a cheaper spare on hand doesnt matter. Also this isnt enterprise, where i wouldnt even think about getting used.

Serverpartdeals is very reputable seller of refurb drives with low usage. Buy few in size you qant put them in a zfs or raid1 and move on with your life. However just make sure you have error chexking and drive tests on to find faulty drives and alerts you have tested working before you set it and forget it.

[–] jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

You can buy twice as many drives, though.

[–] RelativeArea1@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

well...its a hit or miss, i recently just got lucky with 2 16tb drives i got for 400, it probably came from a chinese chia server or some shit idk, but i did basic checks like SMART and they seem fine. I had my rx580 years ago also probably from a mining data center.

My logic and xp with these used "enterprise" stuff is that they are definitely used but not as abused like being OCed, etc. because they are optimized to run for a long time unless they are being decomissioned.

[–] metaStatic@kbin.earth 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

datahoarders

the only bad time to buy more capacity is when you run out

[–] navi@lemmy.tespia.org 7 points 1 week ago

Ideally like a month before

[–] Good4Nuthin@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

WD has a recycling deal where you can get 15% off your total purchase, once per quarter, by sending in any drive, working or not, to their recycling partner. I just did this with an old Maxtor 60gb 3.5” PATA drive. The shipping is free and it gets processed really quickly (e.g. it was actually delivered today and i already received -and-used- the discount code.

Note that theyre pretty clear/strict about no stacking of codes/discounts.

[–] OccasionallyFeralya@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago

That’s good to know omg

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Cool! I have some old drives laying around because I didn't know how to recycle them.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 6 days ago (2 children)

A good smack with a hammer then trash like any other electronic.
or
Disassemble the drive, crack/scratch the platters, trash like any other electronic

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That's not recycling.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

In Germany we don't really have the concept of landfills.
Here usually everything is recycled to some degree.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago

That's pretty awesome!

[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The magnets in HDDs are some of the strongest magnets you can find. I rip those out when I can, but I'm a packrat

[–] Good4Nuthin@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Fyi, i -did- dissasemble the drive, remove the magnets from the head assembly, and scratched tf out of both sides of the platters. :)

Also, re the price, with the discount i paid the same for the drive i ordered that i paid for the same size/model last BF, although this one had twice the cache. :) :)

[–] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Okay, that's pretty sweet. Imma have to look into that, i know a guy who just retired a home server with like 10+ old HDDs

[–] obvs@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

By Black Friday the US Dollar won't be worth anything.

If you need something, buy it now.

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 week ago

I dont consider Black Friday to be of much value, its usually garbage thats been repackaged,or priced up just before to go down for black Friday/cyber Monday.

That said, I dont spend anywhere near that much on drives per tb, and I dont do used. I'm also not looking for quiet though, the HP 2920 in the rack is much louder than any drive is going to be, so if its the right price for your needs, I'd just go for it. I'd base on $/TB though, and I wouldn't be waiting for November, just the right price.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

If you're in the US prices are only going up, and the dollar is weakening. No better time to buy than now.

[–] impudentmortal@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Thanks to everyone who replied. Majority of the responses were to buy now if in US (which I am). So I bit the bullet and just bought them.

[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago

never wait for blacco Friday or any big advertised sale. guaranteed you will pay more, then just a 'we need to move product's sale

[–] veeesix@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I periodically keep tabs on new HDD prices in my area. Black Friday hasn’t had the same deep discounts it once did.

[–] Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

black friday died when it became a normie holiday for sales. part of the reason why black friday worked before hand was that buyers are 100% aware of the product theyre buying and how much it is valued. anythings a "sale" if you're selling it to an audience that doesn't know what it was normally priced.

[–] veeesix@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

When stores started marking up the “regular” price to hit bigger percentages is about when I started price tracking things I knew I’d buy later down the road. Looking at you, Best Buy!

[–] paper_moon@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

My favorite story about best buy is in the early 2000's, a family member gifted me a $20 gift card to best buy, which unbeknownst to them, I had stopped shopping at because it got too expensive and I started buying from newegg instead. Anyway, I walk in and am thinking 'well I don't really need anything big right now, like a full PC, laptop, etc. Maybe I'll just get a DVD or something."

Even with a $20 gift card, Best buy prices were so marked up, they were either still more expensive, or the same price as other stores. I think other stores were selling DVD's at like $15 (not new-releases) and best buy was $35. I walked out and never ended up buying anything. I'm shocked they're still around to be honest.

[–] Colloidal@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Didn't WD screw some customers of their Red line with shady practices?

[–] FrederikNJS@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 days ago

Yes, the WD Red line used to be for NAS use, but suddenly they started including SMR drives in their WD Red lineup, people got pissed because SMR isn't a good fit for RAID setups which NASes usually are.

WD continued the practice, but introduced the WD Red Pro line. So now regular WD Reds could be either CMR or SMR, but WD Red Pro are guaranteed to be CMR.

In my opinion it's still misleading to even brand the regular WD Red line as suitable for NAS use, but at least now you can specifically pick a drive that fits your needs.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

that was like four years ago unless I missed something.

[–] Colloidal@programming.dev 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Well, I've been known to hold a grudge.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

same dude. I'll never use Seagate ever again.

[–] brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago

The WD sales are decent if you're buying new so if you're feeling like it's time for a purchase this might be worth it for you.

I did the same earlier this year though in my case I tend to buy the current gen large capacity WD Reds & stick with them for a few years at least. When their 24 TB / 26 TB drives went on sale they actually were cheaper than what Newegg / Amazon had done with their own sales up to then so for me it was worth it.

The other thing to keep in mind, if you're in the U.S., the whole tariff situation isn't going to make this stuff any cheaper in the future.