Refurbished SSD's
- Thread starter mcc1961
- Start date
Intel_man
VIP Member
I would never buy them. Refurbished or not, off brand SSD's are dodgy.
For me, I always look to buying a reliable drive, which means looking at their MTBF values and their warranty periods. Manufacturers aren't going to list a super long warranty unless they know their drives are going to last. The last thing I want in a SSD or a HDD is to lose data because of failure.
For me, I always look to buying a reliable drive, which means looking at their MTBF values and their warranty periods. Manufacturers aren't going to list a super long warranty unless they know their drives are going to last. The last thing I want in a SSD or a HDD is to lose data because of failure.
Off brand, no. Genuine name? Yes. I bought a refurbished 64GB Mushkin SSD from Newegg for my HTPC and it's been great.
Agent Smith
Well-Known Member
I bought a used G.Skill Sniper SSD on eBay and it was great. I finally swapped it out for another SSD when the Sniper had reached 80% health according to Crystaldiskinfo.
JaredDM
Active Member
Off Brand = definitely no
Refurbished, maybe. My issue with refurbished SSDs, especially if they are on ebay, is that it could be one that's been used & abused, stress tested to the limit, even have formerly had SMART errors. And it may well be that all they did to "refurbish" it was to clear the SMART logs. Unfortunately on my data recovery forum we get guys all the time asking for advice on how to clear SMART on certain HDD/SSD models and I know it's just so they can resell as "refurbished", when in fact they are only hiding the error.
Refurbished, maybe. My issue with refurbished SSDs, especially if they are on ebay, is that it could be one that's been used & abused, stress tested to the limit, even have formerly had SMART errors. And it may well be that all they did to "refurbish" it was to clear the SMART logs. Unfortunately on my data recovery forum we get guys all the time asking for advice on how to clear SMART on certain HDD/SSD models and I know it's just so they can resell as "refurbished", when in fact they are only hiding the error.
I think it depends on who your buying it from refurbished,I mean i bought a Gigabyte 775 board that was supposedly refurbished from an authorized repair specialist for Gigabyte and it worked (and still does) just fine,i also bought a refurbished Toshiba blue ray player,again from an authorized repair specialist and the same results.
I wouldn't just buy from a random though that "claims" it has been refurbished.
SSDs are so cheap nowadays anyway,In all honesty i would just save some money for a few weeks then buy new with a 2-3 year warranty.
I wouldn't just buy from a random though that "claims" it has been refurbished.
SSDs are so cheap nowadays anyway,In all honesty i would just save some money for a few weeks then buy new with a 2-3 year warranty.
JaredDM
Active Member
I'm generally all for buying refurbished. Data storage media is just one place where I draw the line. Especially if it's from ebay as the OP indicated.
It's very rare for media like HDDs and SSDs to fail due to a simple failure of an electronic component. Usually, their failures are due to degradation of the actual digital storage media such as the magnetic coating on the platters or NAND degradation from too many io cycles. With HDDs for example, refurbishing often entails simply "trimming" out the areas of severe damage by adding defect tracks into the drives firmware telling it not to use them anymore. Or, even just disabling a read/write head because the platter surface is too degraded to be used anymore. It's not uncommon at all that a HDD once was a 2Tb and has been converted to a 1.5Tb or 1Tb after refurbishing. While the drive may work this way for a while, the underlying problem that the media material is degrading hasn't actually been fixed.
SSD refurbishing is similar and usually just involves blocking out the most worn pages in the memory.
In my opinion, a refurbished storage device is like a cancer patient that just had surgery to remove a tumor. You may have cut out the worst of it, but that doesn't mean the underlying problem is gone and it'll likely just resurface.
It's very rare for media like HDDs and SSDs to fail due to a simple failure of an electronic component. Usually, their failures are due to degradation of the actual digital storage media such as the magnetic coating on the platters or NAND degradation from too many io cycles. With HDDs for example, refurbishing often entails simply "trimming" out the areas of severe damage by adding defect tracks into the drives firmware telling it not to use them anymore. Or, even just disabling a read/write head because the platter surface is too degraded to be used anymore. It's not uncommon at all that a HDD once was a 2Tb and has been converted to a 1.5Tb or 1Tb after refurbishing. While the drive may work this way for a while, the underlying problem that the media material is degrading hasn't actually been fixed.
SSD refurbishing is similar and usually just involves blocking out the most worn pages in the memory.
In my opinion, a refurbished storage device is like a cancer patient that just had surgery to remove a tumor. You may have cut out the worst of it, but that doesn't mean the underlying problem is gone and it'll likely just resurface.
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