EXPIRED:4TB External ("internal") Seagate Barracuda XT drives at Costco for $159

I just picked up a couple of Seagate Backup Plus external 4TB drives at Costco for $159 each. The promotion ends on 2/24/13. There is a video on Youtube (

) re how to disassemble them to get the drives out. The video is strangely cropped, but it give a decent flavor re how to take them apart.

 

Inside I found a Seagate Barracuda XT drive. Although there are no specs on the drive, Seagate's other internal XT drives are 7200rpm.  It also seems a bit odd that as an external drive it has a 2 year warranty, yet the internal XT drive has a 5 year warranty.

 

I just started pre-clearing it, so, unfortunately, I won't know for a couple of days how that will turn out.

Seems like a decent deal. Just have to keep the external case in case you have to send in for rma.

 

Not sure how they honor the warranty, I think it would only be 2 year since it's sold as an external.

That's my guess too since the label on the drive in the enclosure doesn't contain the same amount of info as a standard XT internal drive.

Seems like a decent deal. Just have to keep the external case in case you have to send in for rma.

 

Not sure how they honor the warranty, I think it would only be 2 year since it's sold as an external.

 

Almost 100% sure if you take apart the enclosure it voids the warranty. Unless of course you can put it back together, stickers and all without them noticing.

Almost all the drives I have in my array used to be external

 

(I used to have up to six externals attached to my media center before I finally built an unraid server)

 

I tore the enclosures apart and put the drives in my server

 

As far as I can see, they are plain old internal drives that are being repackaged in enclosures.

 

I even rma'd one of them a few months back through Hitachi as if it was purchased as an internal

 

Search for the internal drive's serial number on the manufacturer's website (the manufacturer of the internal drive, not the enclosure) and you should see the warranty period.

 

Chances are, the original manufacturer does not keep track of which drives were sold to resellers to be repackaged so the original warranty of the drive will still apply.

 

Opening the enclosure only voids the warranty on the enclosure+drive combo

Chances are, the original manufacturer does not keep track of which drives were sold to resellers to be repackaged so the original warranty of the drive will still apply.

 

Opening the enclosure only voids the warranty on the enclosure+drive combo

 

Not always  true. I recently had a Hitachi that used to be external that i tore apart (no way to reassemble it afterwards). it died a few weeks later.

it showed good on the warranty check. I sent it in for warranty and they emailed me back to say the drive serial number is that of an external model and they would not fix it.

Chances are, the original manufacturer does not keep track of which drives were sold to resellers to be repackaged so the original warranty of the drive will still apply.

 

Opening the enclosure only voids the warranty on the enclosure+drive combo

 

Not always  true. I recently had a Hitachi that used to be external that i tore apart (no way to reassemble it afterwards). it died a few weeks later.

it showed good on the warranty check. I sent it in for warranty and they emailed me back to say the drive serial number is that of an external model and they would not fix it.

 

Seconded.

 

Do not expect warranty if you open an enclosure. Sure, try it, but don't cry if they follow the rules and deny the claim. I recommend multiple pre clear before opening the enclosure.

The bottom line for me is that I look at it the same way as if I were in Best Buy and the salesman offered me an extended 2 year warranty for $40 on a $160 item. Personally, I'd turn it down. I use $40 because the cheapest that I can find an internal 4tb drive at this moment in time is at Fry's for $200 for a Hitachi (one only). My experience has been that if a drive pre-clears fine, the drive will last me at least a couple of years. Sure, there is a chance that it won't, but for me, it is worth the $40(+) in my pocket today.

 

Besides, Costco has a more than decent return policy. And, Costco won't eat the cost of a bad drive. They'll merely return it to Seagate AND charge Seagate a "reclamation" fee for the process (in addition to the price of the defective drive). It's all about who is the biggest dog in the pack.

 

if i am not mistaken, cant you remove teh dock and plug a standard sata and sata power connector into these and do your preclears before you pry them apart?

if i am not mistaken, cant you remove teh dock and plug a standard sata and sata power connector into these and do your preclears before you pry them apart?

 

Yep, the bottom pops off fairly easily without breaking anything or removing the drive.

i am desperate for space right now and I was about to start recycling older 2TB drives i had laying about.  and then  order some 3TB drives and upgrade when they arrive.. 

 

this has me thinking i should pick up a few of these and let them run as eSATA drives in my main unRAID box. if they survive until i return home from my trip in a few months, i'll open them up then.  these i can just pick up now. (well when i go home tuesday)

 

buying 2 of these are still cheaper then any single internal 4TB drive in the market right now. if i get 4 and install 3. the 4th is my fail-over/warranty.. and I still come out a drive ahead (2 ahead if i put the spare into service).

 

To bad these are the 5 platter design and not the 4 platter ones.

buying 2 of these are still cheaper then any single internal 4TB drive in the market right now.

 

I've been picking up the Hitachi HDS724040ALE640 (0S03355) for around $249 shipped (no tax), which is the best price I had found for the 4TB models ... I'm ecstatic about these $159 models, and am pre-clearing one now.  So far, things look good ... should finish up towards the end of tomorrow.  If all goes well, I'll visit a few Costco stores nearb so I can buy more of the same model drives that (hopefully) aren't from the same batch.

Hoping to get 10 more for a new raidz2 stripe. At this price they are cheaper than typical 3TBs on sale.

 

Manufacturing lots are very large. It is likely all the drives on sale from all Costcos are one lot. But they have traveled and handled differently.

Hoping to get 10 more for a new raidz2 stripe. At this price they are cheaper than typical 3TBs on sale.

 

Manufacturing lots are very large. It is likely all the drives on sale from all Costcos are one lot. But they have traveled and handled differently.

 

Curious if you're going to run that RAID-Z stripe in OpenIndiana or BSD?

ZFS on Linux!

 

Here is the bottom of the "external" drive with the meant to be removed adapter removed. No warranty voided to pre clear these.

ZFS on Linux!

 

Here is the bottom of the "external" drive with the meant to be removed adapter removed. No warranty voided to pre clear these.

 

My understanding is ZFS on Linux is not fully baked and that's the reason people are so impatient that btrfs is not yet done. My understanding is the closest thing to a complete, full performance ZFS implementation outside of an Illumos (successor to OpenSolaris) distro like OpenIndiana or SmartOS is in FreeBSD/PC-BSD/FreeNAS

This is a good price; using a value of 3815 GB for this drive and 2861 GB for a 3 tb drive, here are the prices at which the two are equivalent on a storage basis:

 

3 tb      $120      $41.9 per tb

4 tb      $159      $41.7 per tb

 

Looking forward to breaking below the $40/tb barrier in a 4 tb drive!

 

the $90 deal for 3 tb last holiday season offered an amazing $31.5/tb value....

 

 

To bad these are the 5 platter design and not the 4 platter ones.

 

5 Platter designs are good for RANDOM I/O.

Any idea as to power draw? Tempted to get one but honestly don't "need" the larger drive right now.

To bad these are the 5 platter design and not the 4 platter ones.

 

5 Platter designs are good for RANDOM I/O.

 

I'd like to see the math behind that statement. This drive has the same average latency, 4.16ms.

I picked up several today. I started the preclear.

the plugs on the bottom.. while they are standard, they are recessed pretty deep. I had to go though about 9 cables before i found one that would plug in solid.

then the heat shot way up on them one unit hit 58c the other right behind it at 56c almost instantly (about 4-5% in). i had to abort the preclear and rig up a fan to keep them cooler.

 

To bad these are the 5 platter design and not the 4 platter ones.

 

5 Platter designs are good for RANDOM I/O.

 

I'd like to see the math behind that statement. This drive has the same average latency, 4.16ms.

 

Less head movement from what I remember.

 

In other hitachi designs that had 5 platters there was a measured improvement of random I/O.

It was slower in some sequential I/O but faster in Random I/O.

It was a while back. I don't remember the article or where I read it.

I picked up several today. I started the preclear.

the plugs on the bottom.. while they are standard, they are recessed pretty deep. I had to go though about 9 cables before i found one that would plug in solid.

then the heat shot way up on them one unit hit 58c the other right behind it at 56c almost instantly (about 4-5% in). i had to abort the preclear and rig up a fan to keep them cooler.

 

 

I also remember reading that heat was a by product of the 5 platter design too.

But not that high. Maybe look up the specs to see what they recommend.

If I remember correctly, Seagate would specify how many CFM to move across the drives.

Not sure if they do that these days.

I picked up several today. I started the preclear.

the plugs on the bottom.. while they are standard, they are recessed pretty deep. I had to go though about 9 cables before i found one that would plug in solid.

then the heat shot way up on them one unit hit 58c the other right behind it at 56c almost instantly (about 4-5% in). i had to abort the preclear and rig up a fan to keep them cooler.

 

One of the posts on http://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=57343600&postcount=33 mentioned the drive running hot. After running a few hours was at 52c. Reviews on newegg mention it running hot as well, closer to temperatures that you had 56c and over.

 

Have an unopened box, still trying to decide to keep or return it. May just keep it to backup disk images of my laptops.

Oh they run hot for sure, especially in the no fan external cases. I pre clear with a 120 moving air across them.