"new" drlve from eBay

[jido]

Hello
I bought a Maxtor MaXline II 250gb from eBay.
The seller advertised it as "never used". But the SMART status shows 156h 12min.
Did he cheat me?
Will the life expectancy be reduced?
Finally, I chose this drive to put in a fanless system (assumed 5400rpm produces less heat than 7200rpm). Is it a good choice?

 

[Mercutio]

He used it for something under a week, or it might've been tested. I'd call it new, regardless.

 

[LunarMist]

The drive could have been damaged in handling or the electronics could have been subjected to who knows what, either of which is much more important than a mere 156 hours of use. The main thing I would check is the Maxtor warranty status onlinw.

 

[i]

The seller advertised it as "never used". But the SMART status shows 156h 12min.

Or ...

... the seller never used it, but the 156 owners before him each used it for an hour.

 

[jido]

funny Lunar

he he I see you people have some humor.
I thought about testing, the Maxline line is supposed to be enterprise-grade but 156h seemed excessive. Is it not much in your opinion?
The electronics look fine, I didnt notice any physical defect either.

 

[Santilli]

It's a Maxtor, so prayer is a wonderful suggestion :wink:

Check the length of warranty on the drive. Since I have the black thumb of ATA, I'm certainly NOT the person to comment...

:mrgrn: :wink:

GS

 

[Buck]

Re: funny Lunar

he he I see you people have some humor.
I thought about testing, the Maxline line is supposed to be enterprise-grade but 156h seemed excessive. Is it not much in your opinion?
The electronics look fine, I didnt notice any physical defect either.

Let's see, 156 hours equals 6.5 days of use. Nope, not concerned. If an enterprise class drive can't last another five years because it has already run less than a week, it's pig fodder.

 

[jido]

The warranty will run off in April, 2006 :-?
So I have 5 months left to find whether it is reliable enough.
I would be surprised if Maxtor test their drives for 6.5 days before shipping. I guess the previous owner or the shop could have tested it though.

 

[Tannin]

So how long do new drives normally have recorded on them? Is there an average figure? Is it the same for enterprise-class drives?

 

[Fushigi]

The warranty will run off in April, 2006 :-?

Then it's used.

 

[jido]

The warranty will run off in April, 2006 :-?

Then it's used.

I think here, "not used" isn't the negation of "used".
What the seller says is that he didn't use it [inside a computer]. Of course it is not considered new, because an individual [the seller] purchased it from a shop long ago. If the warranty is 3 years then he purchased it in April, 2003.
What worried me was that the disk has already 156 hours of power-on, but others noted that it is merely 6.5 days of use. So the seller didn't cheat me, and I will give him a good eBay feedback for goods that do match the description and speedy delivery.
Thanks all!

 

[Buck]

If the warranty is 3 years then he purchased it in April, 2003.

The warranty starts from the manufacture date. Hard Drive manufacturers don't know when you purchased the drive.

 

[CityK]

It sounds to me like the seller had used the drive in an external enclosure. He/She probably used the drive as a repository for backups. Maybe they even brought it to their friends' places and swapped files a couple of times. Maybe the seller was/is a service tech who used the drive in an external enclosure and brought it with them around to clients in order to aid in service operations. Who knows but the seller.

Furthermore, it is quite possible that there was no guilt involved -- the seller, in their mind, might just as well as thought that the drive was good as new; and this could simply be because of their subjective determination that it was as good as new as far as they are concerned, or perhpas they forgot that two years ago they ran the drive in a computer for a week.

More likely though, given that a seller is really usually just primarily concerned with getting top dollar, its highly unlikely that they would have admitted to "yeah, I had this thing in an external case and I used it a little bit over the past two years" ... its much more convinent to simply say "never used it" without feeling too bad about it, cause 156hours is pretty close to the truth in terms of hard drives anyways. Its quite possible that they are unaware that power on values are recorded and that their claim can be subjected to scrutiny. Or, perhaps they may be very aware power on values are recorded, but figure there is close to little chance that a buyer would know about those SMART values, so took the chance and said "never used"

Still I wouldn't rule out manufacturer factory testing as solely attributing to those hours. But I would think the values would be reset before shipping....how do manufacturers go about testing drives anyways. Surely they just sample from production runs. So again, I find this explaination the harder to imagine (i.e. what are the chances you actually ended up with a drive that was sampled by the manufacturer?)

The bottom line is this: it was used, but it was a pitiful amount at that. I would just let it go. You roll the dice when you buy off fleabay and, although I know you might be somewhat disappointed that the drive is not brand new, I don't your die came up snake eyes.