WD MyBook 4TB MFG REFURB $55.96 ea. (qty. 4+) FS from WD on ebay

[VirtualLarry]

WD My Book 4TB Certified Refurbished Hard Drive by Western Digital | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for WD My Book 4TB Certified Refurbished Hard Drive by Western Digital at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

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https://www.ebay.com/itm/WD-My-Book-4TB-Manufacturer-Refurbished-Hard-Drive-by-Western-Digital/293791482490

Buy four or more, get them for $55.96 ea.

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https://www.ebay.com/itm/WD-My-Book...ed-Hard-Drive-by-Western-Digital/292673255723

So, like, buy FOUR of these, get $50 off the total. So a little over $200, for 4x4TB, then pick up a 4-bay NAS unit of your choice... (Yeah, you've got to shuck the drives, and I don't know if they have Blues or Reds inside of them, so YMMV!)

But seems like a good start for NAS drives cheap. And if these refurb drives fail, well, just replace them one at a time, the point being to run them in RAID-5 in a 4-bay NAS to avoid risking all your data on a single refurb drive failure.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't recommend refurb HDDs, but these are explicitly mfg refurb drives, from WD directly, so you kind of assume that they would be tested and working.

Edit: I opened one of four I ordered, ZERO POH!

Edit: 2018-12-28 - until 6PM PST, use coupon POPUPSAVINGS for an ADDITIONAL 15% off! See attached image for savings details on 4x 4TB WD MyBook external desktop refurbished HDDs.

Edit: Attached a CDM benchmark pic of the drive, this was taken when the drive was "fresh", without a password assigned using the WD Security software.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Back in stock! I received mine, appear to be basically new-ish. Only 6 months (actually, more like 7.5) warranty when you check them on WD's site. New versions of the drive have 2 years warranty.

Still, seems like a deal, cheapest mfg refurb on Amazon or Newegg (same vendor) is $89.99.

I may try to re-sell these, rather than shuck them for a (currently, yet-to-be-purchased) NAS unit.

 

[13Gigatons]

Tax kinda sours the deal for me.

 

[esquared]

Are these WD My books drives still using encryption that you can't turn off?
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/wd-my-book-drives-and-encryption-automatically-enabled.2460318/

If you shuck the drives will that bypass/remove the encryption chip?


I

 

[VirtualLarry]

As far as I understand it, if you shuck it, there's no encryption on the drive itself, just in the enclosure, if there is any. One of the reviews on Amazon for the 8TB MyBook (like these), claimed (take reviews with a grain of salt) that there's no encryption, period. (He claimed that you could write data to the drive, in the enclosure, and then pull the drive, and then read the data off of it in Windows outside the enclosure. If that's true, then yes, there shouldn't be any encryption. But that was the 8TB model.)

I really do hope that they did away with the encryption.

There's also some YouTube videos on how to mod the enclosure, to take other drives, by bypassing the WD-specific firmware EEPROM chip, by desoldering/cutting two leads on it. That should bypass the encryption too.

The encryption chip is part of the enclosure of the device, not the drive itself - this is why the drive can't be decrypted outside of the enclosure.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just opened one up, there isn't a retail box inside the brown box, that's actually it for packaging.

Mine had the serial and P/N on the bottom, and "Recertified in Vietnam" on the bottom label/printing on the actual drive.

However, it looks and feels new, at least, new case, and new accessories. Drive inside shows ZERO POH. Smart is basically all zeros, except for 11 power cycles for some reason.

CDI shows "Interface: USB (Serial ATA)" and "Transfer Mode: SATA/600 | SATA/600". No UASP like the Seagate Desktop External enclosures.

Edit: Seems to power-on when USB3.0 cable is connected to host, and powers off when disconnected, even with AC-DC power adapter still plugged in. So if your USB ports shut off in sleep mode, it should cause the drive to power-down/sleep as well. (Which may or may not be desirable.)

 

[KingFatty]

Oh thanks for the analysis/write up! Interesting how the system connected to the enclosure can trigger power-off of the enclosure via the USB interface, such as when the system goes to sleep or puts the USB interfaces to sleep.

Quick question about the opposite: is the drive itself able to enter a power-down or spin-down mode, even if the USB interface is not sleeping?

I ask because I'm considering using this on the USB storage expansion port of a wifi router, and the router does not appear to sleep or spin down the USB interface, so I think the USB interface is always awake. It would be great if this 4 TB enclosure would be able to monitor lack of access request to the drive, and intelligently sleep/spin-down itself? Are you able to see if that occurs with the drive?

 

[VirtualLarry]

bump for 15% off ebay coupon, see attached image in OP for details on 4x 4TB external WD MyBook refurb, shipped to MA. Like $202.xx. Around half price per drive, once you shuck them.

 

[UsandThem]

However, it looks and feels new, at least, new case, and new accessories. Drive inside shows ZERO POH. Smart is basically all zeros, except for 11 power cycles for some reason.

They probably reset the SMART data, and then did some testing (powering on and off) before certifying them as refurbs, and selling them.

At least these are sold directly by Western Digital, so you know they did everything right in the refurb process. There'd be no way I'd trust some no-name seller on Ebay doing this as many of them simply reset the SMART data and ship them out. There's been a few people here burned by that.

 

[VirtualLarry]

At least these are sold directly by Western Digital, so you know they did everything right in the refurb process.

Yeah, that's why I posted these. I trust WD to at least refurb correctly. Plus, at least the new versions of these drives, get fairly decent reviews, for an external HDD. They actually have an honestly decent cooling arrangement. (Both top and bottom are fully vented, and the drive is a lower-powered 5400RPM model.)

 

[13Gigatons]

zero left

 

[VirtualLarry]

Saw this mentioned in a recent SD thread regarding the 3TB MyBook external:

A lot of them are store returns they do not put any returned storage devices back on the shelf even if the product is not opened it gets returned to the manufacture. This has been my experience in the industry.

That would basically explain the zero POH. Also seems to suggest that not all of them may appear new? Unless WD has a policy of always putting the drives in a new case, with new accessories.

Edit: And yeah, sorry about the OOS. Not that I'm responsible for that, well, I did tell my friend about the ebay coupon code (after posting it here for all of you to partake in), and he bought one, the extra coupon code pushed him over the edge. If I had more money left, I would have bought another round of four, for more NAS fun and games, but you know, a man's got to know his limits.

Here's the 3TB, have at it, still in-stock. Note that there is no additional WD discount.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/WD-My-Book...al-Hard-Drive-by-Western-Digital/292424057919

 

[killster1]

Saw this mentioned in a recent SD thread regarding the 3TB MyBook external:

That would basically explain the zero POH. Also seems to suggest that not all of them may appear new? Unless WD has a policy of always putting the drives in a new case, with new accessories.

Edit: And yeah, sorry about the OOS. Not that I'm responsible for that, well, I did tell my friend about the ebay coupon code (after posting it here for all of you to partake in), and he bought one, the extra coupon code pushed him over the edge. If I had more money left, I would have bought another round of four, for more NAS fun and games, but you know, a man's got to know his limits.

Here's the 3TB, have at it, still in-stock. Note that there is no additional WD discount.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/WD-My-Book...al-Hard-Drive-by-Western-Digital/292424057919

i dont know how many wd refurbs you have bought off ebay, but i have purchased a good amount and it seems 99% of the time it is shipped from western digital themself with the other person acting as a middleman (they returned the drives and you get back their rma'd drives) Brand new 2x4tb for 63$ shipped with a mybook duo something or other shipped straight from wd, had bought a 2x2tb for the same price a week earlier also came straight from Western digital warehouse.

I didnt realize you had posted the ebay coupon already sorry ((you should have made a new thread a OOS HD thread with 15% off didnt grab my attention) , just saw it @ 3pm and barely had enough time to use it. (bought another galaxy s9 plus and pearl necklace for my girls bday) but saved 100$

 

[KingFatty]

Back in stock at this price

 

[VirtualLarry]

Back in stock at this price

Well, not quite, they now seem to be missing the "Save $10 for every $50" discount. Oh well. I would have bought more if they were discounted. $68 ea. is kind of steep, when you add on tax. You can get brand new 4TB externals (non refurb) for $80. (Edit: I know it now sounds like I'm TC'ing my own deal, but only because you no longer can "buy 4 and save $50 off the top", which was why I posted the deal.)

Edit: Discount is back, but now currently OOS.

 

[VirtualLarry]

They're baaaaack... in stock!

Edit: At this point, given that they have: 1) Hundreds in stock, apparently, and 2) the first one I opened, had zero POH, then, just maybe... 3) These might be "new surplus" stock, retail store / disty returns, sold by the mfg out the back door (refurb on ebay), with limited (6 mos) warranty, just to get rid of them, so they don't have to maintain warranty stockpiles for them for the next 3 years still? (Or, these are the warranty stockpiles, being sold off.)

 

[KingFatty]

OK this 4 TB is back in stock, and the $10-off discount applies once you add to cart and go to checkout you see the discount.

I'm just about to pull the trigger on one, but can anyone comment on whether the WD My Book 4TB will be able to spin down itself, like when you plug it into the USB port of a Wifi router that is *NOT* running any WD software, such that the drive is *NOT* plugged into a Windows PC, but instead just to your simple old router?

 

[13Gigatons]

3.6TB of actually space.....there really needs to be a law against that.

 

[VirtualLarry]

You mean, 3.6TiB.

...aaand, they're out of stock. Again. Let's wait a few days, and see if they get more.

 

[13Gigatons]

You mean, 3.6TiB.

...aaand, they're out of stock. Again. Let's wait a few days, and see if they get more.

If they sold as 4.3TB and you actually got 4.0TiB I'd be happy.

 

[VirtualLarry]

bump for fresh deal.