Octopus Overlords

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Avolusion ... f_=ast_bln

Are these any good? They're significantly cheaper...

I've never heard of them. And Tom's Hardware came up empty. Best I could find was: https://reviewmeta.com/brand/avolusion. That gives them a 4.1 out of 5. So not top of the line, but don't appear to be complete bombs. Though searching for the specific drive might give you some more info.

According to Reddit, Avolusion is a division of GoHardDrive which mostly get overstock and out-of-spec drives and repackage them in new enclosures. Not really its own brand which is probably why Tom's Hardware doesn't bother with them.

Someone posted that when they shucked a "brand-new" Avolusion HDD (took it out of the enclosure to see what actual hardware was packaged inside), they discovered that the drive was a 5-year-old WD enterprise model with a whopping 28393 power hours already logged on it.

Basically you are getting a used drive that "looks" new which is why they are so cheap. May not be a big deal if you are getting it for expanded storage on your gaming console (which is most of what they sell), but completely unsuitable if you plan on backing up important data long-term.

How do they get away with selling these as new then?

New? these are better than new, made from recycled materials!

Note: sarcasm may be involved in the preceding statement.

Darkstar One wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2023 4:28 pm How do they get away with selling these as new then?

Who's going to stop them?

Why would you risk data on an unknown? I guess if it was always backed up in the cloud you would be ok - but typically your data is more valuable than the hardware.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2023 9:43 pm

Darkstar One wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2023 4:28 pm How do they get away with selling these as new then?

Who's going to stop them?

The FTC for one. It is illegal (in the US at least) to sell used goods as new. Though many firms fly under the radar on this and they might be one of them!

malchior wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2023 11:48 am

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2023 9:43 pm

Darkstar One wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2023 4:28 pm How do they get away with selling these as new then?

Who's going to stop them?

The FTC for one. It is illegal (in the US at least) to sell used goods as new. Though many firms fly under the radar on this and they might be one of them!

There are thousands of companies selling counterfeit or misrepresented goods on Amazon. The FTC does go after some of them, but they can't keep up. And most are foreign, so they just 'shut down', disappear, and reopen under a new name.

Yeah there is a possible solution there. One I support wholeheartedly. Investigate Amazon's practice. They shouldn't be allowed to profit by running a white collar black market.

Anyway, I'll stick to the topic.

Buying cheap/used drives isn't always a bad idea if you have the right storage strategy in place. I've seen it work well for myself and in enterprise settings (which I am emulating at small scale).

I think the key is that nowhere on the product description on their own website do they claim the drive is "new" (as in no hours logged). Amazon has it marked as "new" by default unless it explicitly say "refurbished" or "recertified"? Oh gosh, that's not something we control, we didn't tell them to say that.

I would buy a used/recertified drive from ServerPartDeals or GoHardDrive, but only for a well-known brand (because warranty), and I would only buy from their site directly, not Amazon.

FWIW, I've bought a few of those refurbed data center HD's, usually like 4TB with a brand like "MaxDigitalData", and they work fine. But obviously, that's reduced overall life. They are okay if you just need another backup, but they ain't new.