This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/asbardella on 2025-07-28 12:13:05+00:00.


I’m building a home server for the first time in order to replace an absolutely ancient ReadyNAS Duo and gain access to a variety of new apps through Unraid, whilst trying to keep the budget as keen as possible. I’m basing it on a HP Elitedesk G800 G5 which only has two 3.5" bays (although there is a 2.5" for future expansion if it came to that) so I’m looking for at least 12TB for each drive, which has led me to used HDDs to keep the costs down. I’ve found this seller on eBay:

https://ebay.us/m/egOwck

Aside from the standard risks of buying used, these Exos drives seem well liked, helium filled etc. There’s no warranty with Seagate because they’re Dell branded but that seems like a gamble with used anyway. If they’ve been used for less than 6 months that’s a max of 4500 uptime hours which seems decent. Seller has good feedback. Am I missing something obvious? I’ve been researching like a madman for the last week or so but I’m new to this. I guess I would question where someone is getting large quantities of lightly used server drives to resell unless there was a problem?

Edit: I should add I’m in the UK and we don’t seem to have a lot of good options for well-known refurbishers