Who are we?
We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.
We are one. We are legion. And we're trying really hard not to forget.
-- 5-4-3-2-1-bang from this thread
What’s the catch? This is the best deal I can find on the internet by a fair margin. This seller has an amazon store page as well and seems to have a good reputation on both. The seller claims its a new HDD from a reputable brand and offers a 5 year sellers warranty.
The catch is that they're Seagate drives. Seagate have some of worst reliability in the industry and you're buying it secondhand from eBay.
Personally I'd rather just set my money on fire.
That’s a good point. According to BackBlaze’s Q1 2023 report Seagate drives have a 2.28% annualized failure rate. Which is quite a bit higher than the next closest comparison HGST which has a 1.1% afr.
That risk seems worth it to me at this level of discount.
Hey at that price it's at least not a huge loss if they only last a few years. Best not to keep anything you can't replace on them anyway.