[OOS] WD MyBook 2TB (looks like EasyStore case) MFG REFURB $39.99 from WD on ebay (Save $10 on every $50)

[VirtualLarry]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/WD-My-Book...al-Hard-Drive-by-Western-Digital/292469555822

Another (I think) decent deal, assuming that the refurb drive is good.

$39.99, buy 3, for $119.97, save $10 for every $50, so save $20, for a total of $99.97. (Free ship)

$33.33 for a 2TB HDD, shuckable. Not too shabby. (Although I would personally aim for higher capacity.)

Edit: I guess to maximize the deal, buy 5? Although, that might be a few cents short still, sorry.


Edit: The 4TB external desktop refurb WD MyBooks are back in stock. Buy four, get them for $55.55 ea. after promo, for a 4TB, that's a slightly better deal than this one, if you're planning to shuck them.

Edit: Check out the WD MyCloud 2TB desktop sized HDD NAS for $64.99 instead, from WD on ebay.

Edit: 2019-01-10 back in stock! Buy 6 to maximize discount, I think, basically, it works out like buy 5 for $200, get the sixth free, effectively.

Edit: Also see the 2TB MyBook Essential desktop external HDD, MFG REFURB, for $39.99, "Save 20% buy 3+". Might be easier to get a "deal" that way, without having to buy multiples of $50 worth of drives. (Straight-up 20% off if you buy 3 or more.) Also, possibly the "Essential" doesn't have the encryption? Not sure.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/WD-My-Book...hed-External-Hard-Drive-by-West-/292535535915

 

[KingFatty]

Any idea what the internals of the drive enclosure is like? I'm wondering if it uses a standard SATA interface inside, or if there would be any way to open up the enclosure and remove and/or replace the existing drive?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Pretty sure (like 99% sure), that most DESKTOP external drives on the market, regardless of mfg, can be shucked, with enough time, tools, and expertise. (Or a YouTube video or two.)

Edit: That said, these enclosures (if the ebay pic is anything to go by), look just like the EasyStore enclosures / externals that made the rounds a year or two ago from BestBuy, that were all the rage for home servers and NAS units, because they had 8TB WD Red drives inside. (I got four, and they were indeed WD Reds. Granted, no warranty once shucked, but they were like half the price of new. For that price, buy two!)

 

[BenJeremy]

Pretty sure (like 99% sure), that most DESKTOP external drives on the market, regardless of mfg, can be shucked, with enough time, tools, and expertise. (Or a YouTube video or two.)

Edit: That said, these enclosures (if the ebay pic is anything to go by), look just like the EasyStore enclosures / externals that made the rounds a year or two ago from BestBuy, that were all the rage for home servers and NAS units, because they had 8TB WD Red drives inside. (I got four, and they were indeed WD Reds. Granted, no warranty once shucked, but they were like half the price of new. For that price, buy two!)

It certainly would be awesome if these 2TB external drives had 8TB Reds inside!

 

[VirtualLarry]

It certainly would be awesome if these 2TB external drives had 8TB Reds inside!

Ehh, what a misfire, sort of. I was talking about the ones that were "all the rage"... which were the 8TB models, for $130-160 on sale.

Edit: According to the picture on the ebay listing for these, they appear to be the same form-factor / enclosure, so if you successfully shucked the EasyStore units, then these should be a piece of cake.

 

[13Gigatons]

Gonna guess these are WD Blue......which are OK for the price.

 

[13Gigatons]

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's not too bad a price for 6x2TB, is it? How much does a new single 12TB HDD go for these days? I think that they're $350+.

Kind of like, "Buy 5, get 1 free, almost."

Edit: I still have 3x WD Blue 5400RPM 2TB HDDs, that I bought at Newegg some months ago, for like $53-55 ea., somewhere in there, after promo. For "new" drives, I didn't consider that to be a bad deal either. This deal is, of course, better, but then again, of course, refurb.

I'm kind of hoping (I ordered four of the 4TB MyBook refurbs), that most of them were mostly issues with the enclosure, and that the drives themselves inside are basically clean and A-OK.

Edit: I mean, I've bought drives on ebay, "new", of unknown provenance, and chances are, 10-to-1, probably, that they were either re-labeled, or had their SMART reset, and that they weren't actually "new". (Or maybe, they were?)

But I'm sort of banking on the fact that these refurbs, are factory-direct, straight from WD themselves, and that they have the technology and procedures in place to re-certify them to "like new" specs.

(Or maybe they contract out the refurbishing job to some overseas operation, the lowest bidder. I don't know, what with globalization these days. Sigh.)

 

[BenJeremy]

This makes me kind of sad though... shucking externals to get some WD 2TB drives... I built my two RAID0+1 servers (8x2TB drives each) using used 2TB Hitachis I bought on eBay years ago for $36~45 each (all 16 drives still going strong). We should be paying that for 6TB drives these days.

Not saying this isn't a good deal... just sad that it is, and that's a statement of the state of affairs with us consumers and how much price fixing the industry is doing.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Back in stock! Buy 6 to maximize savings.

 

[13Gigatons]

Only allowed 5 now:

 

[VirtualLarry]

Bump, see OP for the additional link for the "2TB MyBook Essential" version, also for $39.99, but with "Save 20% on 3+", which may allow for a more straight-up 20% off discount when buying 3 or more drives, without having to figure out how to buy multiple $50 worth of drives to maximize the discount.