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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 (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.

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Why are Avolusion external hard drives so cheap? (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by idea_max_7777@alien.top to c/datahoarder@selfhosted.forum

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I can't find much info about the quality of Avolusion drives other than some ratings and the reason their cost is almost 2/3rd or less compared to WD or Seagate. I was looking at the 8TB drive which costs 100$ while the other companies always cost 150+. What is the reason for this difference, it is because of the need of a separate power source, thought i can't imagine that is the only difference. I haven't been able to compare the rpms etc properly though but they all seem to support USB 3.0.

Thanks, hope this is not obvious :(

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[–] Far_Marsupial6303@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

3rd tier binned drives at best. Used at worse. They're a division of GoHardDrive.

Q: Is it true that the drives in externals can be: overstock, overruns, binned (out of spec drives), from cancelled orders.

A: Yes to all of it. Externals are the lowest bins above the [redated] (Edit: binned rives} we sell to third parties. It’s whatever is leftover. They have less warranty because they aren’t expected to last as long.

My notes: The first part is supported by what I posted in this thread, https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/11jmot5/to_those_asking_what_drive_is_inside_my_wd/ which has a link to WD's disclosure about this.

It's been confirmed by another source that the binned drives, are drives that are Out Of Spec, flashed with special firmware that can't be updated and is no longer supported by the manufacturer. This is source of SOME of the unbranded drives from certain resellers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/146hb9k/information_about_cmr_to_smr_manufacturer/

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/k6ijw8/i_shucked_an_avolusion_hddgear_pro_x_6tb_usb_30/

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/15oihst/anyone_ever_shucked_an_avolution_drive/

https://www.goharddrive.com/Avolusion-1TB-USB-3-0-External-PS4-Gaming-HDD-p/g03-1485-ps.htm

[–] PDXSonic@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Likely used drives in cheap enclosures.