Recertified vs. Refurbished Hard Drives

Recertified hard drives are rigorously tested and available at a discount. But making a quality purchase involves knowing what to look for.

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When it comes to purchasing hard disk drives (HDDs), there are often trade-offs between cost and quality. Factory recertified drives aim to offer the best of both worlds. Rigorously vetted, these drives have seen little or no previous use. They are also typically cheaper than devices fresh off the manufacturing line. What’s more, buying recertified drives is one small but meaningful way to help mitigate the e-waste crisis. If returned drives are simply shredded, we’re all worse off.

However, terminology surrounding recertified HDDs can be confusing. A quick search online for resold drives will turn up results for “recertified drives”, “refurbished drives”, “certified refurbished drives”, and more. What’s more, these terms are often used slightly differently by different sellers. That can spell confusion for buyers looking to purchase drives at a discount.

What’s at stake is quality. Behind the verbiage and the price tag, there’s a device that either works for what you need or doesn’t. Since different sellers use terms differently, it’s helpful to have a sense of what to look for. To ensure you are purchasing a quality device, you should determine who refurbished the hardware, and what testing process it underwent in order to ensure that it’s good as new.

Who Certifies the Certifiers?

Part of the difficulty is that there are no universal standards for what counts as refurbishment or recertification. “The terms ‘refurbished’ and ‘recertified’ are used interchangeably,” says Stephen Buckler, chief operating officer of Horizon Technology. “There is no certifying body for recertified drives other than the manufacturers themselves.”

One needn’t look far to find inconsistencies in language surrounding renewed drives. Western Digital refers to such drives as “recertified”. Toshiba, on the other hand, refers to replacement parts as “recertified”, but to whole devices as “factory refurbished.” In both cases, third-party sellers switch up the words used, calling both WD and Toshiba drives “certified refurbished” in some places and “manufacturer recertified” in others. In practice, looseness of usage dilutes the meaning of these words over time. “Nowadays, ‘refurbished’ is essentially a nice way of saying ‘used’,” Buckler explains.

Whatever the terminology, renewed drives should, in theory, have been restored to full working condition so that they are functionally as good as new. However, as with any product, the “should” might be better fulfilled by some sellers than others. That is why it’s essential to examine the details in order to know just what sort of product you’re purchasing. “What’s most important is that you have evidence that the drive has been rigorously tested,” he says.

Factory vs. Seller Testing

Thankfully, there’s an easy way to cut through confusion: read the fine print. The two most important things to find out are a.) who refurbished the drive in question and b.) what sort of evidence the seller is providing that the device is indeed as good as new.

Factory recertified drives, also known as manufacturer recertified drives, are precisely what they sound like. They are drives that have been recertified by the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) as being in optimal condition. These drives usually come with a label indicating they’ve been officially retested by the manufacturer.

There are several reasons to prefer factory recertified drives over those which are refurbished by a third-party seller. Firstly, OEMs know the ins and outs of their own drives better than anyone. Secondly, the factory in which the drives were made will likely have access to more precise testing equipment. Finally, by retesting and certifying drives themselves, OEMs are putting their reputations on the line, which gives them a strong motivation to ensure quality.

By contrast, drives that have been refurbished and tested by a third-party seller can vary considerably in quality. A particularly diligent seller will do many of the same things the OEM would have: updating firmware, resetting S.M.A.R.T. stats, and running various tests. However, unscrupulous refurbishers might do much less, such as simply clearing data from the drive and checking the disk before reselling.

Which Drives Get Recertified?

One upshot of refurbished drives is that they are often not just good as new, but genuinely unused. It’s common for companies to buy drives in bulk, and then return unneeded surplus. According to Buckler, the upshot is that “the drive will have near-zero, if any, power-on hours (POH) and will test to new drive standards”.

Aside from the return of surplus, whole batches of drives are sometimes pulled before deployment and returned to the manufacturer due to a lot test showing failure rates exceeding acceptable thresholds. In such a case, the entire lot is returned to the drive manufacturer and cycled through their recertification process. Drives which are used as demo models are also candidates for recertification.

Whatever the source, drives eligible for recertification will likely be just old enough that reviews will be available from customers who bought the same model, allowing for a more informed purchase.

HDD vs. SSD: A Smaller Market

While recertification of HDDs continues to gain momentum, the secondary market for recertified SSDs remains slow to catch on. According to Buckler, SSD manufacturers have questions “over whether prime product and recertified drives can coexist without recertified drives cannibalizing prime sales.”

There are also certain cases in which hard drives will not be recertified. “When buying a recertified drive, the drive will not have had any physical repair performed on it,” Buckler explains. “With recertified drives, manufacturers are willing to put their reputation on the line. But when a drive requires a physical repair, the drives are white-labeled and tested to new drive standards before being resold.”

This means that those purchasing recertified drives can be confident that the devices didn’t previously suffer from damage that could adversely affect future performance.

What Factory Recertification Involves

Factory recertified drives tend to go through more tests than drives fresh off the assembly line. This is because a lengthy testing process, if used on every new drive, would lead to bottlenecks as devices head towards the channel. Since there are fewer recertified drives than new models, they can be tested at greater length without holding things up.

Additional tests for refurbished hard drives may include checking data integrity, as well as determining how well the drive holds up under vibration and other physical disturbances.

The specific workflow for testing and recertifying a drive will vary according to manufacturer. To be confident that testers and sellers are following a rigorous process, it’s a good idea to check that they have the appropriate certifications in place. While there is no certifying body as such for recertified drives, manufacturers can show their reliability by meeting quality control standards for particular stages in the retesting process.

For example, ADISA is an industry body which certifies businesses that meet strict standards surrounding data sanitization. Another relevant certification is the ISO 9001 standard for quality management. Management standards matter as well, since a tight workflow is essential for secure sanitization. You can test a drive all you want, but it won’t help if the tested drive is then miscategorized or misplaced.

What To Look For In Refurbished Hard Drives

When buying refurbished hard drives, purchasing them directly from the manufacturer gives you the best guarantee of quality. While the specific description may vary, you should look for some indication that the drive was refurbished by the OEM. Look for products with “factory recertified,” “manufacturer recertified,” or “certified refurbished” in the description.

Of course, unscrupulous sellers might try to pass off seller refurbished drives as factory recertified. Most OEMs put a special recertification label indicating that the drive has officially passed the necessary tests.

In addition to ensuring the drive was actually repaired by the manufacturer, these labels are important because they signal that the OEM is confident enough in the quality of their product to hang their reputation on it.

Another way OEMs and sellers can vouch for a product’s quality is via warranty. If a refurbished hard drive has a warranty of six months or longer, the testers have probably done enough due diligence to ensure that the device is unlikely to fail soon after purchase. Recertified drives can sometimes be obtained from the OEM itself, but are also available through authorized resellers and distributors. Some manufacturers, such as Western Digital, keep a list of authorized sellers on its website.

Some Additional Tips For Drive Seekers

Digging a little bit deeper can give you an even better chance of ensuring a quality purchase. There are several factors that are worth a double-check when you’re shopping recertified, according to Buckler.

“First of all, check the number of hours on the drives. Avoid anything with more than 20,000-25,000 hours, though this can depend on the drive type.”

He also suggests taking a peek under the hood at allocated sectors. “Look for zero reallocated sectors and 92% health or better. Another consideration is sector size, with 512B considered standard for consumer markets and 4K for enterprise environments.” 

Of course, different drives require different treatment, and a responsible recertification process should respect this.

“Drives are not universal,” explains Buckler. “SMR and hybrid drives need to be approached differently than a standard PMR/CMR drive. For example, depending on the type, an SMR drive may require some additional setup to make sure it interfaces properly with the surrounding architecture.” Self-encrypting drives may also prove finicky. “They don’t always play nice,” he says.

Finally, purchasers should be aware of compatibility issues. “OEM drives supplied by vendors such as HP, NetApp, or Dell may have unique firmware tied to a specific machine”, says Buckler. “This means that they are unlikely to work if used in a different machine.”

Good As New And Sustainable Too

Buying refurbished hard drives can be an excellent way to make your business more sustainable while reducing costs. Factory recertified drives offer the best bang for your buck, in the form of a quality drive at an industry-leading cost per terabyte.

As with any purchase, it pays to do your research. While reducing costs is important, cheapest isn’t always best: you want to make a quality purchase. To do so, choose an authorized dealer, check for the recertification label, make sure you have a warranty, and do a bit of digging to see what standards the testers and resellers follow. With a bit of detective work, you can find quality refurbished hard drives to serve your business needs.

Horizon is an authorized distributor of Seagate recertified drives, and has worked with Seagate for more than 25 years. Get in touch to find out how to buy drives in bulk.