"Sonnics" hard drives?

In message , Andy Burns
writes:
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

If they're only re_branded_, that's fine; it's re_furbished_ I want
to avoid.

Amazon sell 2TB seagate drives, cheaper than sonnics and with double
the warranty, so as nospam asks, why would you?

I'm trying them. Their filtering system is far inferior to ebay's - for
example, I can't see any way to specify 3.5", so I'm currently seeing
lots of 2.5", as well as cables, cases, adapters ... I also want to look
at, say, 750G to 2T. But they don't have a "see all" like ebay, so I
have to tick 500-999G, wait for a page refresh, tick 1T and wait for
another page refresh hoping it hasn't unticked the first tick ... OK,
I've now done that (both ticks did stick). The first four things (I'm
sorting by price and set a start of 10 to try to eliminate the cables)
are carry cases for hard drives, followed by an 80G one. However, I'll
persist ... (Oh, I've clicked "New". I suspect the 80G, 120G, and 250G
drives that are coming up are anything but new.)

Right, I've ploughed through several pages and am starting to see them
(actually I went back and ticked only Sonnics and Seagate):

(Couple of Sonnics 750G at 18.99 and 19.99 but shown as "for CCTV": are
these OK for PC?)


Make SATA-level RPM cache condition warranty pounds (inc.):


Sonnics 1T III 7200 32 "new" "1 year manufacturer warranty" 26.99

Vivetronic (Sonnics) 1.5T 5400 II 32 "new" "1 yr man warr" 27.99

Haven't seen any Seagate under 30.00 except 500G ones.

Seagate 750G no data "new" but DOM: 11/2012 32.99

Seagate 1T "6G/s" 7200 64 "new" (DOM: 10SEP2015) 33.99

Seagate 1T "6G/s" 7200 64 not-stated 35.98

same again "new" "2-year limited warranty" 35.99
same again 36.92 (and more of same for more)

Vivetronic 2T III 7200 32 "new" "1 year man war" 39.95

Seagate "white label" 2T III 5400 "new" (DOM: 19APR2018) "recertified",
cache not stated 39.99

Seagate 1T "SATA" 5900 64 "new" 46.82

Seagate 2T III 7200 64 "new" 49.99
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"Bother,"saidPoohwhenhisspacebarrefusedtowork.

On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 14:20:23 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

If they're only re_branded_, that's fine; it's re_furbished_ I want to
avoid.

I don't care what you do, but I'm curious. I've never had an issue with a
refurbished item. Have you?

In message , Char Jackson
writes:
On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 14:20:23 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

If they're only re_branded_, that's fine; it's re_furbished_ I want to
avoid.

I don't care what you do, but I'm curious. I've never had an issue with a
refurbished item. Have you?

To be honest, nor have I (that I know of)! However, this is for someone
else, so I want a reasonable life out of it. I may go for it though. The
main thing that irritates me about HDD sellers on ebay (and, by the look
of it, amazon) is that a lot of them are _blatant_ about selling
refurbished - or, actually, just used (and maybe peremptorily tested) -
drives as "New". If they were _honest_, I'd be more inclined to buy from
them - but, one can't help wondering, if they're dishonest about that
aspect, what else might they be being dishonest about?

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"... all your hard work in the hands of twelve people too stupid to get off jury
duty." CSI, 200x

On 2019-09-30 1:26 p.m., J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Char Jackson
writes:
On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 14:20:23 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

If they're only re_branded_, that's fine; it's re_furbished_ I want to
avoid.

I don't care what you do, but I'm curious. I've never had an issue with a
refurbished item. Have you?

To be honest, nor have I (that I know of)! However, this is for someone
else, so I want a reasonable life out of it. I may go for it though. The
main thing that irritates me about HDD sellers on ebay (and, by the look
of it, amazon) is that a lot of them are _blatant_ about selling
refurbished - or, actually, just used (and maybe peremptorily tested) -
drives as "New". If they were _honest_, I'd be more inclined to buy from
them - but, one can't help wondering, if they're dishonest about that
aspect, what else might they be being dishonest about?


Well, if you are buying for someone else You had better do the right
thing and buy them a NEW one, otherwise you may be doing them a Disservice.

Rene

In alt.comp.os.windows-10 nospam wrote:
In article , Andy Burns
wrote:

What I'm after is a basic, 3.5", internal drive.

then why are you looking at externals, such as sonnics?

because they also sell re-branded internal drives, seagate with a
sonnics sticker by the looks of it.

why would they do that, and more importantly, why would anyone buy such
a thing?

$!
--
Why is this ant sick again, but with a nasty allergy (leaks, sneezes, and itches)? No cold, flu like from over a month ago, massive poops and pees from this stupid old body.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
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/ /\ /\ \ http://antfarm.ma.cx. Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

In message , Char Jackson
writes:
On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 19:26:59 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message , Char Jackson
writes:
On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 14:20:23 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

If they're only re_branded_, that's fine; it's re_furbished_ I want to
avoid.

I don't care what you do, but I'm curious. I've never had an issue with a
refurbished item. Have you?

To be honest, nor have I (that I know of)! However, this is for someone
else, so I want a reasonable life out of it. I may go for it though. The
main thing that irritates me about HDD sellers on ebay (and, by the look
of it, amazon) is that a lot of them are _blatant_ about selling
refurbished - or, actually, just used (and maybe peremptorily tested) -
drives as "New". If they were _honest_, I'd be more inclined to buy from
them - but, one can't help wondering, if they're dishonest about that
aspect, what else might they be being dishonest about?

OK, thanks, John. Carry on...

I actually went for the 1.5T Sonnics one for 27.99 on Amazon. The
company has a good (99.4% IIRR) rating on ebay based on a large number
of transactions, and reviews on Amazon (apart from the ones where it
didn't work at all) were also favourable, including a couple of
long-term ones.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

But remember, in a permissive society, it is also permissible to stay at home
and have a nice cup of tea instead. Andrew Collins, RT 2015/2/14-20

On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 21:31:08 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message , Char Jackson
writes:
On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 19:26:59 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message , Char Jackson
writes:
On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 14:20:23 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

If they're only re_branded_, that's fine; it's re_furbished_ I want to
avoid.

I don't care what you do, but I'm curious. I've never had an issue with a
refurbished item. Have you?

To be honest, nor have I (that I know of)! However, this is for someone
else, so I want a reasonable life out of it. I may go for it though. The
main thing that irritates me about HDD sellers on ebay (and, by the look
of it, amazon) is that a lot of them are _blatant_ about selling
refurbished - or, actually, just used (and maybe peremptorily tested) -
drives as "New". If they were _honest_, I'd be more inclined to buy from
them - but, one can't help wondering, if they're dishonest about that
aspect, what else might they be being dishonest about?

OK, thanks, John. Carry on...

I actually went for the 1.5T Sonnics one for 27.99 on Amazon. The
company has a good (99.4% IIRR) rating on ebay based on a large number
of transactions, and reviews on Amazon (apart from the ones where it
didn't work at all) were also favourable, including a couple of
long-term ones.

Will you have possession for a period of time where you can run some sanity
tests before you hand it over to the final customer?

In article , J. P. Gilliver (John)
wrote:

I actually went for the 1.5T Sonnics one for 27.99 on Amazon. The
company has a good (99.4% IIRR) rating on ebay based on a large number
of transactions, and reviews on Amazon (apart from the ones where it
didn't work at all) were also favourable, including a couple of
long-term ones.

if that's a seagate mechanism, you're in for an adventure.

1.5t and particularly 3t seagates had a rather high failure rate.

https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-conte...og-drive-failu
re-by-manufacturer.jpg

On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 12:01:47 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote:

On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 14:20:23 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

If they're only re_branded_, that's fine; it's re_furbished_ I want to
avoid.

I don't care what you do, but I'm curious. I've never had an issue with a
refurbished item. Have you?



I'm not John, but let me say that I have no experience with
refurbished items, so I have no real opinion.

But I'm also curious and I'd like to hear from others here, not just
John, about their experience with refurbished items.

And let me add that refurbishment by one company isn't necessarily the
same as refurbishment by another, so if you report on your experience,
please also tell us what company it was.

In article , Ken Blake
wrote:

But I'm also curious and I'd like to hear from others here, not just
John, about their experience with refurbished items.

And let me add that refurbishment by one company isn't necessarily the
same as refurbishment by another, so if you report on your experience,
please also tell us what company it was.

very true. factory refurbished is generally ok, usually with defective
parts repaired or replaced and in some cases, with a full warranty,
while aftermarket refurbished is generally not.

Ken Blake wrote:
On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 12:01:47 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote:

On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 14:20:23 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

If they're only re_branded_, that's fine; it's re_furbished_ I want to
avoid.
I don't care what you do, but I'm curious. I've never had an issue with a
refurbished item. Have you?



I'm not John, but let me say that I have no experience with
refurbished items, so I have no real opinion.

But I'm also curious and I'd like to hear from others here, not just
John, about their experience with refurbished items.

And let me add that refurbishment by one company isn't necessarily the
same as refurbishment by another, so if you report on your experience,
please also tell us what company it was.

On hard drives, if you read reviews for new hard drives, the
warranty replacement with refurbished drives can turn into
a "warranty loop", where one bad drive after another is
sent to you. The refurbishment at the factory, is not
exactly top-notch. They don't chuck drives that should
have been chucked, they leave them in the pool and
around in circles they go, until someone gives up
and "eats it".

This does not exactly promote the "sales" of refurbished
drives. After the flood that closed a large disk drive plant,
Newegg switched over to selling a lot of refurbs, and those
might have been graded differently than the cruft in
the warranty pool.

*******

Refurbished computers on the other hand, where you have
to be careful there, is where they're actually coming from.
If you buy a refurb from Staples, if could be Wally gets
a used computer (not an off-lease computer) from some
business going bust, and Wally gets the DVD from Microsoft
and puts the new OS on it. The problem there is, when they
say it's an "A grade" computer, they could be telling lies,
and the plastic parts of the chassis could be cracked.
Such machines can have new hard drives in them, but the
rest of the parts are "original era".

Joy Systems (a mass refurbisher), if they shipped an "A grade"
computer, it probably is "A grade" (no cracked plastic, might
be scuffed). But with the abject failures we have for resellers,
it's not always possible to avoid a "Wally" production.

I wondered at first, where the Win7 refurbished machines were
coming from, as according to the rules, they were supposed
to stop shipping those a couple years ago. Well, it's
the "refurbished by Wally" machines that are getting
Windows 7 put on them. Some of these show up on Ebay.
I'd initially assumed an Ebay seller was buying Joy Systems
machines, but instead, I've discovered Wally is doing this
and not following the rules. If Wally does it, you could
be getting a B grade machine for example. Machines which have
poor mechanical design (mixed aluminum/plastic), if they
have cosmetic damage, it could affect usage (broken where
the PCI cards are held in place).

*******

Refurbished means "about as awesome an experience as
buying a used car". The seller relies on a steady
stream of people who "think they're getting a good deal".

Paul

In message , Paul
writes:
Ken Blake wrote:
On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 12:01:47 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote:

On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 14:20:23 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

If they're only re_branded_, that's fine; it's re_furbished_ I want
to avoid.
I don't care what you do, but I'm curious. I've never had an issue with a
refurbished item. Have you?
I'm not John, but let me say that I have no experience with
refurbished items, so I have no real opinion.
But I'm also curious and I'd like to hear from others here, not just
John, about their experience with refurbished items.
And let me add that refurbishment by one company isn't necessarily
the
same as refurbishment by another, so if you report on your experience,
please also tell us what company it was.

On hard drives, if you read reviews for new hard drives, the
warranty replacement with refurbished drives can turn into
a "warranty loop", where one bad drive after another is
sent to you. The refurbishment at the factory, is not
exactly top-notch. They don't chuck drives that should
have been chucked, they leave them in the pool and
around in circles they go, until someone gives up
and "eats it".

Is that the case for all the manufacturers (Seagate, WD, Hitachi ...)
though?

This does not exactly promote the "sales" of refurbished
drives. After the flood that closed a large disk drive plant,

(whose?)

Newegg switched over to selling a lot of refurbs, and those
might have been graded differently than the cruft in
the warranty pool.

I heard in a weather report that there had been flooding on the Isle of
Man (we're currently getting a lot of rain in the UK), so I'm wondering
if Sonnics/Vivetronic are affected (-:! Tracking on amazon shows my
order as not dispatched yet. But then it only shows ordered yesterday.
And a little Googling shows the flooding was a village on the other side
of the island.
*******

Refurbished computers on the other hand, where you have
to be careful there, is where they're actually coming from.
If you buy a refurb from Staples, if could be Wally gets
a used computer (not an off-lease computer) from some
business going bust, and Wally gets the DVD from Microsoft
and puts the new OS on it. The problem there is, when they
say it's an "A grade" computer, they could be telling lies,
and the plastic parts of the chassis could be cracked.
Such machines can have new hard drives in them, but the
rest of the parts are "original era".

On the other hand, you _can_ have a trouble-free refurbished machine.
I've had variable experience with laptops: some have lasted many years,
some only a few.
[]
I'd initially assumed an Ebay seller was buying Joy Systems
machines, but instead, I've discovered Wally is doing this
and not following the rules. If Wally does it, you could

Or, presumably, not reinstalling W7, but deleting all but the OS?
(Though I've had the impression that the ones I've had _have_ been
installed from scratch, as they've sometimes not had the drivers for the
more obscure parts of the hardware [e. g. fingerprint reader] installed
properly or at all, but I've so far always found those on the
manufacturer's site.)

be getting a B grade machine for example. Machines which have
poor mechanical design (mixed aluminum/plastic), if they
have cosmetic damage, it could affect usage (broken where
the PCI cards are held in place).

*******

Refurbished means "about as awesome an experience as
buying a used car". The seller relies on a steady
stream of people who "think they're getting a good deal".

With the exception of one that was "ex-demo" or "ex-showroom", I've
never had a new car. _On the whole_, I don't think I've had that much
more trouble than people who do buy new ones: certainly only one where I
was "sold a pup", i. e. a major fault that the seller must have known
about. (Blocked radiator.)

Paul
John
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

It's not the pace of life that concerns me, it's the sudden stop at the end.

On Tue, 1 Oct 2019 21:48:28 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message , Paul
writes:
Ken Blake wrote:
On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 12:01:47 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote:

On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 14:20:23 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

If they're only re_branded_, that's fine; it's re_furbished_ I want
to avoid.
I don't care what you do, but I'm curious. I've never had an issue with a
refurbished item. Have you?
I'm not John, but let me say that I have no experience with
refurbished items, so I have no real opinion.
But I'm also curious and I'd like to hear from others here, not just
John, about their experience with refurbished items.
And let me add that refurbishment by one company isn't necessarily
the
same as refurbishment by another, so if you report on your experience,
please also tell us what company it was.

On hard drives, if you read reviews for new hard drives, the
warranty replacement with refurbished drives can turn into
a "warranty loop", where one bad drive after another is
sent to you. The refurbishment at the factory, is not
exactly top-notch. They don't chuck drives that should
have been chucked, they leave them in the pool and
around in circles they go, until someone gives up
and "eats it".

Is that the case for all the manufacturers (Seagate, WD, Hitachi ...)
though?

My question would be, is that the case for *any* hard drive manufacturer? I
strongly suspect not. It wouldn't make any sense at all, whether from a
financial perspective or a reputation perspective. When you read HD reviews
and you see someone who is having problem after problem after problem with
his drives, the underlying issue is probably that individual.

One of the reasons I don't shy away* from certain refurbished items is
that, unlike new stock where a certain number of samples are being checked,
all refurbs have been checked, for some value of 'checked'. If anything,
you probably have a better chance of success with a refurb than with a
'new' item.

*I don't usually go looking for refurbs, but if what I need is only
available that way, I wouldn't have a problem taking it.

This does not exactly promote the "sales" of refurbished
drives. After the flood that closed a large disk drive plant,

(whose?)

I don't know "who", but the when and where were Thailand in 2011.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Thailand_floods

Refurbished means "about as awesome an experience as
buying a used car". The seller relies on a steady
stream of people who "think they're getting a good deal".

I clearly have a better appreciation for refurbished hard drives, and
certain other equipment, than Paul does. That's OK, of course. There's room
for lots of opinions.

In message , Char Jackson
writes:
On Mon, 30 Sep 2019 21:31:08 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:
[]
I actually went for the 1.5T Sonnics one for 27.99 on Amazon. The
(Actually Vivetronic; not sure if there's any difference.)
company has a good (99.4% IIRR) rating on ebay based on a large number
of transactions, and reviews on Amazon (apart from the ones where it
didn't work at all) were also favourable, including a couple of
long-term ones.

Will you have possession for a period of time where you can run some sanity
tests before you hand it over to the final customer?

Sadly no. (Friend rather than customer.)

It doesn't seem to have been _dispatched_ yet. (Maybe the IoM floods
_are_ relevant, though the named village is some way from where Sonnics
seem to be.)

Does anyone know, about amazon UK "Track package": This shows four
squares, labelled Ordered, Dispatched, Out for delivery, and Arriving,
with grey dotted lines between them. The Ordered box has been green with
a white tick since I started checking; the grey dotted line is being
replaced by a solid green one. When I started checking, this green line
was about half way between Ordered and Dispatched; now it seems to be
three-quarters of the way. Is there any significance to this - or, is
the so-called "Tracking" system purely filling it in by date/time
between the ordered date and the arriving date, even to the extent that
the Dispatched etc. boxes are in fact meaningless?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

The war was over, but all those people were still dead - explainer why the
atmosphere of VE-day did not seem right to her; "Today" 2015-4-27

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

Does anyone know, about amazon UK "Track package":

Is the order fulfilled by amazon, or by sonnics?