guides
What we wish someone had told us before the first pallet
Short, technical, no affiliate gloss. Each guide covers one decision that costs real money when you get it wrong, written by people who run these drives, and each one links back to the live prices in the index.
market analysisThe used enterprise drive market: where the discount actually isWhy so many enterprise SAS and nearline drives end up on the used market, how the discount varies by capacity tier, and how to read an eBay seller's feedback and return policy before you buy.read →recording techCMR vs SMR: how to avoid the wrong driveWhat shingled recording actually does, why it destroys ZFS resilvers, how vendors hid it inside NAS product lines in 2020, and how to verify a specific model before you buy.read →used marketRecertified drives: what the grades actually meanManufacturer recertified vs seller refurbished vs data-centre pulls: the warranty you really get, the failure rates to expect, and the SMART fields to read the day the drive arrives.read →used marketShucking in 2026: is it still worth itThe external-vs-bare price gap by capacity, which enclosures actually hide CMR drives in 2026, the warranty you give up, and the math for when shucking beats buying bare.read →