67

Hello,

Bought a spare super cheap used 3TB drive a year ago, and just figured out it's not a SATA but a SAS drive.

How fucked am I? What can I do more than using it as a paperweight?

Cheers!

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] GeorgimusPrime@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

I've seen SAS-SATA adapters for sale online. I got a 120GB used SAS, and it's cheaper to buy another drive than to order the adapter.

[-] Anivia@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

Those adapters only work for plugging SATA drives into SAS controllers. You can't use an adapter to plug a SAS drive into a SATA port

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Well sometimes it can, it seems.

I'll try to be back and tell :-)

[-] Anivia@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

No, they can't. You need a SAS controller for a SAS drive, there is no way around it

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Check out y0dins post below, there are SAS drives with SATA compatibility it seems.

[-] 9point6@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

This is all assuming it's a spinning disk and not an SSD, so ignore me if that's the case:

Given SAS drives are usually used in data centre storage array applications and 3TB disks have been kinda small for that use case for a fair while, there's a fairly high chance it was in heavy use for a good number of years. I'd bet it's probably well on its way to being a paperweight regardless of your connectivity situation.

If you do get it hooked up, don't store anything on it you wouldn't be okay losing.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Yep spinning rust.

Wanted a scratch disk to aggregate all my sensitive information thats scattered and duplicated on smaller disks and thumb drives. Would probably keep it as an ultimate backup too (I got a real backup).

My thinking was that usually those disks are swapped out after 5 years when failure rates starts to creep up, but there's still is some life left, largely enough for some fun.

[-] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

SMART will tell you how many hours it's been running

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

If I get it up and running ^^ !

[-] Travelator@thelemmy.club 12 points 3 days ago

Why buy a used drive? Save $12? F that.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

I don't know where you live but I got the drive for 30โ‚ฌ including shipping, a new drive is over 100โ‚ฌ...

[-] Maalus@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

And then two years down the line you lose all the data - the pictures, the savegames, the porn collection. Drives are the one thing that shouldn't be bought used

[-] randombullet@programming.dev 10 points 2 days ago

Not if you have a proper backup plan.

I have about 200ish TB or about 24 drives and 3 of them failed all are used. I have a solid backup plan so no issues with failing drives. Saves me roughly 100-200 a drive.

New drives have infant mortality as well. An inverse bell curve would be the distribution.

[-] thawed_caveman@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Look, i'm buying two hard drives no matter what to anticipate a drive failure. In that case, if i'm anticipating a failure anyway, might as well buy them second-hand and, yes, save a ton of money.

The key is to look for a CrystalDiskInfo screenshot in the ad, which is indicative of a serious seller and also lets you know the drive's condition. If you buy from a professional, you may get a warranty.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

I learned the hard way when the cheap PSU blew up and took with it the mobo, my drive and my backup drive. That was the year 2000 or 2001.

Since then I do have a good backup strategy (with most important stuff on amazon glacier).

So you learned the hard way losing your porn stash ๐Ÿ˜‰ ?

Jk, and the drive is not for important stuff.

[-] Klear@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

PSU you is the other part you don't want to cheap out on... Guess you got two lessons in one there.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah, for sure. To be totally fair I probably got even more lessons out of it as I upgraded my SOs Duron 650 to an Athlon (so new mobo) and that was what blew up the chep PSU I guess...

Usually I now go 750-900w platinum just because it's so nice when the fan doesn't start before 400 watts (and it heats less ofc).

[-] Maalus@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

A lot of people learn this lesson sadly. It isn't "sexy" to brag that you have a gold / platinum rated high quality PSU. People would rather add a "Ti" or a "10" to their graphics card and then lose it all when it goes. Same reason why I have an UPS for home PC - sure, overvoltage, undervoltage, electrical noise probably won't harm the PC. But why risk it? Also having a battery to save your shit, or buy more electricity online when you run out on a prepaid meter is cool (speaking from experience, happened to me like 10 times already lol)

[-] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I never heard about pre paid electric meters for homes. May I ask where you are located? Small UPS seems like the frickin perfect addon to that situation!

[-] Vivendi@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

I salvaged an 18 year old WD hard disk from a pentium IV system.

It works to this day in my retro gaming machine lol

[-] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

And controllers. Nobody gets rid of a controller unless it's dying.

[-] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

bullshit. drives should be backed up if the data is important which makes refurb and used drives perfectly acceptable. raid and good backups exists for a reason and don't leave you to rely on one single drive to live forever.

if you're buying large drives and not using a system with raid functionality, you're setting yourself up for failure, new drive or not. no crying you were warned.

[-] lemming741@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

I've gotten 3 drives from serverpartdeals, an 18 and a pair of 22s. They were $220, about half price.

[-] tedvdb@feddit.nl 21 points 3 days ago

Yust buy a SAS controller (with cables), they are used pretty cheap.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

On ebay.fr they are like the price of the drive (around 25โ‚ฌ with shipping) :-(

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 13 points 3 days ago

You can get a SAS USB external enclosure but they're in the $100 range, probably not worth it for 3TB.

For internal use, you can get a used PCIe SAS Host Bus Adapter fairly cheap BUT you need to do some research. Before you buy one you should confirm that there is a driver for the OS that you are using and that it is supported on your processor/socket/chipset. These cards are server hardware - many of them are not supported by Windows and/or are not compatible with consumer motherboards & CPUs.

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

Buy a cheap (used?) SAS controller. No big deal.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

On ebay.fr they are like the price of the drive (around 25โ‚ฌ with shipping) :-(

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago

Congrats on the new paper weight!

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

The search brings up these scary words. It says you are 100% fucked.

At the same time, I see those cheap ass converters on Amazon >.> I have never tried one.

[-] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 3 days ago

You can adapt SATA drives to an SAS controller, but you cannot adapt SAS drives to a SATA controller.

[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Yeah I'm gonna put my chips on the side of "these 8 dollar converters won't work"

But maybe OP is brave idk

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Ya maybe I'll sit this one out ๐Ÿ˜

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Thanks! Yeah looks like it's only the other way around.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] y0din@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Haven't tried it myself, but there is cheap converters available on AliExpress:

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EwYtdeV

Might be worth it to avoid using it as a paperweight?

load more comments (13 replies)
[-] Toes@ani.social 5 points 3 days ago

You can get a used sas controller for cheap in most cases. Or try your luck with the generic stuff on Amazon.

[-] stoy@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago

What you do is to look on the local used hardware sites, search for server, fet a cheap one with SAS interfaces, and now you have the start of a homelab.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Good idea, but what am I going to do with my thinkcentres ๐Ÿ˜

[-] stoy@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

Use them as clients in your homelab?

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Connot have too many computers!

load more comments
view more: next โ€บ
this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
67 points (97.2% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26290 readers
1451 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS