Yeah! The practice is called drive shucking (kinda like Oysters) and you just need to be considerate of the limitations. The drives often end up cheaper, but lose warranty support once they're shucked. They'll also occasionally be slower than a normal drive or have an odd connector, but that is rare since it's usually cheaper to go with something 'off the shelf'. If you Google it though you should usually be able to find the handful of drive SKUs they'll use in whatever external you're planning to shuck.
this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
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oysters?
Edit: OP originally wrote "Osters." No need to downvote.
Shucked drives are usually the drives that are rejected for internal use because of quality issues. They might work fine, they might not. Be careful with them and remember, RAID is not a backup.
Yup. And if you want to look up more info on how to do it correctly, look up hard drive shucking.
Yes I’ve done it. What sucks is you make a lot of trash this way. Also double and triple check that the drives you buy will have standard sata connectors on them.
Personally I think it's a bad idea
There's lots of things that can go wrong and most of the time those drives are made in super controlled environments because they can be extremely sensitive. It's just not worth the headache
It's completely fine and was one of the most common ways to add a cheap new drive back in places like /r/datahoarder. The WD enclosures are super easy to take apart with guitar picks and old credit cards. The USB controller just slots into the SATA port and is held in place with a single Philips screw. I've been running these in my server since as far back as 2018 (usually adding 1-2 every year or two) without a single issue.
A lot of external drives are just internal devices with another controller and casing around. I had a 4TB I used with my laptop, and tore apart the casing and just plugged it into my desktop when I built one. Unless you start hammering the external case around, the drive will be fine.
Used to be my main source of disks, but these days there are better ways and it is easier to know exactly what you are getting.
Well.. out with it then!
I did once. Well, more along the lines of "what did i buy this thing for, can use the HDD as is". The HDD had additional contact points at the bottom. Don't remember if they worked as is and what i did with them.