Water Panther drives

Buy/Sell/Trade
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Does anyone use these drives?

They are available in 10TB, 12TB, 14TB, 16TB, and 20TB, and all at low prices (compared to new drives).

They are “renewed”, but are sold by Amazon. So it is probably safe to buy and try, and return if there are problems.

But I do not want to waste my time, if folks have tried them and have had higher than normal bad experiences, or if the drives are loud (I do not want loud drives).

They are probably other brands, with a Water Panther label slapped on by Amazon.

Anyone using Water Panther drives?

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Only a 90 day warranty, bit of a gamble.
I dont own any, but its stated under " guarantee by amazon" down the psge.

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Sir I will use it right away when you send me one… :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
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If you want the 2 year warranty the drive cost $414.00 on Amazon :money_mouth_face: :money_mouth_face: :money_mouth_face:

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Last time I did a deep dive on youtube for this, the offbrand drives are absolutely refurbished (there are only a handful of companies still making new drives) and these were probably meant for the Indian market. Scam might be too strong of a word but the consensus was ‘avoid.’

And ‘WP’ is intentional, very similar to ‘WD.’ Run, don’t walk away.

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Has anyone found a good deal on 20TB HDD outside the USA ?
It my case, I am based in the UK.

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I could not resist the temptation to try one of those drives.
At $12.43 per TB for a 16 TB drive, I purchased one.

I figure that the risk is minimal, because the drives are returnable. So I would buy one, test it, and decide whether or not to keep it.

Also, I sent questions to the seller (via Amazon’s messaging feature), and the seller replied quickly and answered my questions. One of the answers was that the drive comes with a 2-year warranty, through “Tech on Tech” (so that could turn out to be problematic, it they are hard to deal with on warranty issues).

My package arrived yesterday, and to test it, I copied 16TB of plots to it – figuring, if all gets written with no errors, and the drive does not make “failure” type noises, then it is probably in good shape.

That ended up being the case. No issue, and it runs quietly.

The packing job that they did is top-notch, which if it is any indication of their credibility, it bodes well for them.

From the outer box, to peeling away each layer to reach the drive:
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So the drive was in an anti-static bag.
The anti-static bag and drive were in a protective, plastic molded bubble of sorts.
That plastic bubble was in a cardboard box.
That cardboard box was in the shipping box, which contained bubble-wrap to protect the inner carton.

Well done!

All that is left to see is if the drive lasts. Based on the 175 MB/s to 285 MB/s writing speeds, as well as quiet operation and no vibrations, I have a good feeling about the drive.

And I suspect that the slower writing speeds are from writing to the inner portion of the platters, which I believe is common for mechanical drives.

By the way, I took the photos after I connected the drive and it is in use. So the photos are not real-time of me doing the unpacking.

Lastly, the drive’s performance is while connected to a USB port via an adapter (I cannot get into my case to connect it directly, without a lot of trouble).

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So the “Water Panther” drive was actually a Seagate Exos x16?

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I used my red filter and got all those serial numbers :joy: :joy: :joy: :joy:

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According to the label.
I did not run SeaTools (or anything else on it yet) to confirm.

I will, when I get a chance.

One of the other questions that I asked the seller is whether or not a purchase of multiples of the same capacity would result in being sent the same drive models. This was their reply:

Yes, all "renewed" drives of the same capacity purchased on the same SKU/ASIN will have the same model number.

I do not know how a customer’s purchase gets associated with the same SKU/ASIN numbers?
So I guess it is possible to get different drive models?

Perhaps for any single order of multiple drives, you will get the same drive models?
However, if I were to now place a new order, I would be assigned a new SKU/ASIN number, resulting in possibly receiving some other model drives?

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I altered the numbers below the red markings. Then I peeled them. Then I burned them.

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No 18TB drives, to help the rest of my rack?

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I am not sure why you wrote no 18TB drives.
They have them, and also have 20TB drives.

And although their prices are attractive for any size drive, you are still going to pay a premium for their 18TB and 20TB size drives.

10TB ($119.99) = $12.00 per TB.
12TB ($129.99) = $10.83 per TB.
14TB ($169.99) = $14.12 per TB.
16TB ($199.88) = $12.49 per TB.
18TB ($272.99) = $15.16 per TB.
20TB ($297.99) = $14.90 per TB.

Had I have gone for the 20TB drive, then those additional 4TBs would have cost me $24.52 per TB (compared to the 16TB that I purchased).

And the 18TB drive would have cost me $36.55 per TB for each of the two additional TBs.

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“Power On Count” is only “5”, and two or three of those are from me.
Can that be reset by the seller?

If this drive was only powered on 5 times, and in use only 48 hours (24 of which are from me), then this drive is practically new.

On one hand, that is good (could not have been abused).
On the other hand, it has not been tested over time.

And the below screen capture confirms that the sticker on the drive matches the model of the drive.
It is a Seagate Exos X16 drive.

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These drives could have been downgraded by Seagate themselves. Maybe they were 18TB or even 20TB drives originally that didn’t pass tests for their full capacity (bad sectors at the edges of the platters perhaps ?). Could also explain the low power on count and run times.

Edit: Have you tried entering the serial number on Seagate’s warranty page to see what it says ?

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That suggests/confirms it was offloaded by Seagate via an official channel then.

If it was a dodgy used drive the seller is trying to offload I’d expect there to either be evidence of Seagate warranty or ‘expired’ warranty.

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I just purchased three, 18TB, refurbished (renewed) drives, directly from Water Panther:

After tax and free 2nd day shipping, my total was:
$698.97 (or, $12.94 per TB). And that ain’t bad.

It does not come with the manufacturer’s warranty. It does come with “Tech on Tech” 2-year warranty. But most drives will fail sooner rather than later, if they have a problem. And if kept running with clean power, proper cooling, and with minimal power cycles, they should last a long time.

Time will tell.

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Try looking into the device DCO/HPA

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For what data should I be seeking in those hidden locations? And why should I seek it out?
What is the goal?

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My three 18TB drives arrived.
They are all Seagate Exos X18 drives.

They were packaged so good, it was a shame to open the box.
– Cartons inside of cartons.
– Bubble wrap.
– Form-fitted, foam container.
– Anti-static bags.

They all had 24 hours of run-time, and two or three power-on events.

Aside from having a 2-year warranty from “Tech-on Tech”, rather than a 5-year warranty from Seagate, I see no difference. These appear to be new drives. I do not understand why they are described as “renewed”?

The savings were significant, compared to purchasing them as new from the usual outlets.

There might be a down-side, should there come a time I post them for sale. But that will be years from now, if ever, and all 18 TB drives will likely have much lower pricing that far into the future.