WD Elements Desktop Hard Drive 16TB (Recertified)

£189.99

Free from United Kingdom ·

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QuackingPlums

Joined in 2007

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This drive appears to be available again.

Haven't explored any discount codes (I know the previous deals had additional 10% off codes) but this seems an ok deal to me. Price per TB is £11.87 including shipping, which isn't bad.

I just bought one, in any case.

Blurb from the page:

Instant, Add-On Storage
Reliable, high-capacity storage for ultrafast data transfers.

Massive Capacity
With up to 5TB capacity, there's plenty of room for all your important files and precious memories.

Transfer Files Fast
When connected to a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port, you can access and save files and transfer your HD movies faster than ever.

Plug-and-Play Simplicity
Works right out of the box with Windows® PC. Just plug into the USB port to instantly add storage.

USB 3.0 And USB 2.0 Compatibility
With this single drive you get compatibility with the latest USB 3.0 devices and backward compatibility with USB 2.0 devices as well.

WD Quality Inside And Out
For years, millions of people worldwide have trusted their data to WD hard drives, and our first concern is to reliably store that data. So we build the drive to our demanding requirements for durability, shock tolerance and long-term reliability.

Full Specifications
Features

Massive Capacity
Transfer Files Fast
Plug-and-Play Simplicity
USB 3.0 AND USB 2.0 Compatibility
WD Quality Inside And Out

Capacity
16 TB

Connector
Micro-B

Compatibility
Formatted NTFS for Windows 10, Windows 8, Window 7. Requires reformatting for Mac OS X . Compatibility may vary depending on user’s hardware configuration and operating system.

Interface

USB 3.0
USB 2.0

In The Box

WD Elements hard drive
USB cable
AC adapter

Warranty
1-Year Limited Warranty

Dimensions (L x W x H)
135mm x 48mm x 165.8mm

Operating Temperature
5°C to 35°C

Non-Operating Temperature
-5°C to 20°C

More details at

Edited by a community support team member, 7 March 2024

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52 Comments

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7th Mar
been rocking this one on my plex server since the previous deal, absolutely no issues. loud though, definitely loud.
7th Mar
Same experience!
7th Mar
this is slightly catty, but could we have a deal where if you say "i bought ten drives a month ago and they all failed!" you have to at least comment on the returns process? cause i asked every time in the last deal and weirdly not a single person of the many who reported wildly out of expectation failure rates wanted to enlighten me on it.
7th Mar
Because it's the internet. Nobody actually knows anything. They just pretend they do because they heard something from their 2nd removed cousins's daughter, who had a pet hamster, which at one stage belonged to a man, who had a mistress that had a son, that mentioned their friend had a failed disk.
7th Mar
I buy recerts in pairs as I do with any other drive as chances of both failing at same time are reduced. Never had 2 drives fail at same time. Out of umpteen drives I’ve only had either 2 or 3 fail or faulty which was picked up during first day or so of copying data to the drive. One was a new drive the other revert. WD returns wasn’t bad to deal with the one time I had to return a revert. Main hassle was getting another replacement as sometimes the reverts aren’t in stock. I think they have me a 10% or 20% off code but it was full price only stuff when I returned it. If you only buy one drive abd it fails that’s more hassle than the returning. You might lose stuff and then you need to wait to get another drive and send one back etc so that hassle may fire up complainers.
7th Mar
CMR (which is good) according to this list: nascompares.com/ans…dd/
8th Mar
All WD HDDs over 6TB are CMR
7th Mar
Is there a reason these are so cheap, 16tb of barracufe is about £400, are these riculously slow or unreliable, i would just want it as a server/ game backup for a laptop house
7th Mar
the biggest part from an economic perspective is you are taking on more risk both in that it's a recert and in that you get less warranty (and a worse warranty). HDDs fail, that's a simple reality of the technology. they're probably the most complex and precise piece of mechanical engineering most people will ever own, discounting parts of their car maybe. they all break eventually and the longer the warranty is the longer WD has to pay for it.

they're not quick drives but for most roles that you use them for it's not at all important. i use mine for media that i could trivially replace by reripping blurays if i had to.
7th Mar
Is it normal for these to have just 14.5TB usable memory? Mine both came with 14.5TB.
7th Mar
yeah all drives do that, you'll see the same in SSDs. i can see my 1TB drives get 931GB, my 6TB gets 5.45TB and this one gets 14.5.
8th Mar
I've ordered these twice in the last 3 weeks and both times, the orders never got processed. I'll see it going in and out of stock while my order is open and then WD eventually cancel it claiming its "Not Available".

The first time they did this, the same drive in the same capacity was sat there available to order again at the moment they sent the cancellation email! Glad for anyone who gets one but I won't be ordering from these clowns again.
Author
8th Mar
Sorry to hear that. The retail part of the website sucks ass, but at least mine was confirmed and shipped pretty quickly.

Tracking number says it is now at the depot and scheduled for delivery next week.
7th Mar
yep. I use two for backups, been great.
12th Mar
Just got the disk. Says 0 power on hours?

Think I'm gonna get another order in by the looks of it!
16th Mar
Do you think they zero out or modify the SMART data though?
7th Mar
I've got a nas that's full. Is it best to swap out one of the drives with this and void the warranty. Or usb it and do the hot swap option to check it's okay?
7th Mar
Swapping out a drive for a larger one on a Nas should not void your warranty. Which Nas do you use?
7th Mar
Been running 2x wd element 14tb drives in my NAS and have been waiting for a deal on the 14s as I'm down to my last TB of storage, but at this price for the 16s I'll give it a shot! (edited)
7th Mar
Looks good.
8th Mar
Is this a decent 7200rpm drive that can be removed and put in a dual raid enclosure?
8th Mar
I've bought WD recertified before and half of them broke after 6 months, the other half still work years later but at a 50% failure rate I don't think they are worth the money.
8th Mar
how was the returns process?
12th Mar
I ordered this last week, arrived, seems good, time will tell. (edited)
26th Mar
Just ordered mine, what is best way to extensively test them in Ubuntu ?
27th Mar
Anyone know which model of WD drive sits inside? I guess it have to be one of WD REDs ?
27th Mar
From the same deal that expired some time ago

"UPDATE - Just arrived and shucked. Can confirm they're wd140effx-68vbxn0 which are effectively relabelled red plus drives. CMR. Helium. 5400RPM. Happy days"

Ordered mine on Minday with delivery tomorrow so once I get it I need to figure out how to properly test it before shucking it