I admit they were way too cheap for what they are (like 15% cheaper than same-size Ironwolf), so I gambled it haha there were no indications that these drives were OEM or similar.
Back to issue at hand: since I can’t personally have the five years warranty on these, only the original purchaser can, and I have no way to know who they are and when they bought them, I should just return them, right? And maybe buy the next ones only from authorized sellers?
edit: also, now that I think about it, and before I make the same mistake twice, there’s no way I can get enterprise drives as a normal consumer, can I, at least not brand new? I expect any enterprise drives I can find will have the same issue, i.e. bought by someone else for servers or similar, and then resold, correct?
edit 2: actually WD sells enterprise drives on their website, so my previous assumption about it was wrong
I think you’re looking in the wrong places for the info you want You got what are known as OEM drives. These are primarily sold in bulk to system integrators like Dell/HP/etc. they are noticeably cheaper, but do not have a long warranty. Typically they have 90 days, which is enough to cover infant mortality. After that, the OEM basically self-insures - they have to eat the cost of replacement, but that’s offset by the lower price.
What you’re probably looking for are Retail drives. These have multi-year coverage directly from the manufacturer.
Read the terms of sale carefully- sometimes the seller is the one offering the longer warranty, same as an OEM. Then consider if you trust them to honor that warranty, especially considering that it will be a direct expense to them.
Sorry for late reply, app kept saying “this account os being verified” and I coulnd’t comment or anything else.
Anyway, yes, the store I bought them from is a legit store and provides warranty, so I decided to keep the drives!