Anything wrong with buying barbones hard drives off ebay?

[rackoon]

So anyway I want to put together a computer just for my arcade cab. I have most of the parts and only need a hard drive and test monitor.

I see a lot of hard drives on eBay that seem like a good deal. Most only come with just the hard drive and no disk. Do new hard drives need a driver? Is the software that the boxed ones come with not necessary?

And finally, I know that I can download software from the internet but is any of it something I need to get my computer up and running?

[shmokes]

Nothing wrong other than an increased likelihood of failure if they're used I guess.  Even retail hard drives do not come with drivers.  The hard drive is detected and identified before Windows, or whatever operating system even loads (otherwise how would the computer load the operating system which is sitting on the hard drive).

[Crazy Cooter]

"Boxed" vs. "OEM":

Boxed is boxed for retail sales.  That includes the fancy packaging and any/all software.

OEM is for resale as part of a complete system.  Most often in a plain white box without any software.

If you need any software for mirroring/formatting, you should be able to download it off the manufacturers website, but be aware the warranties are almost always different between boxed & OEM products.

Personally, for hard drives and DVD/CD players, I watch for local sales so it can be brought back if it was dropped during shipping.  Most everything else *I* buy is boxed.

[shmokes]

Cooter is, indeed, crazy.  OEM hard drives virtually always have identical warranties as their retail counterparts.  Zip on over to Newegg.com and you will see that every Seagate has a 5 year warranty and every WD or Maxtor fluctuates, usually 3 or 5 years but they all match their corresponding retail drives.

This might not apply to you as you're buying drives off Ebay so I don't know if they're used or whether the hard drive manufacturers require you to buy it from a real retail store or something, but...

If you don't mind rebates here are a couple good deals:

250 GB PATA (IDE) Seagate (Retail) - $69 after $50 Rebate
300 GB SATA (serial ATA) Seagate (OEM) - $109 after $30 rebate
300 GB PATA (IDE) Seagate (Retail) - $109 after $40 rebate

Again, though, let me reiterate:  There is no meaningful difference between retail and OEM with hard drives.  They are the same drives.  They have the same warranties.  And you do not need any software.  The software the retail kits DO come with is nothing more than diagnostic tools that can be downloaded for free of the company's website.  Buy whatever is the least expensive (which isn't always OEM).   

For what it's worth my favorite is Seagate because they tend to be very quiet and Seagate is the only manufacturer that offers a standard 5 year warranty on all their drives (the industry standard was 1-year until about a year or two ago when Seagate bumped their standard 3-year warranty to 5-years.  Now WD and Maxtor are starting to offer longer warranties, but still often not 5-years).  But I buy a lot of hard drives cos I work as a network admin and mod Xboxes for people quite a bit and I don't like Seagate so much that I won't buy a Maxtor or Western Digital or Hitachi if it's less expensive than the Seagate -- just enough that I'll go for Seagate if they're all the same price.

[USSEnterprise]

Now this is just me, but I NEVER buy Maxtor drives. I've had far too many of them fail. Once, it was 4 in one year. Stick to WD and Seagate. Hitachi is also good, but I trust the other two more.

[shmokes]

FWIW Maxtor is Seagate now.  Recent purchase. 

[Crazy Cooter]

Cooter is, indeed, crazy.

Hence the name  .

I never knew that HD's carried the same warranty whether OEM or retail.  It does look that way.  I like Maxtor, I've never had one fail and have about 8 or so currently running.  The oldest one is a 30Gb that I bought right when they came out.  That one has been running non-stop.  I have my ripped cd's on it and it's always on so I can play songs from any computer in the house.
I also have a couple WD drives going and have had issues with formatting them, but then they work fine.  I also agree seagate makes a "better" drive.  I just always find Maxtors at rock bottom prices.

My preference:
Seagate -> Maxtor -> WD... unless one is cheaper.  I have no experience with the other manufacturers (hitachi, samsung, et.al.).

[Harry Potter]

As far as ebay is concerned, best to only buy solid-state computer stuff (ie. stuff without moving bits. Fans dont count). Unless they specify that the drives are brand new from the factory and offer warranty.

[shmokes]

Yeah....I take anecdotal stories about hard drive failures with a gigantic grain of salt.  Go to any hardware forum and the members are as nuts as the console fanboys.  For every story about five Maxtors failing while fifteen WD and Seagates run like champs someone else has the EXACT same story with the only difference being a shift in the brand that's doing all the failing.  The only thing trend that I have seen in my six years as a network administrator and the prior 10 years as a computer geek is that hard drives are very reliable overall and regardless of the brand you buy it will probably work for as long as you use it, but that failure is common enough among all manufacturers that you are a fool not to backup important data.

[Q*Bert_OP]

IMHO Maxtor hard drives suck

[Harry Potter]

IMHO Maxtor hard drives suck

Grrrrrrr. 

Maxtor bought out Syquest therefore best HDs on the planet.

WD disks = worst. Don't know if it was just my bad luck but I could never get a WD disk to go more than 3 months. The Syquest drives still run good 6 years later. 

[SirPoonga]

I only get WD.  I still have a working 1gig drive from back when.

As for the disk that you see (or don;t see) it;s probably the diagnostics software which you can download from the manufacturer's website.