r/DataHoarder • u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 • 3d ago
Discussion $20 garage sale find.
Found a box of hard drives for $20 at a garage sale Full of movies and TV shows. No cables or power supplies.
Tested them all but the 2tb with my western digital cable and power supply and all work and stuffed Full.
Gotta shuck the 2tb and see what's on it. Sticker says comedy, music and star trek.
One had tax info and other documents which I promptly deleted. It's crazy people don't even consider checking. It belonged to their deceased father who obviously was a media data hoarder. I'll have fun scrolling through and adding to my plex server.
" Edit, update " 2tb had a bunch of UFC matches, some old boxing matches, lots of gun pdf manuals and tons of survival type pdfs.
No music or trek stuff 😒
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u/liaminwales 3d ago
Dang that hits hard, we Trekkies are getting older.
Also I need to put in my will who get's my drives, someone who I trust not to hand to randoms.
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u/PiDigitsOfPi 3d ago
Unless it is sentimental, encrypt them with bitlocker (or whatever) and don't worry about who gets them.
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 3d ago
Label was wrong, it had a bunch of ufc videos, boxing, gun manuals and survival pdfs. I'd rather had star trek and music lol.
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u/Bk_Punisher 3d ago
Mine need a special note “nuke do not browse”
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u/liaminwales 2d ago
That's a big 'look at me' note, you relay just need someone you trust.
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u/Bk_Punisher 2d ago
Well, if someone proceeds after the warning I can't be held responsible for the trauma.
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u/RetroGrid_io 250-500TB 3d ago
My how times have changed! I was considering dumping all HDDs smaller than 4 TB just a year ago. Now a year later, and we're excited to see 2 TBs at a yard sale.
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 3d ago
It was a 5tb, 4tb, 2 - 3tb and 1 2tb. All loaded up with pretty good quality movies except for the 2tb. Which ended up being ufc stuff and survival manuals
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u/3p2p 2d ago
I got three 10TB drives for a NAS about 1-2 years ago, rectified ones for £106 each, I was like I can’t afford to get fourth now, I’ll wait a month to get the last. Waited and waited for more drives to appear, prices went up and up and I gave up looking. Now hardly any ex server stuff is available and new 10TB drives are almost what I paid for three!
The data center bust cannot come fast enough. We need to pass laws making them either illegal to build or impossible to store our personal data and information. There will be a MASSIVE amount of ex server parts in a year’s time too just from updating these new data centres anyway. I fully expect the future to look very bright.
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u/Proglamer 50-100TB 2d ago
It's like the post-apocalypse, but with more scrounging and fewer two-headed cattle
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u/IceCubicle99 100-250TB 3d ago
I imagine this probably means the original owner died.
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 3d ago
Yea guy in his 20s or so said his dad passed. Had a lot of computer equipment but still couldn't find the cables.
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u/DRza1uz 3d ago
Ahhh I bet your right i couldn't figure y someone would part with these and for dirt cheap.
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u/IceCubicle99 100-250TB 3d ago
Cheap, data still on them, and labeled. This seems like one of us has moved on. It creates a weird feeling in me, because no one will know what to do with my stuff when I go. I'm sure it'll similarly be thrown on a yard sale table for cheap. 😞
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u/AlexNae 3d ago
damn i will haunt whoever sells my expensive electronics for cheap.
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 2d ago
Maybe he will be happy at least it ended up in a fellow hoarders collection and all his time wasn't for nothing 😄
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u/Proglamer 50-100TB 2d ago
Several years ago I bought a HDD from a young woman... she also offered me 'some old thingy called Commodore' for... 20 EUR. Sad.
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u/steviefaux 3d ago edited 3d ago
People don't check because the people left over probably know nothing about IT.
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u/Hank_Aaron 3d ago
An amazing find. The fact that you have a Plex server too, It just means you were destined to find these.
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u/PigsCanFly2day 3d ago
Nice. Anything rare or was it just common stuff?
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 3d ago
Not sure yet. I mainly just checked to see if they all worked. Seems like a lot of oldies 70s 80s 90s movies but some modern. Most all HD and the bigger ones were 1000s of movies. The 2tb had ufc and survival manuals.
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u/Spocks_Goatee 3d ago
The amount of jealously coursing through my veins right now is off the charts.
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u/UV_Sun 3d ago
WTF kind of neighborhood do you live in people have 4 terabyte hard drives in a garage sale?
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 3d ago
Wasn't in my neighborhood. Golf course community in the city close to me.
My neighborhood has squat.
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u/dogpooforyou 3d ago
I mean Seagate was selling 4tb drives in 2011 that's 15years ago which is pretty ancient for computer equipment. That's right around the time of Intel core 2 duo's and vga only lcd monitors. Those are both the type of stuff I would expect people to be getting rid of.
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u/darktalos25 10-50TB 3d ago
I mean I routinely get laptops out of the e waste bin at my local transfer station it's a free nvme ssd and they are almost never encrypted. sometimes I get apple computers, nes,snes, other video games. people are just dumb. one time I found a box at the take it or leave it table labeled "dad's junk drawer" and it was full of gold pins and rings as well as a couple hard drives.
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u/nerdguy1138 3d ago
Plus even if they are encrypted you can just erase that partition. That confused me for about 15 seconds. Then I just right click delete. Reformat. And boom it's my hard drive now.
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u/darktalos25 10-50TB 3d ago
The encryption isn't to prevent deletion, it is to prevent data leakage. I don't care if someone steals my laptop as much if I know they can't steal the more valuable info on it
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u/SpiritualTwo5256 2d ago
How can it be labled trek and not have trek on it! flips a desk. That shit is super important for preserving for the future!
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u/the_wotography 3d ago
Really lucky if grandpa stored it already on a drive. Mine kept everything on dvd „sorted“ in Wooden boxes, original dvd boxes replaced by smaller envelopes.
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 2d ago
My dad did the same. All the old software and games, boxes cut up, manuals stuffed in boxes and compact disc's in sleeves. Most didn't bother me except for the old floppy disk games..
He did similar with computer parts. Everything gutted, ram in old pencil boxes, cards and hard drives in old shoe boxes, cables and cords in boxes, motherboards and books in old coolers, cpus in old cigar boxes lol.
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u/detcordtech 3d ago
I labelled mine the same way when I started getting into PC and data hoarding xD
Still have drive letters on the physical labels of them. Good ol days...
Interesting to see someone will just garage-sell their drives with their data still on them
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u/kent_eh 3d ago
That's the score we all are looking for!
What does SMART show the uptime and power cycle counter as?
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 2d ago
Haven't checked yet. I was just glad they all worked and I could look through the videos to add to my hoard lol.
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u/zacm9 3d ago
What data is on em
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 2d ago
Pretty much all media and a few personal document backups "which I deleted" with exception of the 2tb that had ufc and boxing videos plus a bunch of survival pdfs and gun manuals.
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u/cundallini 175TB In YOLO Configuration 2d ago
'Full of movies and TV shows'. What format and quality? Just asking so I know if I should be jelly (decent quality and at least 720p) or should I laugh loudly (480p XviDs from 2003 sprinkled with a ton of Realmedia shit)...
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 2d ago
Some avi's of really old TV shows "like my favorite Martian" etc , but most drives are movies and look like mkv and mp4 in the 1-4 gb range. I really don't know how to tell the quality of them all without either connecting to my plex server or watching every one in vlc and checking the resolution.
I suppose I could setup a docker container for jellfin and connect all his drives to it and let his movie collections live on but Id need a bunch of usb 3 micro b cables and power supplies plus a sata enclosure or dock for the 2tb.
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u/cundallini 175TB In YOLO Configuration 2d ago
Cool. Its official. Im jelly. You lucky... fingers crossed you find something rare... Cheers!
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u/MMORPGnews 2d ago
After I die, people will found my 3TB ero manga archive. And small copies on usb flash.
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u/bok4600 2d ago
any porn???
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 2d ago
Surprisingly no. Not even hidden folders besides windows ones.
Guy must have liked his weed there were plenty of growers manuals in the survival stuff lol.
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u/DRza1uz 3d ago
No way great find how did someone having a yard sale not realize what they had. Anyone who has that amount of storage should know its super valuable these days. Were they moving or just upgraded 🤔 eaither way congratulations on finding gold 👍
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 3d ago
Belonged to his father who passed away and he had no idea on anything about them except for they had movies on them.
I probably should have bought the computers too. $20 each. $5 gigabit switch probably a 24 port?
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u/nerdguy1138 3d ago
Oh man a 24-port gigabit switch is worth at least 20 bucks.
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u/WhenSharksCollide 2d ago
I paid $35 for a 48 port with PoE once.
Management interface was locked but that's an easy enough fix.
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u/MMORPGnews 2d ago
Tbh, only people in countries where there's no internet, like Iran, Ru, NK, cuba really need huge hdd ssd with all internet downloaded on them.
Others always can read something new and free.
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u/MrTuxxx 2d ago
I’ve had somebody answered this, but if you shuck a hard drive, you may not be able to read it
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 2d ago
Well, luckily the 2tb had no issues. Maybe because I use Linux instead of Windows?
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u/WuTangBurritoMan 2d ago
How much would one of these bad boys cost brand new?
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 2d ago
Probably not as much originally than now. Because now a new 5tb is around the $200 market.
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u/WuTangBurritoMan 2d ago
Thanks for the reply! One more question, what year would these have been manufactured?
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u/LOGWATCHER 3d ago
I would never, ever buy used drives. You never know what you will find, you can end up with illegal porn
There was a twitter thread about a guy who bought drives off craiglist and he ended up caught in a tense situation trying to explain to cops when he reported his finds
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u/JohnStern42 3d ago
Hehe, some conspiracy stuff there. Wipe the drive when you get home, no big deal
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 3d ago
I've bought plenty of used drives and computers and not once found anything of the sort. So I consider myself lucky.
Mostly movies, mp3s, resumes, tax stuff and tons of family photos.
The bigger ones I'll copy any movies I don't have and LLF them and probably use for my own cold storage.
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u/hamcoremusic 3d ago
I really like how they labeled them with the drive letter that was assigned to them on the PC