If you need to get an 8TB disk and fancy a Seagate, we have a way for you to save $50 per drive, while getting a free enclosure and a 100% void warranty. The disk in question is the Seagate Barracuda Internal Hard Drive 8TB SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5-Inch. Long name, I know. The 8TB flavor sells (new) for $180 on Amazon, or you can get the faster spinning 005 flavor for $319.95 over at B&H. Either way, there is a way to get this drive for $139.99 and still have some spare parts.
Seagate also sells something they call expansion drives, those are external drives that you can attach via USB to your computer and gain some extra space. The 8TB Desktop External Hard Drive, for example, costs $139.99 on Amazon or B&H. It’s a cool solution, its portable and the design is slick enough to look good on your desk. Now, before I continue with this post, is there anyone who cares to guess what is the hard drive inside that enclosure? The one that we saw getting opened had that same Seagate Barracuda Internal Hard Drive 8TB SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5-Inch drive inside.
To get it out, you need to pry the box open, disconnect the controller and there you have the hard drive. Interestingly, after “sourcing” the drive you are still left with a controller, a case, a USB 3.0 Cable, and a power adapter. You have to admit. This is not a bad deal for minus forty dollars. (And minus a warranty)
This, of course, raised a few questions marks with us, so we asked around. If my understanding of the explanation is correct, it may come from one of two reasons:
The first option is the drives inside the Expansion unit are older, refurbished, or simply visually impaired drives.
The other explanation we got was from the supply and demand realm. The OEM drive is targeting PROs who are willing to pay more, where the expansion unit is aimed at the general market, who are more price sensitive. I guess Seagate are also not committed to supplying the same internal hard drive in all their expansion units, so we have just been lucky.
Either way, there is a very high chance, I would say around 100%, that pulling this trick off, will void your Seagate Expansion warranty.
