Flash technology used in SSDs has a limited lifetime in terms of writes per location. Although SSDs have the intrinsic feature of wear leveling to attempt to spread out those writes across all locations in the device, eventually one or more locations will wear out and no longer accept data.

As there is no easy way to determine how many write cycles have occurred in an SSD prior to purchase, there is always a risk of getting a device that starts failing the day after one installs it.

Depends on the use case

Imo buying used hard drives is worth the savings. Never had any problems.

I think this kind of conversation always needs to highlight the use case/cost. Like, if you just want to cache some content that you could re-download, aren’t attached too emotionally, and get a used hard drive for a steep discount? I’d say go for it. Especially since there are generally better chances of indicating failure with hdds.

SsDs have an annoying habit of just dying, at least on me. No warning and no chance of recovering data. Maybe there a good use case out there where you would be willing to run that risk, especially if they are cheap enough, but most of the ones I can think of I’d just grab a new drive anyway, would have to be a hell of a discount .

Same reason why people prefer getting a new car to a used car: you don’t know the care and maintenance, or wear and tear, the previous owner maintained. You could end up saving money… Or you might end up buying a junker.