Refurbished WD Ultrastar: What WD's Warranty Pages Say and What a Listing Proves

Who refurbishes Ultrastar drives: what we can and cannot source

Refurbished Ultrastar drives reach buyers under two kinds of wording. One is WD's own: its store has recertified pages for Ultrastar models. The other is a seller's title that says refurbished or renewed. We can describe the first from WD's pages. For the second we hold no refurbisher's terms and no seller's warranty wording, so all we can report is what a listing itself says.

WD's en-gb site has a recertified page for the Ultrastar DC HC580, titled as the 24 TB model. Its US store has another for the Ultrastar DC HC520, a 12 TB SATA drive, so the word is not confined to one generation. We have not found a WD list of every recertified Ultrastar. The en-gb HC580 page shows a UK selector and pounds pricing and shipping wording, but we found no statement of which recertified models ship to the UK.

On what recertified means, WD says its recertified products may consist of customer return units and may be repaired, and that all are tested and determined to meet its quality standards before they are sold as recertified. Its UK-region WD-brand warranty page adds that some recertified items may have marks, scratches or other slight signs of wear. These sentences cover WD recertified products in general. We hold no test results that confirm or contradict them.

WD Ultrastar refurbished: which warranty applies

WD's documents answer this in pieces, and we have not found one that settles it for a recertified Ultrastar bought in the UK. Here is what each says, and how far each reaches.

The conflict we cannot settle. WD's recertified HC580 page prints a 1-Year Limited Warranty in its specifications and highlight tiles, and a 5-year limited warranty in its product description. Those cannot both describe the same unit, and the page does not say which applies. We do not pick one. Get the term in writing from whoever sells you the drive before you rely on either.

The 12-month store wording and the 1-year specification line match in length, but that is all we can say. The store sentence does not name Ultrastar, so it does not resolve the conflict.

A drive that WD did not sell as recertified is a simpler case, and a less comfortable one. We have not found a WD document putting a WD warranty behind a drive a third party calls refurbished. The new-drive conditions above, an authorised dealer and an original purchaser, are the ones to read against it. Any cover beyond that is whatever the seller promises, and we have read no seller's terms.

Refurbished Ultrastar part numbers: R0F62802 against 0F62802

One mark is visible on WD's own pages. The recertified HC580 page lists its 24 TB SAS Base (SE) model as R0F62802, and the new drive's page lists the same configuration as 0F62802, with no R. That match holds for SAS only: the new 24 TB SATA Base (SE) is 0F62796 and the recertified one is R0F62798, so the digits differ. WD's recertified HC520 page lists R0F29590 as a model number. We have not found a WD document defining that R, so reading it as a recertified marker is our inference from comparing the pages. What that does and does not tell you:

• A title printing R0F62802 matches the number on WD's recertified page. It does not prove the unit passed through WD, so ask the seller where it came from.
• A title printing 0F62802 and calling the drive refurbished combines a number WD lists for the new drive with a seller's word. Ask what was done to it and who covers it.
• A title printing any other number tells us less. We have only three recertified numbers from WD, R0F62802, R0F62798 and R0F29590, so we cannot confirm an R version exists for other models, and we cannot decode other prefixes or suffixes a seller adds. The SATA pair also shows you cannot get a recertified number by putting an R on a new one.

Warranty replacements are not refurbished sales

One sentence on WD's warranty page is easy to misread. WD says it may replace your product with one that was previously used, repaired and tested. That concerns a drive WD sends back against a warranty claim. It does not describe a drive sold as refurbished.

The same page says a replacement is covered for the remainder of the original warranty or 90 days, whichever is greater. WD may also ask for proof of purchase, and without a valid one the warranty period is measured from WD's sale to the authorised distributor, not from the day you bought the drive. Keep your order confirmation.

HGST Ultrastar refurbished: the name on the label

WD's warranty page names HGST in the same sentence as Ultrastar, the one that limits it to new drives. That is the whole of what we hold on the name: we have not read a WD document on its history, so we do not date it. A search for HGST Ultrastar refurbished therefore meets the same limit, because the warranty wording speaks to new drives.

HGST-named lines can appear in the table below, including He and 7K series models. We hold no data sheet for those lines in this guide, so the capacity and interface on such a row are listing data, unchecked against any WD document.

Refurbished Ultrastar hard drives on Amazon.co.uk

This table takes listings filed under Ultrastar and classed by us as used, whether the title says refurbished, renewed or neither. The used label does not show that WD was involved, or which of those words applies. Lowest price per TB comes first, in pounds sterling inc VAT, as at 14 November 2026, 00:39 UTC. It holds 22 listings right now.

Read the capacity and the part number before the price. A low outlay can simply mean a small drive, and a row with no stated capacity has no per-TB price. A title can also be wrong or incomplete on capacity, which is another reason to go by the part number, and to ask the seller if the row prints none. The seller appears where Amazon.co.uk names one.

New Ultrastar listings for comparison

This second table takes new-condition Ultrastar listings, for scale. It holds 41 listings right now. One listing can carry both a new and a used offer, so it may show up in both tables. Setting the tables side by side gives you price levels and not a discount: the rows can be different models at different capacities, so we print no percentage saving. The generations are laid out on WD Ultrastar.

Your UK rights when a trader sells you a refurbished Ultrastar

A manufacturer's warranty and your statutory rights are separate things, and the rights below depend on who is selling to whom. Part 1 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies where there is an agreement between a trader and a consumer. A trader is a person acting for purposes relating to their trade, business, craft or profession. A consumer is an individual acting for purposes wholly or mainly outside theirs. So a private sale falls outside Part 1, and a business buying Ultrastar drives for its servers may fall outside it too. Where a consumer buys from a trader, these points bear on a refurbished drive:

• Every contract to supply goods is treated as including a term that their quality is satisfactory.
• Satisfactory means what a reasonable person would consider satisfactory, taking account of any description, the price if relevant and all other relevant circumstances. A refurbished description and a lower price feed into that test and do not switch it off.
• Durability is listed as an aspect of quality. That sets no lifespan for a drive.
• The short-term right to reject has a time limit of 30 days, which starts once ownership or possession has passed, the goods are delivered and any required installation notice has been given.
• For repair or replacement, price reduction and final rejection, a failure to conform that appears within six months of delivery is taken to have existed on delivery, unless it is established that the goods did conform, or that is incompatible with the nature of the goods or the fault (section 19(14) and (15)). This presumption does not apply to the short-term right to reject.

Those are rights a consumer has against the trader who sold the drive, and they are not a claim on WD. In the text we read, WD's UK-region WD-brand warranty page names neither the UK nor the Consumer Rights Act. Its general text says: "No other warranties either express or implied by law, including but not limited to those contained in the Sale of Goods Act, are made with respect to the Product." It does not say which country's Act it means. Part 1's reach turns on the trader and the consumer as set out above.

Before you press Buy on Amazon: a refurbished Ultrastar check

• Get the full part number from the title, the listing or the seller, and set it against the numbers in this guide.
• Ask who takes a warranty claim, for how long and where. If the answer is WD, ask for that in writing, given the new-drive wording above.
• Ask what was done to the drive: tested, repaired or simply taken out of a machine. WD's description covers its own recertified products and no one else's.
• Check whether the seller is acting as a trader, because Part 1 rights depend on it.
• Confirm the interface against your controller or backplane. We make no compatibility claim for any row.
• Test the drive as soon as it arrives. If you are a consumer buying from a trader, the 30-day limit on the short-term right to reject is the one to beat.

Seagate's recertified terms are not WD's

Seagate describes its factory recertified drives as carrying a six-month Seagate warranty, and the refurbished Seagate Exos guide covers that programme. The two are not like for like. Seagate's statement covers its factory recertified drives as a group, whilst WD's 1-year line sits on the individual product pages we read, and on the HC580 page beside a sentence that contradicts it. For the words used across makers and listings, go to refurbished enterprise hard drives.

What we could not read for this guide

• Amazon.co.uk's Renewed Guarantee terms: the help page would not open for us, so we state no Renewed guarantee length.
• Third-party refurbishers' terms: we have read none, so we name no refurbisher and state no seller's warranty term.
• WD's recertified data-centre category: the address we tried did not load and was probably wrong, so we hold no full list of models or countries.
• The Ultrastar section of WD's legal warranty page: we could not read that section in full, so the Ultrastar terms above rest on WD's separate UK Ultrastar and HGST warranty page.