Did decide to go the used drive route just saving up and waiting for the right deal from a good seller. I did notice on eBay specifically that some sellers have tested drives for a great price per tb with a shit seller’s warranty (30 days to 1 year) but offer insurance for a significantly longer length of time for a few more bucks. I’m wondering if that’s a good alternative to having a long seller’s warranty? Just assume I will back everything up properly so drive failure won’t be a massive concern I just want the option of returning it or getting a replacement if need be.
I completely agree with you, no discussion there. Active monitoring is required. Backup in 3-2-1 would solve the same source batch issue. Some backups should be kept spun down / cold storage so the likelihood of failure at the same time is close to none. Still I would mix the production and backups HDDs to avoid that.