Buying a Used External Hard Drive: What to Check

A fair price for an external hard drive in good condition is around £10 to £39 (approximately $13 to $52), against £15 to £60 across the full condition range. Storage is cheap new, so used drives sell for little, and buyers are mainly assessing whether it is about to fail.

What a fair price looks like

Condition on WishThrift is described by the seller against five grades, and nobody inspects it on your behalf — so the description and the photographs are what you are buying on.

Condition	Typical	What it means
New with Tags	£60 (~$80)	Unused, tags or seals intact
Like New	£51 (~$68)	Barely used, no visible wear
Good	£39 (~$52)	Light signs of use, complete and working
Fair	£27 (~$36)	Heavily used, or a described fault or missing part
For Parts	£15 (~$20)	Not working or incomplete, sold as seen

Sterling guide ranges with an approximate US dollar equivalent at £1 ≈ $1.33 (July 2026). Sellers set their own asking price; these are a starting point for judging an offer. All five grades explained.

The checklist before you pay

An account lock is the single biggest one — a device still signed in to an iCloud, Google or Microsoft account cannot be reset and is effectively unusable. After that, battery health and undisclosed third-party repairs.

Run through these before money changes hands — they are the things that decide whether an external hard drive is worth what is being asked:

Reallocated sectors or warnings in the drive health
Clicking or grinding mechanical drives
Small capacities, worth almost nothing
Missing proprietary cables

And the things worth paying more for, because they hold their value:

Larger capacities and faster interfaces
Low power-on hours with clean health status
SSD-based drives over mechanical
Original cable, often proprietary

Common faults and fakes

Outright counterfeits are rare outside accessories, where fake chargers and cables are a genuine fire risk. The commoner problem is a device described as working that has a fault the seller knows about.

Ask the seller to factory reset and remove their account BEFORE you pay, and to send a photograph of the settings screen showing it signed out. Ask for the exact model identifier and, on anything with a battery, the battery health figure.

WishThrift does not authenticate, inspect or grade anything, and no marketplace check replaces your own. If a seller will not answer a direct question about condition or origin, that is the answer.

Questions to ask the seller

These are the three that get asked most often about an external hard drive, and the answers tell you most of what you need:

“Have you wiped it properly?”

Say that you securely erased rather than quick formatted it. Recoverable personal data on a sold drive is a real problem for you, not just for the buyer.

“What is the drive health like?”

Run a SMART check and quote the hours and any reallocated sectors. Buyers of used storage always ask and the honest figure builds trust.

“Does it need a power supply?”

Say which, and include it. A desktop drive without its specific adapter is unusable.

Also worth establishing before you commit:

Run a drive health check and report the status
Note the power-on hours if available
Securely erase the drive before selling

Photographs to ask for

If the listing does not already show these, ask — a seller who has the item will send them in minutes:

The drive whole, with its cable
A health-check screen showing SMART status and hours
The label with capacity, model and interface
The connector and power supply, plus any dent or scuff

Details to confirm before you commit

Capacity and interface
Whether it is bus powered or needs a mains adapter
SMART health status and power-on hours
That it has been securely erased, and what cables are included

Live external hard drive listings

Nothing matching is listed at the moment. Browse electronics for what is live now, or everything on the site — stock changes daily and new listings are free to post, so it is worth checking back.

When to buy

Steady year round with a lift in January. Larger capacities and USB-C drives sell fastest; small old drives are worth very little.

Prices move against that cycle for a buyer: the cheapest time to buy is when sellers are listing most, not when demand peaks.

Paying and collecting safely

WishThrift does not process payments, hold funds or offer buyer protection — you agree the price and the method with the seller directly, which is what keeps the platform free on both sides. Meet somewhere public where you can, inspect before you pay, and keep the conversation on the site so there is a record of what was agreed. Be wary of any seller who wants to move the conversation elsewhere before you have agreed anything.

Selling one instead?

If you already have an external hard drive sitting unused, it is free to list and there is no commission — the price you agree is the amount you keep. Read how to sell external hard drive for what to photograph and how to price, or what external hard drive is worth at each condition grade.

Frequently asked questions

What should I pay for a used external hard drive?

Around £10 to £39 in good condition, more for barely-used examples and less for anything with a described fault. Compare against the seller’s photographs rather than the grade alone.

How do I check an external hard drive before buying?

Is buying an external hard drive second hand safe?

Yes, with the ordinary care any private sale needs. WishThrift does not authenticate, inspect or hold funds, so inspect before you pay where you can, meet somewhere public, and keep the conversation on the site. An account lock is the single biggest one — a device still signed in to an iCloud, Google or Microsoft account cannot be reset and is effectively unusable. After that, battery health and undisclosed third-party repairs.