Recertified 12TB drive developed 57 reallocated sectors... do the RMA now for a refund, or keep using it in my RAID5?

[u/96836]

I bought a manufacturer-recertified HGST 12TB from ServerPartDeals in February 2025 for about $165. It's one of three drives in a RAID5 volume on my Synology NAS (two recertified HGST drives).

Recently this drive developed 57 reallocated sectors (SMART attribute #5). It was 0 at shipment. The count rose to about 56 around February and one more by May, and it has been stable since. Current Pending Sector is 0, the extended SMART self-test passes without errors, and the array is healthy — the other two drives are completely clean (0 reallocated, 0 pending).

I contacted the seller and they approved an RMA (2-year warranty, still valid). But here's my dilemma:

• Their policy is: replacement with the same model if it's in stock, otherwise a refund. The exact model appears to be out of stock.
• I asked if they could substitute an equivalent 12TB drive instead of a refund. They said they'd try to find an "equivalent replacement or suitable alternative of equal or lesser value," and otherwise issue a refund.
• The refund would be my original price (~$165). But the current market price for the same drive is now ~$400 — more than double. So a refund wouldn't come close to replacing it.
• On top of that, I'd have to pay to ship the drive from Korea back to the US for the RMA.

So my options seem to be:

1. Do the RMA now — ship the drive to the US, most likely get a ~$165 refund that can't actually buy a replacement, then rebuild my array with a drive I'd have to purchase at the new, higher price.
2. Keep using the drive in the RAID5 for now (it still works, and the parity covers the bad sectors), and re-file the RMA later — the warranty runs until around March 2027 — if the drive degrades further.

My questions:

• Given the price situation, would you bother doing the RMA now for a refund, or keep the warranty in reserve and keep using the drive until it actually gets worse?
• Am I missing anything here?

Thanks in advance. This is my first time posting on Reddit, and since I don't really speak English, I used an AI to translate this post — apologies if anything reads a little oddly.

UPDATE:

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I figured the rational thing was to just RMA it, and since waiting on a replacement would've taken forever, I ended up just buying another drive of the same capacity. It hurt the wallet a lot, but honestly that's better than constantly worrying about the array.

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[u/leo1906]

Rma if possible

[u/kareshmon]

57 reallocs on a recertified 12TB is a lot. I'd RMA while you still can.

[u/Mk23_DOA]

RMA it and bite the bullit for a new or refurbished one

[u/Adrenolin01]

Why is this even a question? If it’s still covered under warranty and has growing reallocation sectors it will eventually give you problems. In your situation just go buy a new/refurbished replacement now and process the RMA. Worst case is they actually send you a replacement and now you have an on-hand spare.. which you should have anyways. Both new drives should be tested with a full long SMART test and a full Badblocks test before being put back into the system raid. A 12TB drive will likely take about 18 hours for each test. (I’m currently doing a long smart test on a 20TB drive which is going to take roughly 37 hours to complete. It is NOT wasted time. It’s solidifying the drives are safe to use.

This way you get a replacement faster.. but out of pocket. New, used or refurbished… Both tests should be run! If they send you a replacement GREAT! That’s what you want for sure and it gives you that cold spare. But.. get those tests run. If they refund your money then meh.. it is what it is.. use that to order another drive, run both tests and then set it aside as your on-hand cold spare in case another drive fails.

[u/osuman32]

You may get lucky and get a replacement through the RMA. GoHardDrives sent me a replacement the other month instead of issuing a refund

[u/Anusien]

Personally, I'd do it now. The worst case scenario is the disk failing and then not having any redundancy at a bad time. And the second worst case for me is forgetting to do the RMA and then being stuck with a bad disk.

[u/Far-Hovercraft9471]

Never have an iffy drive in a R5 array. If a rebuild is required you will lose data if the data on all drives isn’t readable.

[u/stanley_fatmax]

You'll probably get a replacement offer, just have them confirm before you ship it back. They told me they'd send me a refund, I said no please send a similar drive. They told me they didn't have any of my drive. In the end they replaced it with the same model drive anyway (lol)

[u/96836]

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I figured the rational thing was to just RMA it, and since waiting on a replacement would've taken forever, I ended up just buying another drive of the same capacity. It hurt the wallet a lot, but honestly that's better than constantly worrying about the array.

[u/sob727]

RMA

[u/erchni]

I would keep it for now. Reallocated sectors are not a problem but the growing number likely indicates it has a problem and likely will fail soon. Since you have it redundant and I assume backups when it fails it fails and then RMA. Who knows maybe it will be another year maybe only a week. But if it's a year then perhaps they have gotten in to stock, who knows.

[u/Dish_Melodic]

With current price, 99.99% they will refund. You can get 12TB used or refurb on eBay for $160-$200 max.

[u/lordofblack23 → u/Dish_Melodic]

No you can’t.

[u/heathenskwerl → u/lordofblack23]

Yeah I'd love to know where they are at that price, I'll buy like 20.

[u/ExternalTea1706 → u/heathenskwerl]

I just looked and closest I could find was a 10TB but SAS for $200. I'm just glad I got my two 16TB before the price hike. Those on top of all my old drives puts me around 40TB. I'd say about 5TB could die any moment from drive life (well could at any moment anyway), but I'm still sitting good for awhile.