I guess with this comment, I'm trying to have my two cakes and eat them, too.
Wouldn't you rather have all of these cookies?
My "I'm a CS" colleagues all tell stories about the OS they created in uni. A couple of them were happy stories.
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-828-operating-system-engineering-fall-2012/
It's good to know how to do it, but there is not much need to go and do it.
If it is any consolation, I think you might have won.
They added another year to the window, in case you see one at the resale shop.
One anecdotal data point to consider... They might be really loud.
I am running a few 3TB drives that were formerly enterprise SAN drives, cleaned and sold for cheap. They work just fine (we won't talk about game loading times here), but they are very audible clacking away when the head seeks.
Hitachi Ultrastar 7K4000 HUS724030ALE641 3TB 64MB cache Internal Hard Drive
Besides the math to determine per unit cost, you might also need to consider the opportunity cost of having so many.
- How long will the bulk supply last?
- Is it something you will get tired of having?
- How much space does it occupy?
- Is it perishable?
- Will it expire?
...
Pepperidge Farm remembers
https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/03/us/hitchbot-robot-beheaded-philadelphia-feat/index.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_Bros
The box is from some fancy Apple software from long before most of you were born.
The contents are just the skeletal remains of assorted species of the Save Icon.
ATC interrupted a Squidward portrait
Have you been pwned?
https://haveibeenpwned.com/
There's been some new and ginormous data dumps recently.
Maybe it is your time.