Buying Mechanical Hard Drives Online and Delivered

browser on 23/06/2022 - 11:30

In the past I always make a concise effort to collect hard drives in person. Probably just paranoid that it would get thrown around in transit. Sure they would have to be transported at some point, but usually well packed and in bulk.

Not long ago ordered a hard drive from Amazon, purely out of convince, shockingly the drive arrived in a BM3 padded envelop, there was no extra packaging or cardboard protection whatsoever, and no "handle with care" labels. No idea how it was treated along with hundreds/thousand of other envelops.

Fortunately (or not) they sent the wrong drive, so it was returned with zero hesitation.

It got me thinking is it just me or people happily buy hard drives online and get them delivered without over thinking it?

Computing

Comments

  • rektrading on 23/06/2022 - 11:33
    +1

    HDD can take 250 Gs.

    • Chandler on 23/06/2022 - 12:10
      +3

      These days you can get ones that take 8,000 Gs for less than $300.

    • browser on 23/06/2022 - 12:21

      Okay found this article describing "shock value": https://www.crucial.com/about-us/crucial-stories/why-hard-dr….

      It's just a general statement, but:

      rated to survive up to 250 Gs worth of shock over 2 milliseconds

      It doesn't say the drive will be good as new after a 250Gs drop. It does imply:

      • The drive can still function (but for how long?).
      • Up to 250Gs is not 250Gs.
      • Also, 2ms is a short time, no mentioning of aftershocks.
    • freefall101 on 23/06/2022 - 13:29
      +2

      Drop something from 1m and it will be travelling at 4.4m/s at the time it hits the floor. It has been pulling 1g but it has been pulling it for about half a second.

      It then goes from 4.4m/s to 0m/s in a much, much shorter amount of time. If it's averaged over 2ms then it's pulling just under 250 Gs. If it's peak Gs it's likely much higher (the initial impact is going to take most of the speed away almost instantaneously).

      However the fact it's in a padded envelope is probably more than enough to avoid that level of shock. And there's an easy way to check whether the drive has had a shock in transit, the SMART data will tell you if it has exceeded the G rating at any point.

      • browser on 23/06/2022 - 13:54

        How does it detect shock when not plugged it? Do newer drivers have internal batteries to monitor such things and to record it? Or is there a mechanical switch that trips under excessive shock?

  • tomahawk793 on 23/06/2022 - 11:50
    +2

    Yeah always made an effort to go down to Umart or a physical store to get mine. I use WD Reds in a server so its pre important they have been handled well prior to purchase before they go into a 24/7 system

  • galtaforce on 23/06/2022 - 12:56

    I ordered a Skyhawk 8TB drive from a 3rd party delivered by Amazon. Came in two padded bags and was dead on arrival. I’ve ordered other drives from Amazon US that have come in reinforced, shock-proof corrugami and been perfectly fine.

  • [Deactivated] on 23/06/2022 - 13:15

    amazon shipping can be hit or miss, i've bought some stuff from them that was packaged reasonably well, while i have had small items put in huge boxes with little to no padding and the item just rattles around a massive box, thankfully on those particular items it didn't matter, but they are inconsistent.

    try a smaller seller on ebay, i've bought a 4gb HDD from somewhere online (might have actually been amazon) and that was alright, but i've noticed smaller - mid sized sellers on ebay tend to overpackage stuff, to the point that it irritates me as the entire package is covered in tape (with padding under) so i can't just rip it open.

    • sidesw1pe on 23/06/2022 - 14:42
      +1

      "4gb HDD"

      Just use a USB stick :)

      • [Deactivated] on 23/06/2022 - 15:14

        meant to say TB lol

  • yippy on 23/06/2022 - 14:35

    My 4TB Seagate Barracuda from Amazon AU came in it's own box and had the 2 plastic brackets to hold the drive in place, the box was placed inside a padded bag. I was actually surprised after reading all the horror stories.

  • sidesw1pe on 23/06/2022 - 14:50

    I ordered 4x 18TB drives from Amazon not so long ago and they were all fine, running 24x7 for the past 3+ months. My impression was that this would be a bit of a punt though, based on many comments I'd read. If possible I'd prefer to purchase from a local retailer. Just that it would have been so much more costly to do that.

  • the Unforgiven on 24/06/2022 - 09:51

    Buy from a good store like PLE, PCCG or Scorptec & they will package it better than Amazon

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