Buying Hard Drives - Online or Offline Purchasing?

[Chris Nuzzaco]

So I'm in the market for TB drives. I've done the usually geeky thing and looked first at Newegg.com which is where I've gone for things like DVD's in the past. I love the prices there, but I'm a bit worried about shipping a hard drive from ANY online retailer.

Since I know many of you guys buy hard drives like others buy candy, I thought I'd ask for some opinions here. I know that no matter where I buy the drive, it had to be shipped in some manner, but I keep seeing "DOA" horror stories in peoples reviews, under protected packaging, etc...

While were here, any thoughts on buying "bare drives"? I assume this means its only in a plastic anti-static bag.

Thanks!

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Buy away. Newegg is great.

You can buy locally, sure, but remember those drives get shipped too, often only a few at a time, thrown in a box at a regional distributor..

Drives have the same warranty whether or not they are bare or retail. It's really just a way to save on packaging, extra screws, worthless papers, etc..

For 1TB, the Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital have all been very reliable over the past year or two. Don't buy any 1.5TB drives -- very problematic for some reason. For 2TB, the WD Black ones seem to be the best so far. I've got some Hitachi 2TB 7200rpm units and they are working very well so far, but they're slower.

 

[Chris Nuzzaco]

Thanks for the tips Jeff! Ever use any Seagates? I'm pretty sure I've only ever used Western Digital (but never any at 1 TB size), so tend to go with them first, but this Seagate caught my eye:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

I'm wary of buying cheaper hard drives though :/

I've read some recommendations to use FedEx shipping over the free UPS. I can understand that, my brother used to work in a UPS facility and he had some scary things to say about how packages can get handled.

 

[Jason Sturgis]

Hi Chris,
Just wanted to give you a heads up about Newegg. If you are ever ordering then shipping to an address that is different from your billing address, that can likely throw a wrench into the works. I got burned a few times where I would ship the drives to the location of my shoot only to show up and no drives. Newegg was poor in their communication efforts and much later they would tell me that the order had been cancelled because they couldn't confirm the shipping address.

I don't know if this will apply to you but thought that I would save you the headache if you are ever in the above scenario.

 

[Vance Colvig]

What has worked for me in the past is to notify the credit card company of where I want the item shipped if different than my billing address. Then I advise the seller of what I have done. Has worked so far.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Yes, Newegg will only ship to an address that is associated with your credit card or if you use PayPal, it must be a confirmed PayPal address for your account. They actually state this on their order pages. Most of your better vendors do this and typically a quick call to your credit card company in advance of making your purchase is all it takes to handle this.

About drives.. The Samsungs are not that great. Seagate 1TB drives are good, their 1.5TB drives are junk, I have replaced several of those over the past year or so and have several dead ones sitting here but I'm tired of replacing them under warranty as it's such a hassle.

I buy hard drives by the hundreds, literally. Every now and then you get a bad one, typically the bad ones are DOA or fail right off. The only drives of the major brands out there right now (Seagate, Hitachi, WD) that I tell people to NOT buy are those Seagate 1.5TB units. They are so incredibly problematic. I've pulled all of them that I've had installed. I've got about 45 of them sitting here. Some work, some do not, all still under warranty, some already replaced, but still covered under warranty. I'm thinking of putting the whole lot on ebay...

Shipping is just shipping. You can expect your package to be dropped, kicked, sat on, etc.. The only advantage to going with a faster service is that the equipment spends less time bouncing around in the back of a truck and may get handled a bit less. No matter where you buy, local or online, these items are typically packed, shipped, re-packed and shipped again a few times before you get your hands on it. If you buy from a local store, there's no guaranty that box of HDD's didn't spend 3 nights outside on a loading dock in Alaska at -30F or that a store clerk didn't drop it from up high at some point or kick it down an aisle before setting it on the shelf.

 

[Mark Collins]

I generally get my hard drives from a local store. I've got 2 1TB LaCie drives that have worked very well for me. A bit slow and all, but very reliable.

I haven't ordered too many drives online, but I rarely need to.

 

[Nick D]

Yes, Newegg will only ship to an address that is associated with your credit card or if you use PayPal, it must be a confirmed PayPal address for your account. They actually state this on their order pages. Most of your better vendors do this and typically a quick call to your credit card company in advance of making your purchase is all it takes to handle this.

About drives.. The Samsungs are not that great. Seagate 1TB drives are good, their 1.5TB drives are junk, I have replaced several of those over the past year or so and have several dead ones sitting here but I'm tired of replacing them under warranty as it's such a hassle.

I buy hard drives by the hundreds, literally. Every now and then you get a bad one, typically the bad ones are DOA or fail right off. The only drives of the major brands out there right now (Seagate, Hitachi, WD) that I tell people to NOT buy are those Seagate 1.5TB units. They are so incredibly problematic. I've pulled all of them that I've had installed. I've got about 45 of them sitting here. Some work, some do not, all still under warranty, some already replaced, but still covered under warranty. I'm thinking of putting the whole lot on ebay...

Shipping is just shipping. You can expect your package to be dropped, kicked, sat on, etc.. The only advantage to going with a faster service is that the equipment spends less time bouncing around in the back of a truck and may get handled a bit less. No matter where you buy, local or online, these items are typically packed, shipped, re-packed and shipped again a few times before you get your hands on it. If you buy from a local store, there's no guaranty that box of HDD's didn't spend 3 nights outside on a loading dock in Alaska at -30F or that a store clerk didn't drop it from up high at some point or kick it down an aisle before setting it on the shelf.

There is typically a difference in warranty on bare drives vs retail drives in most cases (1 yr Bare vs 2/3yr Retail Package OR 3 yr Bare vs 5yr Retail Package), and quite often you have to really read over the specs to know you are getting the same product (sometimes the Cache or RPM may be different for same size).

If you are buying 1 TB drives for use in RAID configuration, it may be worth the extra bucks to get retail packaging for the longer warranty. However, remember in RAID configuration that there are several important factors to keep in mind, outside of warranty.

2 basic followup questions would be:

1. How long do you need a warranty before failure is out of your pocket?
2. Are you planning on using the drives in RAID configuration, and what level RAID?

 

[Mark Allen]

I buy from macsales.com (other world computing) and have for many years. I own many many terrabytes. My current modus operandi is to buy SATA drives and stick them in my computer while working on a job and then just take it out and set it aside to "archve" it. For on set drives I use the "cool drives." I use Seagates and follow the advice of the OWC people as they have told me in the past when to avoid certain drives and been right. (Note that they told me to not buy the 1.5 Seagate Terrabytes early on and since then I've seen people have trouble with them.)

www.macsales.com

My current salesperson there is Angela Montgomery and has proven herself to be good.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

There is typically a difference in warranty on bare drives vs retail drives in most cases (1 yr Bare vs 2/3yr Retail Package OR 3 yr Bare vs 5yr Retail Package), and quite often you have to really read over the specs to know you are getting the same product (sometimes the Cache or RPM may be different for same size).

Not trying to be argumentative here, but I'm really not sure what warranties you're looking at. All Seagate, Hitachi and Western Digital HDDs are warrantied for 3 years from manufacture date. Retail or bare. The only exception is the Hitachi and WD "enterprise" models, which typically carry 5 year warranties. Samsung, Kyocera, and other makers do often provide lesser warranties on some models. I haven't seen a Seagate, Hitachi or WD HDD with less than a 3-year warranty since the early '90s.

As for differences in specs, none of the big three alter model numbers based on packaging. Big reason why is you buy the bulk packs, the drives all ship as bare anyway. But it's true, you need to compare specs and know what you are buying. Hitachi alone makes 6 (or was it 7?) different models of 3.5" 1TB HDDs. Several of them are even identical on the surface when comparing general specs, like; interface, rotational speed and cache size. For example, they make a 1TB 7200rpm 32MB/cache model that is a 5-platter design and another is a 3-platter design. And then there are "enterprise models" of each of those, which are essentially the same hardware, mostly just firmware differences. But they perform better in RAIDs and server environments and carry the 5-year warranty. They also cost about 75% more.

It's very common for external drive or RAID units to carry a 1 year warranty. However these are on the enclosures. You can always pull the HDD's out and send them in for replacement. Even if they have CalDigit or LaCie stickers on them on top of the manufacturer label. If you're ever in doubt or wanting to know, Seagate, Hitachi and WD all provide warranty verification based on model and serial numbers on their web sites. On the flip side of that, many vendors like CalDigit, Macsales/OWC, etc.. do charge a premium on these drives, but they also place their own labels / serial numbers on the drives and will handle warranty processes themselves. If you buy a drive, or a drive that's part of a RAID, from certain vendors like these, they will take care of you. You call them up, they send you a replacement, and they will deal with the dead drive on their end. This is a highly recommended approach for many independent owner/ops or small shops that only buy a few TB of storage every year.

If you are buying 1 TB drives for use in RAID configuration, it may be worth the extra bucks to get retail packaging for the longer warranty. However, remember in RAID configuration that there are several important factors to keep in mind, outside of warranty.

If you're building a performance RAID, especially a RAID-5/6, etc.. or something with more than 3 drives, you will typically want to spend the extra for the enterprise drives. They are optimized for this use and will provide more consistent performance and hopefully a longer life cycle.

That said, the problem I have with HDD warranties, that I touched on above, is they are a hassle. By design, unfortunately. When buying and operating large numbers of drives, it's often cheaper and easier, especially in a business environment, to just replace them and discard/destroy the bad ones. We typically smash them and drop them into a bin with other electronics and mixed-material recyclables.

 

[Kevin Olsen]

Get the Western Digital 1 TB Black edition drives for Non-RAID and the 1TB RE4 for RAID. Some older Black edition drives allow you to enable TLER (Time Limted Error Recovery) to prevent drives dropping in RAID during error recovery, but this has apparently been removed from the firmware after many people realized that the Blacks with TLER enabled were basically RE4 drives for 30-40% less. BTW, the Blacks now have a 6Gbps version as well.

Not trying to be argumentative here, but I'm really not sure what warranties you're looking at. All Seagate, Hitachi and Western Digital HDDs are warrantied for 3 years from manufacture date. Retail or bare. The only exception is the Hitachi and WD "enterprise" models, which typically carry 5 year warranties. Samsung, Kyocera, and other makers do often provide lesser warranties on some models. I haven't seen a Seagate, Hitachi or WD HDD with less than a 3-year warranty since the early '90s.

Sorry Jeff, but both the RE4 and Blacks carry a 5 year warranty, unlike the remainder of the Western Digital product line and most other manufacturers. This makes the Black editions one of the best bargains for the money, Enterprise class performance and warranty for desktop price.
(http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=733)

My biggest recommendation for online purchase, despite what drive you get, is avoid UPS, ship it with FedEx. Don't take my word for it, here is the most 'helpful' review according to New Egg for the 1TB Black:

___

Here's a suggestion for anyone buying a hard drive, go with FedEx, the express saver is the cheapest. I know it cost more than UPS and Newegg's "free shipping" isn't FedEx, but here's the deal: I have bought over 30 hard drives (Western Digital and Seagate) through Newegg in the past 2 years, 100% of the ones shipped FedEx are still running, 80% of the ones shipped UPS were either DOA or failed within 6 months. UPS beats the He11 out of their shipments, even their website states that every package is subject to a 6 foot drop. Do the math, free shipping or cheaper UPS shipping isn't free in the long run. I ship my non-fragile items with the free shipping, but I do a separate order and use FedEx for hard drives and Motherboards.

1363 out of 1456 people found this review helpful.
____

KO

 

[Chris Nuzzaco]

Wow, above and beyond guys! Many thanks. I'm now looking at the WD Black's. I've used WD's for years and no issues yet, so I guess there's no sense in switching brands to save 20 bucks.

Kevin, I saw that review too on the site! UPS destroyed my brothers electronic rising/lowering desk.