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Buying hard disks online - inadequate packaging

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    Buying hard disks online - inadequate packaging

    Needed to increase the capacity of my NAS so ordered a pair of bigger drives from a well known online shop.

    The drives arrived today and I was shocked (and annoyed) to find that the packaging amounted to the type of cardboard wrapper usually used to ship books or dvds. Not a piece of foam or other shock protection in sight.

    There are visible marks on both the wrappers and the disks themselves where they've been knocking against each other.

    Anyone else experienced this?

    I've sent them back for a refund as I wouldn't trust them to hold data now.

    Not impressed.
    Last edited by Dark Black; 11 March 2015, 12:03.
    Do what thou wilt

    #2
    Originally posted by Dark Black View Post
    Needed to increase the capacity of my NAS so ordered a pair of bigger drives from a well known online shop.

    The drives arrived today and I was shocked (and annoyed) to find that the packaging amounted to the type of cardboard wrapper usually used to ship books or dvds. Not a piece of foam or other shock protection in sight.

    There are visible marks on both the wrappers and the disks themselves where they've been knocking against each other.

    Anyone else experienced this?

    I've sent them back for a refund as I wouldn't trust them to hold data now.

    Not impressed.
    I purchase mine from Scan and they have all come well packaged and padded. Highly recommended.
    I was an IPSE Consultative Council Member, until the BoD abolished it. I am not an IPSE Member, since they have no longer have any relevance to me, as an IT Contractor. Read my lips...I recommend QDOS for ALL your Insurance requirements (Contact me for a referral code).

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      #3
      As and when I by platter HDDs I usually by OEM drives, so no nice box and variable packaging.

      I'm uncertain though exactly what damage you think the drives are likely to have taken that better packaging would have avoided, other than physical damage to the exterior of the drives themselves?
      Damage to the platters / heads is very unlikely when unpowered, and unlikely to have been avoided by having a bit of foam around them.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Scruff View Post
        I purchase mine from Scan and they have all come well packaged and padded. Highly recommended.
        +1. If anything Scan always goes utterly OTT with bubble wrap but I've never had a problem with a disk from them.

        Plus they give me free delivery....
        merely at clientco for the entertainment

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by Ticktock View Post
          As and when I by platter HDDs I usually by OEM drives, so no nice box and variable packaging.

          I'm uncertain though exactly what damage you think the drives are likely to have taken that better packaging would have avoided, other than physical damage to the exterior of the drives themselves?
          Damage to the platters / heads is very unlikely when unpowered, and unlikely to have been avoided by having a bit of foam around them.
          I know what you're saying about platter damage being unlikely these days but I still tend to treat HDDs as carefully as I can - just don't want to risk it - there's visible scuffing to the outside of the drives including the circuit boards.. doesn't seem a good place to start...


          Originally posted by eek View Post
          +1. If anything Scan always goes utterly OTT with bubble wrap but I've never had a problem with a disk from them.

          Plus they give me free delivery....
          Thanks for that, forgot about Scan - putting an order in now.
          Do what thou wilt

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Dark Black View Post
            Anyone else experienced this?
            Not the physical marks on the disk, but the last drive I bought had the same kind of packaging.

            eBuyer I think it was.
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            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by TheFaQQer View Post
              Not the physical marks on the disk, but the last drive I bought had the same kind of packaging.

              eBuyer I think it was.
              eBuyer generally do a box with shredded paper in it I think.
              They need a slightly larger box so that they can also put in the flyers for new kitchens, as that's obviously what people buying components are after.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Ticktock View Post
                eBuyer generally do a box with shredded paper in it I think.
                They need a slightly larger box so that they can also put in the flyers for new kitchens, as that's obviously what people buying components are after.
                Yep - it was dabs
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                  #9
                  Originally posted by TheFaQQer View Post
                  Not the physical marks on the disk, but the last drive I bought had the same kind of packaging.

                  eBuyer I think it was.
                  I think the fact there were two disks banging about into each other made it worse.. didn't give a good impression - even a jiffy bag would have been better.

                  Anyway, ordered two more from Scan today (should be here tomorrow) and the others are getting picked up tomorrow.

                  Fingers crossed the Scan ones are better packed.
                  Do what thou wilt

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Since you seem to be buying a pair of those, consider getting them from different manufacturers, or at least a different batch (from different retailers). Depending on how you set them up, they won't, hopefully, both fail at the exact same moment.
                    Very recently I had an HDD on my daily backup die and SSD with projects die at the same time.
                    Fortunately I had backups at an offsite location and all my pr0n / projects were recovered successfully

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