Question shipping a HDD

[velocci]

Hi all, this may be a silly question. Would you trust having a hardrive shipped to you? would you be worried that the box was thrown around and risk damaging the HDD by the time it gets to you? or do you insist on buying it from the store in person?

 

[DSzymborski]

I have no issues, that's why RMAs exist. And in any case, the hard drive has already been shipped from production to distribution to the store, so I'm not sure why to fret over one last step.

 

[kanewolf]

Hi all, this may be a silly question. Would you trust having a hardrive shipped to you? would you be worried that the box was thrown around and risk damaging the HDD by the time it gets to you? or do you insist on buying it from the store in person?

Disks.are ALWAYS shipped. It might be directly to you or to the mom-and-pop shop you walked into. The maufacturer designs the drives to survive transport.

 

[velocci]

I know its already been shipped at least once to the retailer. then it gets shipped again to the customer. I figure the more times it has been shipped, the greater the chances of it getting damaged. so its better to have a HDD that has been shipped once rather than twice. plus, is it possible for it to somehow get damaged in a way that's not detectable? maybe causing the drive to be slower or making more noise than usual. we're talking about an 18TB drive. these drives make alot of noise. so if it gets slightly damaged and still works, but has some weird noise as a result, I won't know if its part of the normal noises or something damaged.

 

[DSzymborski]

I know its already been shipped at least once to the retailer. then it gets shipped again to the customer. I figure the more times it has been shipped, the greater the chances of it getting damaged. so its better to have a HDD that has been shipped once rather than twice. plus, is it possible for it to somehow get damaged in a way that's not detectable? maybe causing the drive to be slower or making more noise than usual. we're talking about an 18TB drive. these drives make alot of noise. so if it gets slightly damaged and still works, but has some weird noise as a result, I won't know if its part of the normal noises or something damaged.

That's why drives have warranties, stores have 30-day return policies (in the US, it'll differ by jurisdiction), and responsible PC upkeep results in multiple backups of important data. If you feel it's worth your time to do this, by all means, it's your prerogative. But you asked us what we would do.

 

[kanewolf]

I know its already been shipped at least once to the retailer. then it gets shipped again to the customer. I figure the more times it has been shipped, the greater the chances of it getting damaged. so its better to have a HDD that has been shipped once rather than twice. plus, is it possible for it to somehow get damaged in a way that's not detectable? maybe causing the drive to be slower or making more noise than usual. we're talking about an 18TB drive. these drives make alot of noise. so if it gets slightly damaged and still works, but has some weird noise as a result, I won't know if its part of the normal noises or something damaged.

You have no way of knowing how many times it has been shipped. It would be unusual for a manufacturer to ship directly to a point of sale. NetApp might get a direct shipment from Seagate, but unless you order disks by the pallet, there is no way to know how much "handling" a disk box has experienced.

 

[Math Geek]

i've never had an issue with a shipped drive. that's about all i can say.

over the years i have bought hundreds (literally) of hdd's and can say i have never had a problem with one.

i can understand the concern but i'd not worry about such a thing. hdd's only really have issues when slammed around while they are running. then you can scratch the disks and cause other issues with the head. but just shipping it in a box, nothing to worry about

if there would ever have been an issue, i and many others here, would have seen it by now!! i'm talking 20+ years of online ordering of pc parts and magazines before that

 

[USAFRet]

or do you insist on buying it from the store in person?

How do you think it got from the assembly line to the store?

 

[velocci]

Hi all, thanks for all your input. ya the HDD does get shipped many times before it goes to the customer. What's another shipment? i will order it online then. thanks again!!