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How do you buy your HDDs?

Buy an HDD In-Store or Online?

  • In-Store

    Votes: 4 8.2%

  • Online

    Votes: 34 69.4%

  • Either One

    Votes: 11 22.4%
  • Total voters
    49
N

NotHereMan

Joined
May 4, 2021
Messages
39 (0.03/day)
I've been having DOA/Failing drive issues with Western Digital drives. Was thinking maybe this could be I'm buying them online?

I've heard bad stories about seagate, but every external HDD I bought seems to work just fine. Just the internal WD drives I tend to have issues with.

Was wanting to see if users have a preference on how they buy their HDDs. I figured if you buy in store, there is less single quantity transits --OR-- the store would have all their inventory shipped palettise, creating less hard drive package tossing from the couriers.

Even though I have yet to buy one from a store in a very long time, it seems like the ones I bought back in the 90's from CompUSA still have some life in them.
 
I buy 95% of things online, including HDD's which are mostly exclusively bought online as with all HW, there shouldn't be an issue if it is a new drive from a reputable source or direct, you may want to list your specs as you're only mentioning internal WD hard drives and comparing them to external Seagate ones, which use different interfaces, have you witnessed this over different platforms, cables, motherboards etc?
 
Online for internals. I typically by external drives locally.
 
Very infrequently online, for everything non-ssd and non-critical (90% of installs) I'm strictly second hand now. Yup, I said it - second hand. For uses that don't have critical storage, getting 500gb - 1tb drives as data storage on a spare computer or for replacement for other people (again non-critical only, and not under any pretense that it's new), the cost for second hand 2.5" and even 3.5" hdds is peanuts. Turns out people like that price point.

Been doing it for years and I haven't had one fail yet, though I did have a couple with not great smart info right out of the gate. These immediately get wiped and recycled. Never had any issues. In fact, had more issues with drives failing within 1st year of service historically.
 
I don't buy them anymore.
SSD's only.
 
DoLlyBirD said:
I buy 95% of things online, including HDD's which are mostly exclusively bought online as with all HW, there shouldn't be an issue if it is a new drive from a reputable source or direct, you may want to list your specs as you're only mentioning internal WD hard drives and comparing them to external Seagate ones, which use different interfaces, have you witnessed this over different platforms, cables, motherboards etc?
Click to expand...
I'm not having any immediate or current issues with the HDDs I have now. Just sharing my experience from what has happened to me. All the DOAs I got have been replaced and all the hard drives that failed are sometimes within warranty and those get replaced as well. I still haven't bought any modern seagate internal drives.

Just seems those Maxtors were rock solid back in the day! But I got those in stores. And when I started to buy WD online is when I noticed the drives would eventually break. It was a passing thought.

But I do a lot more data storage now than I did back then.
 
NotHereMan said:
I'm not having any immediate or current issues with the HDDs I have now. Just sharing my experience from what has happened to me. All the DOAs I got have been replaced and all the hard drives that failed are sometimes within warranty and those get replaced as well. I still haven't bought any modern seagate internal drives.

Just seems those Maxtors were rock solid back in the day! But I got those in stores. And when I started to buy WD online is when I noticed the drives would eventually break. It was a passing thought.

But I do a lot more data storage now than I did back then.
Click to expand...
Maybe QC on the OLD maxtors were better than modern WD ones? some of them are still going 30 years+ now? but if you have a certain brand keep failing on you then maybe try another, Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba etc just a thought, I mean fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.... :ohwell:
 
Yeah I started getting WDs for those Raptor drives. Those were some fun drives! I guess of the bad stories I've heard of Seagate and WD's warranty makes me keep getting them. Was gonna try getting one at the store to see what my luck is with that.
 
Online when I can't find what I want locally at Micro Center.

Online shipping can be pretty shitty, though. I had 3 different HDDs from Amazon come shipped in flimsy plastic envelopes. I returned them all and eventually just asked for a refund. I then transitioned to newegg, paid about $20 for the same drive, but it came packed like a HDD should.

I'd much rather buy them locally, in person, but Micro Center doesn't carry everything so sometimes you're left with online as your only option.
 
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most of my drives were bought online. I normally wait for retailers to have some sort of promo or discount going before buying

I wont buy internal drives from Amazon - only external because the way amazon source stock from batches that were intended for other regions which means no warranty and if you buy an OEM drive from them. The drives dont come placed in a box with shock absorbing foam or any protective packaging like that to stop it from banging around while in transit. You either get the bare drive in its electrostatic packaging or the blister packing with no cushioning inside the box.

External drives will always have their retail box though and retail boxes have all the foam and other protective stuff inside.

I would like to source drives locally, but my go to store has been shut down for a long long time and any pc retail store either doesnt stock a great range of hard drives or they are massively over priced or the shop is just dodgy... Dodgy as in if you open the box - your warranty is gone.

Many years ago i was interested in getting a XFi Fatality card from a local store. I asked about warranty and they pretty much said no warranty if i open the box. Which is great for me because it meant that i saved money rather than spending £80 on paper weight that day. Never been back there since as most things i can find cheaper online.

There is also a serious lack of pc hardware shops. You get stores that are the equivalent of walmart that stock some stuff but they wont have a lot of the proper enthusiast level/grade shit.
 
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Get mine at Walmart or Best Buy. Yes I said Walmart.:p
 
NotHereMan said:
I've been having DOA/Failing drive issues with Western Digital drives. Was thinking maybe this could be I'm buying them online?

I've heard bad stories about seagate, but every external HDD I bought seems to work just fine. Just the internal WD drives I tend to have issues with.

Was wanting to see if users have a preference on how they buy their HDDs. I figured if you buy in store, there is less single quantity transits --OR-- the store would have all their inventory shipped palettise, creating less hard drive package tossing from the couriers.

Even though I have yet to buy one from a store in a very long time, it seems like the ones I bought back in the 90's from CompUSA still have some life in them.
Click to expand...

Make sure they are RETAIL DRIVES, NOT OEM (WARRANTY REASONS)
 
I buy my WD spinning rust drives from B&H Photo and never have a problem. Free one-day shipping for me is a big plus.
If they don't have what I need, then it's Amazon.
 
I still would prefer Brick and Mortar Stores for faster returns and not being charged for shipping an item back

BlackSun59 said:
I buy WD spinning rust drives from B&H Photo and never have a problem. Free one-day shipping for me is a big plus.
Click to expand...
Rust is oxidized metal, hdds are not rust.
 
I buy from microcenter and B&H when I buy internals, too much trouble finding retail drives on Newegg and Amazon. These days I mostly buy externals though and just shuck them, haven’t had any problems with warranties yet.
 
online, on the very popular Yahoo Auction website over here in Japan

2nd hand so yes you could say risky, but you check seller rep. and also buy only if showing dated Crystaldiskinfo results

and why so as well its because I moved to SFF case in the last 12months so need slim HDD being 2.5 or 3.5in. models
 
SSD's online, HDD's from scrap computers.

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RAID 1 for the win!
 
It depends. Most of the hard drives I bought were online.

I bought a WD EasyStore at a local store and ended up shucking it. I found a 4TB portable drive from Seagate at a store that was on sale for like $55 a few years ago.

The 1TB WD Blue in my off-site PC was ready to die a few months ago, so I ran into my local electronics store and bought a replacement right away.
 
Hi,
Best deals are found online.
 
usually i buy it offline but now i'm lazy rolling through every store, now i buy online
 
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