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  1. Member
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    What's a good site for buying hard drives? I prefer retail so the packaging is better. I have tried newegg.com & their OEM drives but the packaging is horrible.
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  2. NewEgg has boxed retail drives too. If there's a Fry's near you they almost always have a few retail drives on sale. For example, today's ad has a 1 TB Samsung EcoGreen drive for $74. I think that's an OEM drive though (bare drive in an antistatic bag). A few days ago there was a retail Seagate 1 TB drive for $90.
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  3. Member wtsinnc's Avatar
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    jagabo mentioned Fry's.
    You didn't mention the specifics (PATA/SATA, laptop or desktop, form factor, etc.), so here's a link to Fry's retail selection.

    http://www.frys.com/catreq/1058

    PCConnection also has a fairly large selection.

    http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Search.htm?CatId=204164&Sort=Availability...=Y&Term=retail
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    SATA desktop drive
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  5. Member hech54's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Ally68
    What's a good site for buying hard drives? I prefer retail so the packaging is better. I have tried newegg.com & their OEM drives but the packaging is horrible.
    That makes ZERO sense. What do you think is going to happen...NewEgg
    is simply going to stick postage stamps to the anti-static bag, write your
    address on it with a ball point pen and drop it in the closest mailbox?
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    It makes total sense, the packaging needs to improve. Go to the website and look at peoples comments. Almost all of them had a bad drive on the first shipment. Which is why I only deal with retail.
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    Originally Posted by Ally68
    It makes total sense, the packaging needs to improve. Go to the website and look at peoples comments. Almost all of them had a bad drive on the first shipment. Which is why I only deal with retail.
    That's news to me, I have been shopping @ newegg for about 8 years, have bought 3 or 4 dozen HDD's from them, I always buy oem, they always come to me wrapped in a cocoon of bubblewrap and I have never had a problem

    ocgw

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    https://forum.videohelp.com/topic368691.html
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    DOA happens a lot of on the first shipment. At least from what I have read.
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    There are 3 different packaging's.

    1: Bubble wrapped ... rated 3/10 ... dodgy during transit
    2: Plastic calm shell style case ... manufacturers prefer rma's to be returned in this shell case and a heap of stickers all over it, lol
    3: Same as 2 but comes with diskettes for installation (seagate used to provide diskgo "bios overlay" software)

    You have to actually get up and phone before ordering to find out the type of packing is used ... bubble wrapped is cheaper by a few dollars.
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    I believe all OEM drives from NewEgg are packaged the same.
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  11. Member classfour's Avatar
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    I've yet to receive a bad drive - irregardless of the packaging. Yes, I do read the reviews of drives, looking for "DOA after two months", etc.. When I see what appears to be a trend: I don't buy it. I do tend to stick to the lower capacity drives, until the "proving out" period (typically on the market three to six months) has transpired. I also avoid certain brands due to my own experiences, and lean to purchasing only Seagate or Western Digital drives.
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  12. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    NewEgg has varied in their packaging of OEM drives. Most recently they are bubble wrapping and packing the box with foam 'peanuts'. I have yet to get a damaged or DOA drive. I buy about ten or fifteen a year, all OEM. The software that comes with the retail drives is available free from the HDD manufacturer anyway. The other crap software included is useless and crippled, IMO. I also buy my own cables. With SATA it's highly recommended to use the latching cables, as the others can fall out, especially if you connect/disconnect them a few times.

    I ordered ten OEM drives a few months ago from NE and they cut a portion of the original Styrofoam packing and sent them to me in that. I would also recommend UPS for shipping. They seem to throw the boxes around a bit less than other shipping companies. If you do get a DOA drive, it probably shipped that way from the manufacturer, not because of shipping from the retailer. I use WD drives now because of problems with Seagate HDDs.

    Just to add, my HDD failure rate has went down in the last couple of years. I figured about three HDD failures a year. I have went almost a year with no failures. About 45 HDDs in use at present.
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  13. Member hech54's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Ally68
    I believe all OEM drives from NewEgg are packaged the same.
    I'm sorry but I believe you read one review from one idiot. I scoured Newegg's OEM drive
    reviews for about 45 minutes and found nothing of the kind(DOA - "damaged" on arrival).
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    A lot of hardware DOA's are actually not DOA's @ all, but are killed by static electricity from improper handling

    picture this: A kid really excited about his new HDD goes skating across the carpet in his socks to pickup his new HDD to install it, he puts it in his PC, it doesn't work

    DAMN NEWEGG!!

    ocgw

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  15. Member wtsinnc's Avatar
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    Over the past 3+ years, I have purchased twenty hard drives, both retail and OEM, from numerous online sellers and to-date- none have arrived damaged.

    The only issues I've ever had with Newegg were regarding blank media twice arriving with a broken spindle and damaged discs due to poor packaging and (very probably) rough handling during shipping.
    On both occasions, I called Newegg and received a full purchase credit for one spindle and the offer to return ship for a replacement at their expense for the other.
    More than fair.
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  16. Member zoobie's Avatar
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    it's amazing how one review can change a thousand minds
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  17. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    I've ran into more than a few buyers of OEM drives that couldn't get them to show up on their computer after installing. I asked, "Did you format/partition it? What's that? Or they had the jumpers wrong for a PATA drive.

    Normally a HDD with the heads parked should be able to stand at least a three foot fall onto a hard floor without damage. (I've tested this a few times by accident and no casualties. ) So rough handling when shipping normally shouldn't cause damages. More likely the drive was DOA from the manufacturer. Always a few, no matter what brand drive.

    HDDs are fairly static resistant, but don't take them out of the antistatic bag until you are ready to install and make sure you touch the metal computer case to discharge your static charge. Where I'm at the humidity hovers around 10% at times and you can get an impressive blue spark if you are wearing polyester socks on a synthetic carpet. You learn to use the back of your hand on light switches. I do have a antistatic wrist strap, and that, or discharging yourself against a computer case should be standard practice when installing any computer component.
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