[mythtv-users] Dec 2008 - State of the Art - Hard Drive Recommendations?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 12/18/2008 01:24 PM, David Brodbeck wrote:
> f-myth-users wrote:
>   
>> (e) There are also a TON of people complaining about Newegg's packing
>>     (basically letting the drive rattle around with some paper around
>>     it but not even bubblewrap in some cases).  OTOH, I checked the
>>     reviews at Amazon (there used to be 4 a month ago, now, suddenly,
>>     there are 30-odd) and several people are complaining about similar
>>     shoddy packing from both Amazon and (in Amazon's reviews, yet) from
>>     Tiger as well.
>>     
> The days of hard disks being packed in two inches of foam are mostly
> over, I think.  The Western Digital drives I've gotten direct from the
> factory, as warranty replacements, were just suspended inside a small
> cardboard box by two plastic end shells.
>
> I think shipping damage is also most likely to result in immediate
> failure, which is easier to deal with than a failure that occurs after
> the drive is in use.  (Although still annoying, since NewEgg makes you
> pay shipping to return the defective item.  They'll sometimes make
> exceptions in really egregious cases, if you email them, though.)

All 3 of my 1.5TB HDD's I got from newegg were shipped with enough 
bubble wrap wrapped and taped around it that I couldn't even see the 
drive underneath.  Also, 2 of them--the most-recent 2--were packed with 
enough styrofoam peanuts or paper that the drive didn't move inside the 
box.  I'd guess the most-recent 2 were better packaged because of all 
the people complaining about the packaging.

Also, when you note:
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/desktop/Barracuda%207200.11/100507013e.pdf
-----
All shock specifications assume that the drive is mounted securely with 
the input shock applied at the drive mounting screws. Shock may be 
applied in the X, Y or Z axis.
...
The nonoperating shock level that the drive can experience without 
incurring physical damage or degradation in performance when 
subsequently put into operation is 300 Gs based on a nonrepetitive 
half-sine shock pulse of 2 msec duration.
-----
Today's drives aren't your grandfather's HDD's--you know, the ones that 
couldn't ever be moved.  Thank the boom in the laptop market for the 
increased shock resistance.

So, just get Tom's Hardware (or whomever) to do some real-world tests to 
see how well today's HDD's tolerate shock under various conditions (bare 
and bubble wrapped drives dropped onto various surfaces from various 
heights with various areas--side, bottom, corner--making first contact 
as well as drives in boxes, with various packaging methods).  I'd read 
the article.

Mike