Hard drives still priced high

[RegEdit]

That flood in Thailand was like 7 months ago wasn't it? 320 GB hard drives are STILL about $80. I wonder if they will EVER come back down in price.

[PCX]

WD specifically said it would take a couple quarters to catch up and for the drives to finally drop in price. It was nice of the other manufactures to take advantage of this event (even though it did not affect many of them) and raise their prices as well.

[RegEdit]

Like people selling food and water at exorbitant prices after an earthquake.

[Tepin]

You are looking at the price of one drive that almost certainly has low production numbers and is considered outdated in it's capacity. 1TB drives have 300% of the capacity for a 25% increase in price.

It's really not bad at all if you look at the models that are being manufactured in big numbers.

[MFHull]

My understanding is that one of the factories that got heavily damaged was the primary manufacturer for the actual mechanical drive portion of hard drives, and because of the level of tolerances involved it was going to take awhile to get back on online and get the production numbers up, and then they had to trickle that to all the manufacturers.

Not saying that companies aren't using this as an excuse to inflate prices, but there is at least some legitimacy behind it.

[James_S]

It’s one thing for a few major hard drive plants to go offline: It could cause supply chain disruptions, but most major manufacturers have fabs in Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Singapore, and even the United States to limit their geographic exposure. And, indeed, Western Digital and Toshiba are both shifting as much production as possible to other plants. However, the Thai flooding is also impacting component suppliers, most notably Nidec: Nidec makes small motors used in things like cars refrigerators, cameras, photocopiers, and, yes, hard drives — along with hard drive base plates. The company says two of its plants in Thailand’s Ayutthaya province are flooded and shut down, and Nidec has suspended operations at almost all its Thailand facilities. Nidec is that it is already working to resume operations at one plant in Rangsit that produces hard drive motors, and one fab that makes hard drive base plates is still running. However, Nidec’s woes could have a ripple effect across the industry: estimates from DisplaySearch and iSuppli have Nidec making the motors used in 70 to 80 percent of the world’s hard drives. Nidec’s major clients include Seagate, Toshiba, Western Digital, and Hitachi.
Other hard drive component manufacturers impacted by the flooding include TDK, MMI, Furukawa, and Hutchinson Technology. Hutchinson supplies hard drive harnesses for a number of manufacturers; TDK makes suspension assemblies, MMI makes electrical components, and Furukawa makes everything from wire and heat sinks to drive platters.


Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/...#ixzz1vMIhyZ8O

This explains how it is not just WD that was affected by the floods.

[PCX]

Yes, but my understanding is that most of the other manufactures that we use like SG, should not have been affected as much as WD. Sure, there might have been a small increase in price, but from what I understand, it should not have been that much. WD, understandable, SG, not so much.

[RegEdit]

Originally Posted by Tepin

You are looking at the price of one drive that almost certainly has low production numbers and is considered outdated in it's capacity. 1TB drives have 300% of the capacity for a 25% increase in price.

It's really not bad at all if you look at the models that are being manufactured in big numbers.

Those $80 drives used to be $40 before the flood.

Side topic: Are 1 TB drives more likely to have problems, perhaps because more data is crammed on the platter?

[Tepin]

Originally Posted by RegEdit

Those $80 drives used to be $40 before the flood.

Side topic: Are 1 TB drives more likely to have problems, perhaps because more data is crammed on the platter?

Yes you are right, drives were cheap for awhile but we won't ever see those days again. I'm just glad I'm not having to charge $150+ for replacement drives any more. I lost business because the cost of repairs were higher than a whole new machine for awhile.

On your side note no, I don't believe denser platters have a significant effect on failure rates. Most drive failures are mechanical or electrical, the platters themselves seem to be pretty reliable.

[James_S]

Originally Posted by PCX

Yes, but my understanding is that most of the other manufactures that we use like SG, should not have been affected as much as WD. Sure, there might have been a small increase in price, but from what I understand, it should not have been that much. WD, understandable, SG, not so much.

All the HDD companies were affected by shortages from manufacturers like Nidec. Doesn't matter if your factory isn't underwater if several of you suppliers' factories are.

The other thing is supply and demand. WD wasn't making drives and so supply was low, so everyone else jacks up price to compensate.

Originally Posted by RegEdit

Side topic: Are 1 TB drives more likely to have problems, perhaps because more data is crammed on the platter?

I forget which one, but one of the My Hard Drive Died podcasts talks about that. The increased data density carries a greater risk of corruption because ECC can only compensate so much as the bits get crammed closer and closer together.