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

[f-myth-users at media.mit.edu]

    > Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:24:02 -0800
    > From: David Brodbeck <gull at gull.us>

    > 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.

Yeah, I've seen that packaging & been fine w/it.  Some of the Newegg
customers are complaining about it being packed inside its antistatic
bag, and then left to rattle around in a box half-full of peanuts, or
perhaps nothing but some folded paper. Given that I've seen delivery
people -throw- packages onto front porches...

(The real gotcha question is, "If I return a disk to Seagate packed
the way Newegg shipped it to me, would Seagate dishonor the warranty
for insufficient packing?"  If so, Newegg's doing it wrong.)

    > 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

One would hope, but honestly I don't know.

    > 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.)

Good to know.

(This was why my recent discovery of OneWorldComputing's RMA policy is
interesting.  I -think- (haven't confirmed directly) that they prepay
return, and they also claim 90-day return-for-new-unit (not refurb)
and 15-day cross-ship new unit.  Whether that's worth an extra $40
depends on the likelihood of doing either, I guess.  And their
packaging of 3 IDE disks I ordered was very good---it was this
foam-filled complicated affair with the disks space apart from each
other.  No idea if it would have been so good if it had been just a
single disk, though.)