Whatever you do - Don't panic... Okay, maybe just a little!
Yesterday I wrote about the hard drive shortage due to the flooding in Thailand (here)…
At the time, we were not actually feeling the affects, however, 24hrs later, we sure are!
The same terabyte SATA drives which sold for 60 dollars back on October 3rd, are approaching 140 dollars each today, and many vendors have sold out of them. Those who have not sold out have begun to limit the quantity you can purchase. Hard drive rationing!
What’s a computer repair house to do when they need one? Pay the jacked up price, and unfortunately, pass it on to our customers…
An individual can still purchase from places such as Staples, Office Depot, Best Buy, etc, until the stock is depleted, then it’s anybody’s guess what the next step is.
This morning, one vendor was sold out entirely of 1TB bare drives, but, they did have a few external drives that one could purchase, then scavenge the drive contained within for their install.
A word of warning to anyone who does that: The drives contained in external enclosures are generally slower drives, not designed for the sustained transfer rates or rapid access that a typical workstation may require.
If you find a reliable and affordable source for hard drives at this point in the game… You might want to keep it to yourself, or maybe share with me!
OH, and don’t think that this hard drive situation only affects computers and servers. LOTS of devices these days require hard drives, from copiers, to digital video recorders, to Voice over IP phone systems.
Another computer technician on Facebook mentioned to me that this could be a good time to make the switch to solid state drives, and I think they may be right!
Thoughts?