Recently I found that I need to find a larger hard drive for my video and photo files. I am finding that recording at 4K/60fps with both my drone and my camcorder creates some REALLY large files, and my 10TB drive is quickly filling up. Heck, just the video files I took of the new roof install for my house created something like 550gb of disk space. And that was only from my camcorder, not including video from the drone. I really wanted two bigger drives, with one as a backup, but no luck with that plan.
I had a lot of trouble finding a Seagate 18TB drive (that seems to be the largest I can find right now), as apparently they are all being sucked up from people needing them for the latest get rich quick scheme.
Chia Coin Spurs HDD Shortage: Prices Up, High Capacities Sell Out
But I found one at Newegg.com and they had only one left. So of course I ordered it just as quickly as I could click the button. I guess my spider sense let me down this time, as it turned out.
Anyway, the box showed up yesterday, and last night I opened it up so I could start the long formatting and file copying process. But first, I had heard people having problems with being sent Seagate drives that were considered as OEM, and Seagate wasn't offering them with their 5 year warranty. So I found their website where you can check the warranty period via the serial number, and I checked that out. Hmm, says this brand new drive I have in my hands is already 6 months into that 5 year warranty. Eh?? Well, whatever... What's the chances that the drive would fail ONLY within that 6 month window anyway. So I cut open the static protective sleeve it was in and pulled out the drive, ignoring that little spider sense thing starting to act up.
WTH??? This is what I saw:
Now the box itself didn't look at all damaged, certainly not in any way that would have caused that sort of damage to the drive.
And the drive was enclosed in a protective bubble wrap sleeve, albeit the sleeve was not sealed. But still packed tightly enough in that box that it should have been pretty well protected.
Another odd thing I noticed, though, was that the electrostatic sleeve, although it was sealed up, has what looked like the residue of a sticker that had been on it, but then removed.
Perhaps it had a sticker on it that stated "DAMAGED"?
I hate to think ill of a company, but my spider sense is telling me that this drive was a return, and somehow got back into the pipeline to being sold again to some poor unsuspecting sucker. Me. At least that is what the evidence is saying to me.
But it is on it's way back to Newegg right this minute, and Newegg did send me a prepaid label for the return. I am supposed to get a full refund, but heck, I really wanted the drive, so it is little consolation. Not to mention the time wasted on this. Not that I would be likely to find it somewhere else. Well, Amazon does show as having them, but I really, REALLY don't like Amazon and will only deal with them as a last resort. Unfortunately, THIS is looking like it may have to be a last resort situation.
Interestingly enough, B&H Photo shows them on their site, but they are claiming that Seagate has discontinued this model. I chatted with someone at Seagate and they assured me that no, it is NOT discontinued at all. I also chatted with someone at B&H, but they didn't seem to have access to any more information than what I could see on their website. Heck, I dunno. Maybe this is just an omen? I used to strictly buy Western Digital drives, but they seem to have slipped a bit in quality and customer care issues. Maybe I just need to look harder at other brand names. But I'm guessing I am not the first to have this idea lately looking for large hard drives.
Maybe I need another NAS for my network? :shrug01: But I'll probably be right back in the same boat, as I ALWAYS look for the largest drives available when I am in the market. Just makes sense to me, as that delays the time when you find you need to replace them with even larger drives. Files are seemingly always getting larger and larger. Heck, I have a 128 gb memory card in my darn PHONE, of all things! And I think that is alongside an internal 64gb memory card. What do you think things will be like 10 years from now?
Anyone else just astonished at how much memory can be packing into a card no bigger than the fingernail on your pinky finger? I remember working on hard drives MANY years ago that only had around 33 megabytes that took two people to move around.
I had a lot of trouble finding a Seagate 18TB drive (that seems to be the largest I can find right now), as apparently they are all being sucked up from people needing them for the latest get rich quick scheme.
Chia Coin Spurs HDD Shortage: Prices Up, High Capacities Sell Out
But I found one at Newegg.com and they had only one left. So of course I ordered it just as quickly as I could click the button. I guess my spider sense let me down this time, as it turned out.
Anyway, the box showed up yesterday, and last night I opened it up so I could start the long formatting and file copying process. But first, I had heard people having problems with being sent Seagate drives that were considered as OEM, and Seagate wasn't offering them with their 5 year warranty. So I found their website where you can check the warranty period via the serial number, and I checked that out. Hmm, says this brand new drive I have in my hands is already 6 months into that 5 year warranty. Eh?? Well, whatever... What's the chances that the drive would fail ONLY within that 6 month window anyway. So I cut open the static protective sleeve it was in and pulled out the drive, ignoring that little spider sense thing starting to act up.
WTH??? This is what I saw:
Now the box itself didn't look at all damaged, certainly not in any way that would have caused that sort of damage to the drive.
And the drive was enclosed in a protective bubble wrap sleeve, albeit the sleeve was not sealed. But still packed tightly enough in that box that it should have been pretty well protected.
Another odd thing I noticed, though, was that the electrostatic sleeve, although it was sealed up, has what looked like the residue of a sticker that had been on it, but then removed.
Perhaps it had a sticker on it that stated "DAMAGED"?
I hate to think ill of a company, but my spider sense is telling me that this drive was a return, and somehow got back into the pipeline to being sold again to some poor unsuspecting sucker. Me. At least that is what the evidence is saying to me.
But it is on it's way back to Newegg right this minute, and Newegg did send me a prepaid label for the return. I am supposed to get a full refund, but heck, I really wanted the drive, so it is little consolation. Not to mention the time wasted on this. Not that I would be likely to find it somewhere else. Well, Amazon does show as having them, but I really, REALLY don't like Amazon and will only deal with them as a last resort. Unfortunately, THIS is looking like it may have to be a last resort situation.
Interestingly enough, B&H Photo shows them on their site, but they are claiming that Seagate has discontinued this model. I chatted with someone at Seagate and they assured me that no, it is NOT discontinued at all. I also chatted with someone at B&H, but they didn't seem to have access to any more information than what I could see on their website. Heck, I dunno. Maybe this is just an omen? I used to strictly buy Western Digital drives, but they seem to have slipped a bit in quality and customer care issues. Maybe I just need to look harder at other brand names. But I'm guessing I am not the first to have this idea lately looking for large hard drives.
Maybe I need another NAS for my network? :shrug01: But I'll probably be right back in the same boat, as I ALWAYS look for the largest drives available when I am in the market. Just makes sense to me, as that delays the time when you find you need to replace them with even larger drives. Files are seemingly always getting larger and larger. Heck, I have a 128 gb memory card in my darn PHONE, of all things! And I think that is alongside an internal 64gb memory card. What do you think things will be like 10 years from now?
Anyone else just astonished at how much memory can be packing into a card no bigger than the fingernail on your pinky finger? I remember working on hard drives MANY years ago that only had around 33 megabytes that took two people to move around.