Are WD drives cheaply made?

Azureth

Azureth

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 29, 2008
Messages
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Today I was told they're cheaply made from Hong Kong.
 
Tell your friend that his tinfoil hat is a little too big for his head :p

But seriously, the factory(s) they're manufactured at is printed right on the drive label, and i'm sure google would turn up some more info.

They're manufactured in a few different countries if i'm not mistaken, Malaysia being one of them.
 
Azureth said:
Today I was told they're cheaply made from Hong Kong.
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I don't see how they would be made any cheaper than other drives out there. Cheap is the name of the game these days. It's an easy way to have bigger profit margins.
 
Seagate Barracudas are made in Thailand, if that means anything to you.

Don't confuse "Made in USA" to mean "Quality"; there are plenty of crappy made-for-TV products made in the USA that suck.
 
Syntax Error said:
Seagate Barracudas are made in Thailand, if that means anything to you.

Don't confuse "Made in USA" to mean "Quality"; there are plenty of crappy made-for-TV products made in the USA that suck.
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i don't think the OP was confused about western digital hard drives possibly being made in the USA.
 
Well they gotta be cheaper to make than they sell them for and they sell cheap, so yeah, all manufacturers make drives cheaply.
 
SJetski71 said:
i don't think the OP was confused about western digital hard drives possibly being made in the USA.
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Well I was making the allegory that many people seem to inherently believe that anything not made in the US as "garbage" is all.
 
Intel has manufacturing plants all over the world, and are building a new FAB in China right now I believe. Dell Computers are made in China. Heck, even IBM's laptops were made in China by Lenovo before IBM sold out to them. Toyota trucks are made in Texas.

It's a world economy. Until the cost of oil makes shipping a lot more expensive, assembly of tech products will migrate to the countries with the cheapest labor.

Hard drives are pretty much a commodity item these days. Accept for an occasional blip like the Seagate firmware issue last year, they are all pretty much the same.

Don
 
Syntax Error said:
Don't confuse "Made in USA" to mean "Quality"; there are plenty of crappy made-for-TV products made in the USA that suck.
Click to expand...

QFT +1. Most of the 'quality' products we encounter these days are made in China (and other Southeast Asian countries). It does not directly imply and inferior product of poor quality. Just think of it like Japanese cars relative to the more expensive German cars. For the most part, they are still mechanically more sound and don't break as often.

I know for fact that WD's customer support is in India, if that means anything...
 
DonDon said:
Intel has manufacturing plants all over the world, and are building a new FAB in China right now I believe. Dell Computers are made in China. Heck, even IBM's laptops were made in China by Lenovo before IBM sold out to them. Toyota trucks are made in Texas.

It's a world economy. Until the cost of oil makes shipping a lot more expensive, assembly of tech products will migrate to the countries with the cheapest labor.

Hard drives are pretty much a commodity item these days. Accept for an occasional blip like the Seagate firmware issue last year, they are all pretty much the same.

Don
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Yes, and lowering the insane double and triple taxation on companies doing work in the US would help being manufacturing back here. We know that ain't going to happen though-
 
Azureth said:
Today I was told they're cheaply made from Hong Kong.
Click to expand...

Maybe, but they're not the ones passing out bad firmware and denying it.

If they're cheaply made, others must be using 4-legged workers in 5th world countries. :D
 
Old Hippie said:
Maybe, but they're not the ones passing out bad firmware and denying it.

If they're cheaply made, others must be using 4-legged workers in 5th world countries. :D
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+1

WD > seagate

bad 1.5TB firmware, and a bad brand new 160gb in my laptop

Ive never had issues with WD
 
PC_User said:
QFT +1. Most of the 'quality' products we encounter these days are made in China (and other Southeast Asian countries). It does not directly imply and inferior product of poor quality. Just think of it like Japanese cars relative to the more expensive German cars. For the most part, they are still mechanically more sound and don't break as often.

I know for fact that WD's customer support is in India, if that means anything...
Click to expand...

You guys had me with you up to this guys post.


lol
 
last WD drives I checked were made in Thailand. Cheaply? Not that I've seen after 30 of them.
 
Monkey God said:
+1

WD > seagate

bad 1.5TB firmware, and a bad brand new 160gb in my laptop

Ive never had issues with WD
Click to expand...

wait a while, your young, 5 WD drives, 4 of them RMAed, and RMAed one that was RMAed.
at least the raptor works fine. (thats the sixth)

and now, they held up my RMA process for 3 weeks.... because of their own delays. not a happy WD customer.
 
Megalomaniac said:
wait a while, your young, 5 WD drives, 4 of them RMAed, and RMAed one that was RMAed.
at least the raptor works fine. (thats the sixth)

and now, they held up my RMA process for 3 weeks.... because of their own delays. not a happy WD customer.
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Problem with your system? I think you're saying that you're having problem with WD drives, not too sure as your post isn't very clear.

Perhaps after 5 dead hard drives you need to make sure there are no problems on your end. I've got a couple dozen WD's and a few Seagates, had to RMA hard drives from both brands, and both companies were easy to work with.
 
normally i would think that, but the 5 WDs were from the same batch and had sequential serials.... i can see how it might have been a problem with the whole batch.
 
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