Etailer hard drive packing

N

natermeister

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 26, 2005
Messages
463
We really need a sticky with a list of those etailers that pack their hard drives well and those that don't. It would really make purchasing hard drives online a lot easier.

I usually don't buy hard drives from Newegg because they don't pack them right, but I just picked up a WD15EADS from Amazon and the packing was atrocious. I've received books from them packed better, it was just a small bubble wrap baggie. Nothing else.

Good:

ZipZoomFly (styrofoam case, packing nuts).


Bad:

Amazon (small cell bubble wrap baggie)
Newegg (large cell bubble wrap, peanuts)
 
Frys uses some sort of "suspension" box when they ship oem HDDs. I've only ordered one from them that way, but its been working great for years.
 
Dell = Good (single drives in the same type packing you get drives back from RMA in)
Tigerdirect/ CircuitCity.com = bad (plastic clamshell of death + not enough brown paper to fill the box it's in and keep the plastic part from roaming freely)
 
Last edited:
I ordered two retail drives from frys.com in two separate orders and the packaging was horrendous. It was basically the retail box inside of a larger box with little to no padding. Both drives could slide around in their boxes freely.

I ordered two OEM 640 WD blacks on black Friday from newegg and they came taped together and surrounded in a box of bubble wrap.
 
This is why I like to pay a little more and order retail packaged drives if I can. Usually the factory box is pretty decent so even if the shipping carton is poorly padded the drive is usually adequately protected. It's also one less set of hands handling the bare unprotected drive (even if the oem drive arrives well-packed, that doesn't mean it didn't get dropped at the warehouse).
 
It's impossible to be sure, ie an OEM drive getting dropped upon removal from their 20-drive pack, but it's still nice to see a drive packed well.

I know that hard drives are supposed to be able to take some really nasty g-loading when they're turned off and the read/write heads are parked...but still.
 
The horror stories about Newegg's drive packing seem to all be related to one or two warehouses. All of my stuff comes out of NJ, and I've never seen a drive packed any worse than any other shop. They usually have bubble wrap going around the drive several times, then packed in a box with several inches of peanuts on each side. I like ZZF's little foam boxes, but I have no qualms about ordering from Newegg.

While ZZF's foam boxes probably withstand direct impact better, I'm thinking the bubble wrap that Newegg uses would be better at cushioning the drive as it bounces around in shipment, since it seems to give a little.
 
I've gotten 98% good and 2% bad from Newegg out of about 100 drives from them. I've gotten 4 drives from Amazon that were packed great. Ordered a couple each from Mwave and ZZF with no complaints about either.
 
Bubble wrap and peanuts are never adequate no matter how they are used.

It's right there in black and white in the manufacturer's disk packaging guidelines. Both Seagate and WD have webpages that say so in no uncertain language. I got tired of posting the links. They can be found in one of my early posts on the subject in Hot Deals.
 
It's probably warehouse related like said above.

I've order drives from Amazon and they came surrounded in thick spongy foam blocks. Very excellent service.
 
i got complaints on tiger directs hard drive service. Plastic clam shell and a few pieces of brown mailing paper, not peanuts or anything. amazingly my 1.5TB WD still works.
 
Order multiple drives from amazon and you get a nifty foam hard drive caddy that holds over a dozen hard drives, wrapped in a foam bag. They're one of the better ones IMO.

Tigerdirect is great with the plastic clam shells, I'd rather have those than a thin layer of bubble wrap that would pop as the box is tossed around. As long as the box is small I don't see an issue, the hard drives wouldn't get tossed around much if at all.
 
-=Antimatter=- said:
Order multiple drives from amazon and you get a nifty foam hard drive caddy that holds over a dozen hard drives, wrapped in a foam bag. They're one of the better ones IMO.
Click to expand...
same here, do you have Prime? I do
I'd heard an idea that non Prime users get shitty packaging
 
I purchased two hard drives from Amazon (separate orders) and both shipped in small cardboard boxes and plastic clamshells. They both work fine (knock on wood) and I don't really see the issue people have with them. Unless you wrap padding around the clamshells themselves, adding peanuts around the rest of the box doesn't really do anything more to protect the drive anyway. I do miss the old thick foam cut-outs Seagate used to use for RMAs but from a business pov, that's just not an efficient packaging method.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top