HDD prices rising

Glad I bought my Hitachi 5K3000 Deskstars a few weeks back ($79-$10), even if some are still sitting in the boxes until rails are freed up. The one drive I still need to purchase hasn't changed in price - the Intel 311 20GB drive for boosting Z68 setups. I'm assuming Thailand doesn't do much in the way of fab work so solid state drives are safe for now.
 
The price increases are sudden and severe. I was looking at a couple drives of 500GB for RAID 1 the price has gone from $50 to $80 in a week.
 
aronesz said:
HDD prices are rising, the world is coming to an end !!!

WD 2TB EARS model used to be $80 shipped, now it is $137.85 shipped. That's a whopping $57.85 (or 73%) increase in price
Click to expand...

Consider that cheap. If we remove the stores which don't have the hard drive, it is a 180€+ drive, many shops having 200€+ price on it.
 
Even worse here in the UK. I wanted to get another 2TB Samsung F4 as an extra back-up drive for the media on my NAS. 2 weeks ago these were about £52-55 depending on the retailer. Now the cheapest I have found it is £107 :eek: That's an increase of over 100%!!!
 
Picked up 10 used Western Digital 2TB Black (FAEX) drives just a week ago for $109 each shipped from Amazon for a server addition. Those drives are now listed at $239 each :eek:
 
Last edited:
grimster said:
What morons to put almost all the hard drive manufacturing in the world in one spot.
Click to expand...

I know. It seems unreal.
Anyway, I went to Best Buy today to buy a hard drive because one of my old ones failed and to my surprise they had the WD 2TB EARS listed for $99.99. When i got to the register to pay they said the price was $129.00 each, but since they had the wrong price on display i paid only $99.99. Now they are out because i bought all 7 of them and already sold 3 on ebay for $145.
 
Oct. 20 -- Dell Inc.’s shares fell the most in two months amid concerns raised by one of its suppliers, Western Digital Corp., that the worst flooding in Thailand in five decades would hamper production for months.

Dell dropped as much as 7.6 percent as of 11:16 a.m. in New York, for the biggest intraday decline since Aug. 17. The stock had climbed 17 percent this year before today.

Western Digital has shut two factories in Thailand, joining such companies as Honda Motor Co. and Canon Inc. that have closed about 1,000 facilities in the Asian nation ravaged by rising waters. It may take several quarters for Irvine, California-based Western Digital to resume normal production, Chief Executive Officer John Coyne said on a conference call yesterday.

Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, is one of Western Digital’s biggest customers, according to supply-chain data compiled by Bloomberg.
Click to expand...

My employer is a heavy Dell user overseas. The above information has already been forwarded by other members to our IT department...

Lippy2day
 
Last edited:
The more I think about this, what exactly happens if there is a true shortage? Like I'm sure there are tons of suppliers around the world that have millions of them stocked, but once those are actually depleted, now what? Would they actually build an emergency factory somewhere to get going again? This could potentially get very serious.

Guess with something like this, because it's a non essential product, it would probably not get that serious, but imagine if this happened to something like medication.
 
I just got off a chat with newegg and asked how long the wait had to be between orders. The customer service rep said at this point they had no idea. WTF?
 
Red Squirrel said:
The more I think about this, what exactly happens if there is a true shortage? Like I'm sure there are tons of suppliers around the world that have millions of them stocked, but once those are actually depleted, now what? Would they actually build an emergency factory somewhere to get going again? This could potentially get very serious.

Guess with something like this, because it's a non essential product, it would probably not get that serious, but imagine if this happened to something like medication.
Click to expand...

They might be able to run additional shifts at an existing factory, but they wouldn't be making any new factories. I think the real killer isn't so much the HDD factories themselves, it's the supplier's plants that are going to cause the problem, since they supply, motors, say, for all the manufacturers - and there is no way to pick up that slack. Same thing that happened with the tsunami in Japan.
 
I probably should ask in another thread, but figure I'll try here first.

What do you use to test 3tb drives out before putting them into production. Hitachi's DFT says it does not work for 3tb drives. I never consider this problem before (as these are the first 3tb drives I own)

I always low level/surface scanned new drives before using them just in case. I got 60+ new Hitachi 3tb drives that need scanning before I throw them into my file box.
 
Red Squirrel said:
The more I think about this, what exactly happens if there is a true shortage? Like I'm sure there are tons of suppliers around the world that have millions of them stocked, but once those are actually depleted, now what? Would they actually build an emergency factory somewhere to get going again? This could potentially get very serious.
Click to expand...

No new factories, bulding a factory is something measured in years. They can increase the production a bit in other factories, but as previous poster said - the real issue will be NIDEC. For time being, hard drive will try to fullfill their obligations towards OEMs (HP, Dell etc). That means there will be a lot less hard drives in the distribution channel, and even less in the retail market. And what will happen ? Those who are not in emergency (drive dead after warranty) will wait until the situation goes back to normal (6 months+), those who are in emergency will either buy hard drives at high price or get a SSD.

This shortage is not a real shortage for now, we talk about 30 million hard drives missing in Q4 from 110-130 which should have been millions produced. While it is a large number, it doesn't mean there is a total halt of production for now.
 
Zerosum said:
I always low level/surface scanned new drives before using them just in case. I got 60+ new Hitachi 3tb drives that need scanning before I throw them into my file box.
Click to expand...

HD Tune ? While not perfect, it is a good enough test. Not sure about 3TB drives compatibility, don't have any :).

Edit: Sorry for doublepost, mods please join them if possible.
 
Hard drives are not food nor medication, but I'd say they're pretty essential, considering humanity is producing a lot of data every day, that has to be stored somewhere.
 
Red Squirrel said:
The more I think about this, what exactly happens if there is a true shortage? Like I'm sure there are tons of suppliers around the world that have millions of them stocked, but once those are actually depleted, now what? Would they actually build an emergency factory somewhere to get going again? This could potentially get very serious.

Guess with something like this, because it's a non essential product, it would probably not get that serious, but imagine if this happened to something like medication.
Click to expand...

I have been shopping for a naked 2bay NAS recently, have a couple 320Gb AAKS WD Blue drives here I was going to consider upgrading to a couple 1Tb drives or better....because prices were so low.....get back on tonight on amazon and many of the drives are sold out and the prices are pretty damn high......it appears to have spawned a shortage already
 
Red Squirrel said:
The more I think about this, what exactly happens if there is a true shortage? Like I'm sure there are tons of suppliers around the world that have millions of them stocked, but once those are actually depleted, now what? Would they actually build an emergency factory somewhere to get going again? This could potentially get very serious.

Guess with something like this, because it's a non essential product, it would probably not get that serious, but imagine if this happened to something like medication.
Click to expand...

As stock from the various retailers around the world depletes the prices will continue to climb. Manufacturers are going to be producing what they can for OEM's since they represent the mass quantity of drives purchased. Whatever's left will trickle to the retail channel at drastically higher prices.
​
 
grimster said:
What morons to put almost all the hard drive manufacturing in the world in one spot.
Click to expand...

they're not morons if they got rich doing it. it doesn't matter what happens to you today if they were happy yesterday with prices at x and they're also happy today with prices at 2x. that's capitalism. I'm sure the hard drive companies will still have coffee in their coffee machines.
 
The problem with the rising prices. Is that its going to take just as long to see the prices go back to pre-disaster prices too.

So even if production was established @ 100% in 3 months, it'll take at least another 3 to see prices come back down. Black Friday is going to be affected by this somewhat too.

I paid $99 and $139 for my 2TB Black's, and I'm glad now I got them, I have a 1TB Blue sitting NIB in case its needed for anything, so I'm gonna be able to weather this, but our business is gonna be hit by this easily.
 
westerndigital01.jpg
 
stiltner said:
The problem with the rising prices. Is that its going to take just as long to see the prices go back to pre-disaster prices too.

So even if production was established @ 100% in 3 months, it'll take at least another 3 to see prices come back down. Black Friday is going to be affected by this somewhat too.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I doubt that will be the case. If it takes 3 months for them to get back to 100%, it'll probably take longer before we get back to pre-flood prices. Just capitalism. People will charge whatever the market is willing to pay so they'll keep it as high as they can for as long as they can.

BTW, I really *really* hope I'm wrong in this. I honestly don't think we'll get back on the track to pre-100 3tb drives any time soon. Pre-flood, 3tb drives were hitting 100/109 bucks on sale. It's likely we would have seen them break the magical $100 barrier for Black Friday. Now, I think I'll be happy if it hits 100 sometime next summer/fall. Maybe next years black friday. :(
 
Long live microcenter - their prices are still low (my guess until they run out of stock).
 
So much for saving money on my new build......have most parts but I was undecided on the hdd yet....looks like my indecisiveness will cost me. I had it narrowed down to the WD Black FAEK 1TB, Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB HD103SJ, or the new Hitachi 7k1000.D.

I just called a local store here and they have 26 of The WD Black 1TB FAEK for $119 each. Think Ill grab one or two at that price still.......also found a store in Quebec late last night with some Samsung F3's for 89.99 each so I ordered 2. Seems like the stock is there and the price is right, hope all goes well to get them here.
 
Picked up two external WD 2TB Essentials drives (USB 2/3) at BB for $107.99 (After 10% off). Adding to the two I already have... That should tide me over for at least a year.

Does anyone know how to crack open the Essential drives?
 
So I was thinking it was probably price-gouging and 'not quite as bad as it seemed', but I found out first hand today it's probably MUCH WORSE than everyone here thinks.

I have two different looks at the market and just clarified my problems this morning. In IT, we usually order from larger distributors (PCmall, CDW, etc). We are trying to get some stock now, to last us 3-6 months (we probably use 10-20 drives/mo in replacements and new builds). They can get us nothing, they have nothing and they wont be getting anything. They sent us this:

The flooding is getting worse daily. Most of Bangkok is under 3 ½ feet of water as we speak and it is expected to rise ever further as more rain as well as groundwater seeps to the surface. The dykes and levees in and around the city are virtually inundated and there is a growing threat that the flood waters could be as much as 5 feet in the city this weekend.

As far as the Hard Drive manufacturer’s are concerned, the WD, Seagate, and Hitachi facilities there are completely shut down and there is no word on when or if they will be back up and running. There is also an unconfirmed report that WD has declared their facility a total loss. As it stands right now, Distribution has canceled ALL open backorders for all WD, Seagate, and Hitachi drives across the board and they will not accept any purchase orders from us going forward so it would be well for all of you to understand that any sales orders submitted for Drives will probably not be ordered much less filled. Please be aware that we are doing absolutely everything possible to secure as much stock as we can.
Click to expand...

On the other side of it, my company *is* an OEM. We use a variety of 2.5" drives (both spinner and ssd's) in some of our products. We have already been qualifying as many brands as we can for the last several weeks expecting some brands to be hard to get but it looks like we're just flat not getting any more spinners pretty soon unless some magically appear. We're going to shift to mostly/purely SSDs. I'd expect we're not the only ones on that path, which is going to put pressure on SSDs too.

BTW - Frys, at least in Northern CA is telling us "VERY strict 1-drive per customer/day" - and not of each SKU, that's total disks.
 
For people with large RAID arrays I would recommend to pick up spares - just in case.
 
obrith said:
BTW - Frys, at least in Northern CA is telling us "VERY strict 1-drive per customer/day" - and not of each SKU, that's total disks.
Click to expand...
I may need to go back and clear out my local MC 2tb stock at this rate. Cleaned them out with 34 3tb drives on monday. The 2nd half of my 24 just showed up today from my last friday's amazon's order. I'm hoping this will last me til the shortage is over. :(
 
obrith said:
BTW - Frys, at least in Northern CA is telling us "VERY strict 1-drive per customer/day" - and not of each SKU, that's total disks.
Click to expand...

Glad my Fry's wasn't as strict :) Just ran out at lunch today to pick up a couple Samsung HD103SJ drives while they were still under $60. Need them for my new media server and had planned on waiting until closer to bringing it online.. but figured I better grab a couple now.
 
2tb Hitachi's are onsale this weekend at my local frys for $97, looks like its time to grab a few while I can.
 
And the hits just keep on coming... There are more rains forecast for the next 2 weeks. Also, WDC just suspended until further notice their customer loyalty program, which let you upgrade an existing, even old drive (even out of warranty) plus some cash for a newer, larger one. It also let you keep your existing drive, though it killed whatever warranty was left on the existing drive.
 
Last edited:
bAMtan2 said:
s_b17_30164451.jpg


why is he still sitting ther??? and wat is hamburgler doing???
Click to expand...

Funny I was just going to post that pic. It made me laugh for some reason. :D

Sucks for the people affected though, losing their homes, businesses etc. I really feel for them. It sucks that we have to deal with rising hard drive prices, but we have it good compared to these people.
 
Correction: 500GB drives have DOUBLED in price in only 2 weeks time. Maybe this would be a good time to sell any spare drives? :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top