Seagate RMA packaging.

[Xiphos]

- Enclose each drive in an ESD (electrostatic discharge) bag, in an anti-static plastic shell (SeaShell) or anti-static bubble wrap.
- Secure each unit in 2 inch-thick foam rubber in a corrugated box. Do not use popcorn, peanuts, bubble wrap or newspaper. If packaging more than one drive, use a separate container for each drive.

So according to Seagate I can't use regular bubble wrap even when the hard drive is enclosed in an ESD bag. I assume everyone have foam rubber/anti-static plastic bubble wrap sitting around? or does everyone keep the original packaging?

Anyone had success RMA seagate hard drives with regular non-anti-static bubble wrap? with the hard drive in an ESD bag of course.

 

[drescherjm]

At work I keep at least a dozen of the hard drive boxes some with the plastic inserts and others that are all foam.

However I usually ship back to seagate a 5 drive box with 3 or more drives. I know that does not help you however.

I see you can buy these on ebay but that will cost you $10:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-SeaShel...027?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cc95bd33b

 

[drescherjm]

I just thought of something. You may be able to avoid the extra charge by doing an advance RMA. Seagate will take your credit card # and ship you a refurbished drive and then you ship them back your drive in the box they send you. I am not sure if Seagate charges anything for that.

 

[Xiphos]

yeah, i did just that.
it's $9.95 + tax ($10.66 total for me).

I looked up WD's packaging guidelines, and it doesn't ask for anti-static bubble wrap. -_-

 

[Blazestorm]

Even though Seagate has listed those requirements, I shipped a few packages to them violating those rules and they seemed fine with it. I've also modified packages meant for single drives to fit multiple drives. (Some foam box meant for a single drive, I cut out foam to fit 2 drives).

So far no complaints from them, I think as long as you do a decent job and it's obvious it couldn't have been damaged in shipping, then they'll be fine with it. All of their returned drives have nice packaging, so I just keep that around for when I need to RMA drives, only ended up ghetto-packaging a couple of them.