EggXpert

I am looking to upgrade my hard drive and when I read the reviews on newegg, at least a dozen people say that their hard drive came DOA.  And its like that for virtually every hard drive.  No other computer component I've seen on newegg has this high of a defective rate.  Are hard drives in general just cheaply made, or is one brand better than the other?

If the Shipping company such as USP, FedEX ect don’t throw them around like a football then they will not arrive DOA. But if a company does not handle it with care, Drop it, throw it, toss it ect then yes it will arrive DOA.

 

http://www.howstuffworks.com/hard-disk.htm

 

Really? I have ordered two HDDs but luckily they are shipped safely and I don't have to RMA the HDDs don't get in my hair. I used WD and Seagate HDDs,they are trustful brands.

True, I bought a Seagate HD last week, but I couldn't believe that it has scratches. It's supposed to be a new drive. Newegg probably need to take better care of their packaging so that the items will not be broken or scratched even when USP, DHL,FedEX, etc. throw them around like a football.

 

the only HDD's i have seen have a high DOA rate are the high capacity ones.  (the 1TB +- 200GB)

I was looking at some of those and they look like they are a c**p shute at the moment.  every 1TB drive died on arival or within 2 weeks.

I have owned and installed well over a hundred hard drives and never had a DOA.

For me, whether it's from newegg or another store, hdd failure rate has been higher than any other component I ever have purchased.

FascistNation:

I have owned and installed well over a hundred hard drives and never had a DOA.

Agreed, although I can't say "never", it has been SO long I couldn't tell you what YEAR it was !

The largest I've purchased so far has been 750GB Seagate drives....2yrs? old now and kicking fine.  Holding customer drive images for our Image Keeper services, as well as temporary storage of customer files when needed.

Something to think about darklord...of all of the drives that were fine, few people will take the time to come back and post that.

...just a thought.

Tallon41

FascistNation:

I have owned and installed well over a hundred hard drives and never had a DOA.

Well said. When I happened to be in hospital, I feel the whole human race is weak, sick and doomed. Following all the forums I have the same feeling - HDDs are DOA, CPU are DOA, MBs do not fit in cases and so on. In rare occasion you can find a confession of - let's say 'human factor' participation.

But I have to admit that old hardware may be was more reliable - old HDs run far less rpm and so on. Rapid progress in computer hardware area and chase for extremes probably takes a toll. 

P.S. no one HDD died on me (I do not run them longer than 3 years)

As FN mentioned, I too have never received a hard drive that was DOA. Either I'm lucky, or more likely, since others have similar experiences, the ones getting them shipped DOA are either unlucky or just doing something wrong.

I've been a PC and network tech throughout the 90s (software engineer now), and have seen my fair share of failed hard drives from all sorts of other people's PCs. These days (2006+), I really haven't seen too many failed drives from 2003+. Desktop drives are more reliable than ever. Yet, I have seen many Toshiba and Fujitsu 2.5" laptop drives fail recently. Still, DOA from the manufacturer seems to be a thing of the past for 3.5" desktop drives if you ignore the shipping issues of UPS, FedEx, DHL, and USPS mishandling packages.

There will always be the exception, but overall, I really wouldn't worry about that possibility since it's rare. The old saying is true, that the squeaky wheel gets the oil (ie: attention), and all of those complaining about DOA drives are just a fraction of the customers buying drives. For the average user, If they received an HDD just fine, their chances of posting about it are much less than if the unit was DOA.

I have approximately one fifth of my HDDs arrive dead. Brand doesn't matter either. It must be my bad luck!

I am yet to receive a bad HDD.  That said, I live right next to Newegg's NJ  warehouse, anything that's shipped from there arrives in one day, and NJ packers know their stuff.    I.E.  The 1TB WD I ordered a few days ago was in a sealed antistatic bag, wrapped in 2 inches of bubble wrap and taped, and buried in peanuts.    On a rare occasion something I order ships from their TN warehouse, it is always rattling around a box with maybe a piece or two of crumpled brown paper.   If you live closest to the TN warehouse, chances are you'll be seeing a lot of DOAs