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Is having a hard drive shipped to my house a bad idea?

K

kat.hayes

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 10, 2011
1,448
52
Is it a bad idea to buy an internal drive for my MP from a site like Amazon and have it shipped to my house. By bad idea, I mean potential for damage from shipping, not obvious damage, damage that could cause problems later?
 
I've done it without any problems. I'd say they're generally packed pretty well to avoid any possible damage.
 
I ordered an Iomega enclosed drive from Amazon about 1-1/2 years ago and it was was packaged rather ---loosely--, tried it out & it made terrible noises so I returned it without difficulty. I then ordered a bare WD Green HDD and also a separate enclosure from Amazon and they were both packaged much better. I guess it just depends. Amazon's return policy is excellent though.
 
If you buy it from a store, it would have been shipped to a store anyway.
 
I usually have mine teleported directly into my computer if I'm too busy to build my own....:cool:
 
Amazon has had some heinous complaints using Lazership. They deliver "last mile"- meaning creepy guys in un/poorly marked vehicles, packages left on busy sidewalks, no notices, drivers locked out of buildings that UPS/FedEx have access to...
 
Whether it gets shipped to a store or gets shipped to your house doesn't matter.
 
And, the heads are parked in there home position, they can not damage the platters.
Shipping is shipping, many/most are from Asia, how do you think they get to US/Europe.
I find this an odd question.
 
Any place but Newegg. A good half the drives I've ever gotten from them arrive DOA.
 
kat.hayes said:
Is it a bad idea to buy an internal drive for my MP from a site like Amazon and have it shipped to my house. By bad idea, I mean potential for damage from shipping, not obvious damage, damage that could cause problems later?
Click to expand...

Buy it from NewEgg. I order my HDDs from there and so far, none come damaged from shipping. Very well packed.
 
Brian Y said:
You'll probably get the same everywhere.
Click to expand...

Newegg is notoriously bad. I've gotten drives from many different places, never as many DOA as from them. It's pretty much a 50/50 gamble with Newegg. They have great customer service, but still a pain.
 
kat.hayes said:
Is it a bad idea to buy an internal drive for my MP from a site like Amazon and have it shipped to my house. By bad idea, I mean potential for damage from shipping, not obvious damage, damage that could cause problems later?
Click to expand...

There are two general classes of drives you can buy. Those in "retail" boxes and OEM "bare" drives wrapped in a antistatic sleeve.

If it is a retail box drive then it is probably OK no matter who you get it shipped from. The shipper should put in some redundant padding so the internal box doesn't widely bang around, but the retail boxes are usually pretty well designed to protect the drive.

If it is a drive in a antistatic sleeve/bag then how the vendor packages the drive is an issue. Amazon and OWC typically use quality boxes and stuff enough packing padding ( air bags , corn packing peanuts , whatever bio-friendly material on their short list) and ship them off. Some other folks don't do as good of a job.

OEM drives are usually shipped to stores ( at least stores that sell alot of them) in a bigger box with better padding for the drives. It is only when they are "repacked" into smaller lots for shipping that gets removed. Your local BubbaGump small volume PC parts store might be getting them newegg and it is no different.
 
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