January 22, 201214 yr looks like HD prices are starting to fall again... http://www.staples.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-2TB-GoFlex-Desktop-USB-3.0-Hard-Drive/product_901971
January 23, 201214 yr Yes, they are. I noticed on newegg today when ordering 2TB drives that the limit per customer is now 100, vs 2 or 1 that it was in the past several weeks. YAY
January 23, 201214 yr I read an article saying that manufacturers expected the impact of the shortages to last through the end of 2012. I hope it's not true. In fact, I hope this accelerates manufacturers moving to ramp up manufacture of their bigger plattered drives so 3TB and 4TB drive prices are driven down faster. That and a GA release of 5.0 will trigger a serious upgrade of my array. I have to decide whether to keep my current chassis (15 drive max) or find a 20 drive chassis (non-rack mount). Maybe it's time to post over in the build forums.
January 23, 201214 yr looks like HD prices are starting to fall again... http://www.staples.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-2TB-GoFlex-Desktop-USB-3.0-Hard-Drive/product_901971 All the true deals seem to be on the external drives in the enclosures. With these, you have to do some digging to determine which drive model is actually in the enclosure. On many, it is almost impossible to remove the drive from the enclosure without ruining the enclosure. That's not a huge deal if you just want the drive for your unRAID array and are never going to put it back in the enclosure. I have yet to see any really good deals (pre-flood prices) on bare drives. Maybe that will come soon, but, for now, the deals seem to only apply to external drives.
January 24, 201214 yr not a huge deal if you just want the drive for your unRAID array and are never going to put it back in the enclosure. To obtain warranty service, I'm guessing you'd have to reinstall the drive into the enclosure?
January 24, 201214 yr not a huge deal if you just want the drive for your unRAID array and are never going to put it back in the enclosure. To obtain warranty service, I'm guessing you'd have to reinstall the drive into the enclosure? Probably true since the receipt will show the purchase of an external drive. If you ruin the enclosure getting the drive out (very likely with some enclosures) you likely have no warranty.
January 25, 201214 yr The problem is not destroying the case. It's every one I've ever seen has a warranty void if removed sticker on it. Most electronic devices do, I've taken apart enough of them to know. So basically if you buy an external drive for unraid plan on kissing your warranty good bye. That's the gamble you take to save some money.
January 25, 201214 yr Not always the case, but most of the external drive manufacturers that also produce drives associate the drive serial number with the product it was sold as. Pretty much, if you remove the drive from the enclosure, and try to do a warranty claim on it as a bare drive, you will be unable to. The warranty void if removed stickers can vary in complexity to re-apply, but the general consensus I have come to is that purchasing external drives to strip the internal is a gamble. If the price is so good that it makes taking the chance worth it, then do it. This is no longer the case for me, Unless I can get a 3tb drive for 60 bucks, I am out. I have 24 3TB drives that I purchased at around 110 each before the flooding, hopefully these can hold me over till I build a new array with all 4 or 5TB drives.
January 25, 201214 yr Just before skyrocketing drive prices affected my tiny town, I did an emergency buy of 2Tb Seagate externals at the local Wal-Mart. After watching the disassembly on YouTube, I went at it. There are no stickers to bypass, and the drive inside was, I think, a ST2000DL003. The end of the drive is wrapped in an adhesive foil- probably for ESD shielding, but I'm pretty sure it could be inserted as-is into most drive bays. I [do] seem to recall reading something that hinted that the manufacturer knows, based on the serial#, whether the drive was an external. Still- I figured I'd post the comment to see if anyone had successfully returned a drive after "liberating" it. As for the receipt, I've warrantied drives before based soley on the drive's manufacturing date, but that was years ago- before I was using unraid.
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