Acceptable Packaging for a Hard Drive

A

ABU

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I just purchased a 10tb Internal Hard Drive from OneDayOnly and was shocked to find that the only packaging was the anti-static bag and a thin padded-envelope.
The envelope just contains a single layer of bubble-wrap.

Is this considered acceptable packaging for a hard drive?

As soon as the courier handled the satchel to me, I could feel the drive right through the packaging, showing that it wasn't shielded from being thrown around.

The drive started making loud clicking sounds as soon as I started up the PC and cannot be initialised.
 
I had poor packaging before as well, did a DOA immediately, got a new one a week later, properly shipped. HDD shipping, and packaging rule of thumb is if you should package it like your are shipping a baby.

But I don't order HDD's online any more, only external drives as their housing offers protection, and just strip out the drive. ;)
 
ABU said:
I just purchased a 10tb Internal Hard Drive from OneDayOnly and was shocked to find that the only packaging was the anti-static bag and a thin padded-envelope.
The envelope just contains a single layer of bubble-wrap.

Is this considered acceptable packaging for a hard drive?

As soon as the courier handled the satchel to me, I could feel the drive right through the packaging, showing that it wasn't shielded from being thrown around.

The drive started making loud clicking sounds as soon as I started up the PC and cannot be initialised.
Click to expand...

Jeez, that's pathetic.

Contact them and arrange for the drive to be sent back, like, right now.
 
Generally speaking, hard drives can be transported reliably with minimal protection or even without any at all, as long as they are handled correctly.

When most hard drives are powered off, the read/write head assembly moves to the parked position, away from the platters (very few hard drive models park heads above the platters). Here, in the parking ramp, the heads are less susceptible to damage from being dropped and knocked, than if the drive was powered on with its heads out above the spinning platters.

Hard drives can be surprisingly robust when powered off, but heads can still become damaged in the parking ramp. The damaged heads then meet the platters when powered on, causing catastrophic damage and data loss for good.

It depends on how hard the drive was dropped or knocked as to whether it would cause heads to become damaged. Larger capacity drives also have more platters, and therefore more weight, causing drives to fall even harder.

The clicking noises you hear indicates that the heads have failed, more than likely as a result of your heavy 10TB drive being dropped or handled improperly.

R/etailers are able to transport drives in these 'Jiffy Bags' most of the time, but they have no control over the way their couriers handle the drives. It's wise to rather use extra bubble wrap which thankfully we see some r/etailers doing, which doesn't take much effort or cost.

You can find out about the inside of a hard drive here - https://www.southbit.co.za/inside-a-hard-drive/.
 
Update:
The hard drive was collected 3 weeks ago, however I still haven't been refunded nor have I received a replacement.
They are still following up on it with the supplier apparently!

Lesson: Never buy a hard drive from OneDayOnly
 
I Feel your pain. My NB HDD just arrived from takealot. no protection at all. you can actually see the slight damage to the inside of the box where the drive impacted it. Yes, it does not work.
HDD.jpg
 
The_David said:
I Feel your pain. My NB HDD just arrived from takealot. no protection at all. you can actually see the slight damage to the inside of the box where the drive impacted it. Yes, it does not work.
Click to expand...

Derp
 
The_David said:
I Feel your pain. My NB HDD just arrived from takealot. no protection at all. you can actually see the slight damage to the inside of the box where the drive impacted it. Yes, it does not work.
Click to expand...

Breaks my heart when I see stuff like that.
 
Recently got a hard drive from Wootware. It was packaged in bubble wrap that took it up to several times it's original volume. The drive works fine.
 
The_David said:
I Feel your pain. My NB HDD just arrived from takealot. no protection at all. you can actually see the slight damage to the inside of the box where the drive impacted it. Yes, it does not work.
Click to expand...

Takealot also once sent me a 3.5" 4TB drive like that. Took it straight back to them without even opening it. They exchanged it immediately though so no hassles.

Since then I see they've been using bubble-wrapped envelopes. Still not exactly adequate, but better than nothing I guess.
 
I once had Dell send me an SSD in a massive box wrapped in bubble wrap. The box could've held the server it was for actually. If it wasn't an SSD I'd have been impressed.
Lenovo send them in boxes that they just fit in with some bubble wrap.
 
SouthBit said:
Generally speaking, hard drives can be transported reliably with minimal protection or even without any at all, as long as they are handled correctly.
Click to expand...

No.
You're forgetting the handled correctly bit doesn't translate to whoever is handling it.

Generally speaking, people don't give a fk about your precious HDD.
 
I'd imagine the shipping dept at Takealot or oneday have no idea of the fragility of a hdd, its just another random device to package and ship.

Management must be brain dead though not to implement some kind of standards for shipping different items.
 
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