Global Hard Drive Shortage

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Can't help but love some of the stuff you come out with some times XD

GREAT SCOTT!

Anyway how bad was the flooding? Do they literally assemble the drives right on the floor where so much as a millimetre of rainfall will submerge the giant scaalecstric whizzing to somewhere else in the factory where garden gnomes are stuffed into them with a fishing rod (you didn't believe those lies about a spindle did you?) and a label is slapped on telling you not to cover the holes or you'll suffocate the gnome inside (seek time is the gnome fumbling around for bait)

Okay enough nerd humour now.

I'm just saying if it was metres upon metres of flooding only then does stopping production seem feasable

 

[Diablo]

The factories are probably pretty close to the level of the rivers if they were built on a plain (makes sense to have your industrial area free of hills), so I guess that if the floods got to the level of the plain they took out the factories. Don't forget that hard drives are clean, no dust etc. and floods aren't known for being clean. That coupled with the just in time production method means that those factories are out until probably Q1 2012. SSD time for me I guess

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

The factories are probably pretty close to the level of the rivers if they were built on a plain (makes sense to have your industrial area free of hills), so I guess that if the floods got to the level of the plain they took out the factories. Don't forget that hard drives are clean, no dust etc. and floods aren't known for being clean. That coupled with the just in time production method means that those factories are out until probably Q1 2012. SSD time for me I guess

Surely they could just move operations upstairs though when they realise downstairs is flooding?

Poor preparation I say

 

[EventHorizon27]

Picked a bad time to start building a micro-server.

Just about managed to get hold of 8TBs of storage before prices got silly high.

 

[Scoob]

Hi,

While I was aware of the flooding I'd not put the pieces together initially.

I picked up three new 2tb Samsung drives a few weeks back for a long overdue upgrade of one of my PC's. Good timing it turns out.

I was at a friends the other night, working on his PC & we decided a new HDD was really in order. We went on line and it was almost like I'd gone into an alternate reality - I could not beleive the drive prices I was seeing! The drives I'd ordered a couple of weeks prior at £57 each were at £139.99! I though I'd entered something wrong in my filter criteria, but no. So yeah, big BIG shock.

Still, at the end of the day, to you and I this is a minor inconvenience at worst. I really feel for those effected by the flooding. I saw one news article where a family had been evacuated to escape the flooding only to be evacuated again a few days later from the "safe" location. Really really not good.

I cannot really comprehend being evacuated from my home, loosing all my stuff to flooding - though it is just stuff at the end of the day - that I've worked hard for over the years.

Hopefully the flood water will retreat and people wll be able to return to their homes and begin to rebuild / clean up soon.

Oh, I agree it's very bad form for some etailers to bump prices right away - profeteering on a disaster that is. It's a bit sick that people losing homes and lives is taken as an opportunity to make some extra money. I cannot believe that these places that had several 100's in stock one day, suddenly have very few but at a much higher price the very next day. Those who genuinely hold lower stock I understand they have to buy at the higher price right away, assuming NO local stocks exist (though those might be bumped too), but others who chose to make a quick buck... *sigh*

Scoob.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Hi,

While I was aware of the flooding I'd not put the pieces together initially.

I picked up three new 2tb Samsung drives a few weeks back for a long overdue upgrade of one of my PC's. Good timing it turns out.

I was at a friends the other night, working on his PC & we decided a new HDD was really in order. We went on line and it was almost like I'd gone into an alternate reality - I could not beleive the drive prices I was seeing! The drives I'd ordered a couple of weeks prior at £57 each were at £139.99! I though I'd entered something wrong in my filter criteria, but no. So yeah, big BIG shock.

Still, at the end of the day, to you and I this is a minor inconvenience at worst. I really feel for those effected by the flooding. I saw one news article where a family had been evacuated to escape the flooding only to be evacuated again a few days later from the "safe" location. Really really not good.

I cannot really comprehend being evacuated from my home, loosing all my stuff to flooding - though it is just stuff at the end of the day - that I've worked hard for over the years.

Hopefully the flood water will retreat and people wll be able to return to their homes and begin to rebuild / clean up soon.

Oh, I agree it's very bad form for some etailers to bump prices right away - profeteering on a disaster that is. It's a bit sick that people losing homes and lives is taken as an opportunity to make some extra money. I cannot believe that these places that had several 100's in stock one day, suddenly have very few but at a much higher price the very next day. Those who genuinely hold lower stock I understand they have to buy at the higher price right away, assuming NO local stocks exist (though those might be bumped too), but others who chose to make a quick buck... *sigh*

Scoob.

Try and name one business that isn't evil in some way though

 

[Scoob]

Try and name one business that isn't evil in some way though

Yeah, who's the most evil, the evil or the blatantly evil...

Still, this pricing thing is the same as for fuel prices really isn't it. I mean, fuel is more expensive now than it was when oil prices were quite a bit higher...let's just see how quickly hard drive prices come down once things are back to normal.

Scoob.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Yeah, who's the most evil, the evil or the blatantly evil...

Still, this pricing thing is the same as for fuel prices really isn't it. I mean, fuel is more expensive now than it was when oil prices were quite a bit higher...let's just see how quickly hard drive prices come down once things are back to normal.

Scoob.

They'll probably stay this expensive permenantly now - seen as nobody is going to kick up much of a fuss the etailers should be worried about.

Not like most other sectors where a pair of shoes or a briefcase were quadroopling in price overnight because ten cows died after a truck hit them in a paddy field on the other side of the Earth and it was a convinient excuse to up leather prices by 300% and a regulator would immediately step in

 

[Scoob]

They'll probably stay this expensive permenantly now - seen as nobody is going to kick up much of a fuss the etailers should be worried about.

Not like most other sectors where a pair of shoes or a briefcase were quadroopling in price overnight because ten cows died after a truck hit them in a paddy field on the other side of the Earth and it was a convinient excuse to up leather prices by 300% and a regulator would immediately step in

Reckon they will come down, just not to the prior levels, at least not for a while. Hard drives were insanely cheap previously, maybe that little golden age has passed now.

I still recall paying £300 for a drive of generous proportions years ago...i.e. the equivalent of buying a 2tb drive now...

Scoob.

 

[sleepylilazn]

AHHHH... I'm so sad. ='[