question Frys

ddrueding

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Unless they have changed in the few years since I stopped buying there, it isn't safe to by anything at the Frys. At one point, there was nothing but returned product on the shelf; as they would simply repackage and restock (without testing) any returns. It wasn't until their third or fourth return that they were RMA'd.
 

BingBangBop

Storage is cool
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My point really is that as long as you avoid the restocked labels, I really don't see how Frys is any less safe than any other retailer.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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The one in Oak Brook had a great deal of returned merchandise on the shelf the one time I visited. I wasn't terribly impressed. There's nothing Fry's has that I can't get at the Microcenter that's two miles away.
 

BingBangBop

Storage is cool
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Ahh, but Microcenter is not everywhere though I would agree that MicroCenter would be much preferable to Frys. It is a bit of a drive to the nearest MicroCenter being 619 miles away. Frys is a bit more convenient at 32 miles, at least for me. Without Frys then the only retail alternatives would be Best Buy or something like Office Depot and that does really limit what is possible to purchase.
 

Santilli

Hairy Aussie
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Fry's restocked prices are so high that it's not worth buying a used item, vs. a new one...
I much prefer frys to Best buy.
 

LunarMist

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I once returned a small item at Frys and explained that it was defective. I looked for another one but there none remaining in stock. The I resumed shopping, looking for other products. About 30 minutes later I was in the same aisle again and sure enough the one I had returned was on the shelf with no return label. :roll:

OTOH, I had a defective retail drive one time that would not be recognized on any computer. In that case a tech conected it to a MB that was set up in an open configuration within view. She quickly confirmed that the drive would not mount in Windows as I described and got me a new one.
 

LunarMist

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Is there any way to test the Samsung drives without the blasted DOS ES Tool? We can't have the computer down for 6+ hours at a time for testing each of two drives.
 

time

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Sure, just use HDDScan, SpeedFan or any other tool that can issue SMART self-test commands.
 

LunarMist

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Thanks. I tried the HDTune and it gave tons of errors, but I'm not sure that is accurate. Then I heard all sorts of drive klonking, which seemed to be not even from that drive.
 

LunarMist

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Damn, that Acronis caused my machine to rebot spontaneously. Maybe I have a problem. :(
 

Splash

Learning Storage Performance
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I've got multiple Fry's and Microcenter to choose from. I usually go to Fry's so that I can look for specials on oddball things like tools, LED flashlights, odds'n'ends, and electronic crapola. I rarely buy this stuff, but every once in a while they have something I need for low $$$, like a microscopic HP 8 GB flash drive for $17.


Concerning the hard drives I've bought at Fry's and restocked items in general at Fry's Electronics:

I rarely ever buy any restocked Fry's items unless the item is sufficiently discounted, an item that is not very susceptible to damage, and something that's obviously just an open package. I bought a nice Antec Earthwatts power supply this way once. It has worked perfectly for the past three or so years. Saved 11 dollars. ;)

Hard drives? The few times I've bought hard drives at Fry's, I first got a hard drive purchase ticket in the "storage area" of the store, which I later handed to some minimum wage geek at the cash register area so they could retrieve the hard drive from a big walk-in caged area where other small / fragile / expensive stuff was stored. The hard drives they always handed me were a "bare" drive in an anti-static bag, meaning they pulled it out of an OEM box'o'drives for system builders.

The drives I bought at Fry's were a couple of cheap cheap cheap Maxtor 250 GB SATA drives used for a CPU build for someone else, then, later on, a cheap last generation WesternDigi 150 GB Raptor for me. These drives only came in anti-static bags.



 

LunarMist

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Most of the Fry's restocking discounts are only 5% or something. I do find one value to the restocked Fry's items in that if there is pile of a particular product, that is probably not a good purchase. :)

I only buy the retailed drives at Fry's and do not trust the OEMs. I have seen some piles of cheap OEM hard drives at a Microcenter, but they were out in the open and who knows how they had been handled by customers or staff. I think they keep the better drives out of sight. I ended up with a 2TB WD for the replacment I needed at the time.
 

Santilli

Hairy Aussie
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Time said:
"Sure, just use HDDScan, SpeedFan or any other tool that can issue SMART self-test commands. "

Which gives drive temperatures, with the least foot print?
 

time

Storage? I am Storage!
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Both those utilities can be configured to display drive temperature in the tray.

According to TaskManager, HDDScan shrinks to only about 2MB (under 32-bit Windows) when it's minimized to the tray. It can display temperatures for multiple drives at once: just start a temperature monitoring task on each drive and minimize the program.
 
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