Thailand Flooding Threatens Hard Drive Supply

[Newtun]

CRN: "Likely To Cause Widespread Hard Drive Shortage"

Forbes: "Deepen Crisis at HDD Companies" (... 60% of WD's drive volume, ... Toshiba shuts down plant)

 

[Mercutio]

Hopefully, Western Digital hard drives make better sponges than they do storage devices.

 

[Handruin]

They'll likely just pollute the water.

 

[CougTek]

I increased my hard drives stocks yesterday and this morning because I expect prices to rise thanks to the flooding. I'll try to get a sample of the new 1-platter 1TB Hibachi drive, the 7K1000.D. I'll know in a few minutes if I'll be able to grab one or not.

 

[Mercutio]

They'll likely just pollute the water.

Do you think there's a filtration process for removing the Western Digitalness from it?

That poor water. It wasn't hurting anybody and then WHAM, Western Digital all over it.

 

[LunarMist]

So now the computer companies will use more Seagate drives? That is worse.

 

[CougTek]

Seagate is also supposed to be severely affected by the flooding. People will just wait and pay more for their hard drives.

I don't think I'll be able to get my single-platter 1TB Hibachi drive. Although I arrassed my supplier all day long, he didn't come back to me with a price. I think it's still unavaible here.

 

[CougTek]

Seagate is also supposed to be severely affected by the flooding. People will just wait and pay more for their hard drives.

Just to clarfy what I wrote above :

However, the biggest impact from the floods could be on a single company, Nidec, which produces about 70 percent of the world's hard drive motors in Thailand, including motors used by Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi GST, Toshiba, and Samsung.

From the first article Newtun linked, although I read it elsewhere before.

 

[LunarMist]

Arrrgghhhh! I have not purchased a hard drive in two months. I should probably buy a bunch this week, but I was waiting for the 4TB editions.

 

[CougTek]

Hard drive prices have exploded since yesterday at my suppliers. 40-50% increase on several models. Many models unavailable.

 

[Bozo]

Suposedly, the manufacturer of the hard drive motors for many hard drive manufactures, is also under water.

 

[LunarMist]

Hard drive prices have exploded since yesterday at my suppliers. 40-50% increase on several models. Many models unavailable.

Prices surely are up like crazy, and I have been too busy to buy HDDs lately.

 

[CougTek]

I was the last person to pay the regular price on a 500GB hard drive at one of my suppliers and I'll probably be one of the last in Montréal's area to get two Hitachi 2TB 7K3000 at the regular price tomorrow. 100$ each. I bet they'll climb to 130-140$ next week, if they are available at all.

 

[Adcadet]

I was very close to buying a 2 TB 7k3000 for $99 from Newegg yesterday but I too was hoping to see 4 TB drives soon (if at least to push the price down on 3 TB drives). I should have just done it.

 

[time]

Prices are up an average of 50% here already. This is serious sh*t.

 

[Bozo]

Prices are up an average of 50% here already. This is serious sh*t.

Or it's price gouging by the manufacturers.

 

[Handruin]

The 3TB drive from Hitachi I've been keeping in my wishlist has gone up $16. That's not that big of a jump, but maybe it hasn't hit the 3TB drives yet?

 

[sechs]

I'm guessing that manufacturers are going to put whatever resources that they have into higher capacity drives that sell at a premium.

 

[LunarMist]

I would assume that the OEM drives on the internet, such as newegg bare drives, will dry up as the limited number available are earmarked for the computer OEM's under the drive manufacturer's contractual obligations.

 

[CougTek]

I read in the news that the authorities don't expect the water to come down for about a month. I only have two 500GB and two 2TB drives in stock. I won't hold a month with only that.

 

[Stereodude]

Time to talk your customers into SSD upgrades.

 

[Pradeep]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/25/thai-floods-shut-down-bangkoks-second-airport/

One airport gone, we'll see if they can keep the new one that does the international flights dry and operational.

 

[Mercutio]

I'm not clicking on a Fox News link to anything.

 

[Handruin]

There is a similar story on the Washington Post.

 

[CougTek]

One of my suppliers told me today that 500GB hard drives are now selling at 85$. This is the apocalypse.

 

[ddrueding]

I wonder what the knock-on effect will be to SSDs? If this will push OEMs to offer SSDs in lower-end machines?

 

[LunarMist]

I bought a couple of the Hitachi 3TB 5400 drives today. $125 is not bad and I'm sure they will not be cheaper for a while.

 

[timwhit]

I wonder what the knock-on effect will be to SSDs? If this will push OEMs to offer SSDs in lower-end machines?

Won't the increased SSD demand push prices higher there also?

 

[Adcadet]

Microcenter has the 5k3000 (5400 RPM) 3 TB drives for $125 + tax still. Seems like the only way to get storage at <$50/TB.

 

[LunarMist]

 

[Pradeep]

There is a similar story on the Washington Post.

So Mum is flying out of there tomorrow (if all goes well). Initially she was flying out Friday but thought it better to accelerate the schedule. Five days of holidays have been declared, apparently all of Bangkok may/will be under around 60cms of water before the end is in sight.

 

[Handruin]

So Mum is flying out of there tomorrow (if all goes well). Initially she was flying out Friday but thought it better to accelerate the schedule. Five days of holidays have been declared, apparently all of Bangkok may/will be under around 60cms of water before the end is in sight.

Good luck to her. I hope her trip goes ok.

There are some pictures posted here of the flooding.

 

[Pradeep]

Thanks Doug. She made it out OK, even managed to not become stranded despite Alan Joyces rugged determination to completely destroy the Qantas brand name by grounding the fleet.

Great photos.

 

[Handruin]

Glad she made it out OK. That would have been an interesting stay in a water-logged location.

 

[Stereodude]

There are some pictures posted here of the flooding.

There are updated / more recent pictures here.

 

[CougTek]

I bought a 500GB 3.5" SATA drive today for a build I sold. Last time I've been happy to pay 90$ for a 500GB drive was in 2006. Now, my main supplier sells them between 100$ and 110$, so finding one elsewhere at 90$ was nice.

From what I read now, the situation will only go worse in Q1. Prices probably won't go down before March. The next five months will be tough.

 

[time]

I bought a couple of the Hitachi 3TB 5400 drives today. $125 is not bad and I'm sure they will not be cheaper for a while.

$260 today at Newegg, $279 for me.

It's been just 3 weeks; Apocalypse is right.

 

[ddrueding]

I have a couple dozen 1TB and 2TB drives I pulled from various storage arrays when they went to 3TB. Looks like they'll be going into desktops before long...

 

[CougTek]

I say wait another month and then sell them. You'll be able to put SSDs in your desktops with the money you'll make.

 

[Handruin]

$260 today at Newegg, $279 for me.

It's been just 3 weeks; Apocalypse is right.

Look at the nice charts.
http://camelegg.com/product/N82E16822145493