So, I pulled the trigger two days ago and ordered two brand spanking new Western Digital 12TB HDDs (gold enterprise grade, baby!). You can find them on Amazon if you’re feeling brave. I got mine HERE.
I was pretty stoked when the delivery arrived early. Mr. Bezos and his minions had delivered once again – or so I thought. The excitement was palpable as I tore into the large parcel bag, revealing two smaller boxes inside.
This Can’t Be Good
So far, so good. But then, the horror began. Upon opening those smaller boxes, my excitement did a nosedive. The packaging was beyond horrendous. Imagine this: the mechanical drives were wrapped in a single, pathetic layer of bubble wrap. They had been free-flying inside the boxes during their entire journey!
Externally, the disks looked fine, but this kind of “packaging” is downright unacceptable. I shouldn’t have to explain this, but here we are (read: “I have neither the crayons nor the whiskey to explain this.”).
Time to Return This Load of Shit
C’est la vie. Time to send this load of shit back and find a more reliable source for my new hard drives. I’m not even entertaining the thought of possibly losing data due to internally damaged disks. That was the whole damn point of getting these in the first place!
Always Check Your Orders: When your package arrives, scrutinize it like Sherlock Holmes. If you have any doubts at all, return that package faster than you can say “refund” and try again with a different supplier. And for the love of data, make sure you check the return policy!
Order from Different Batches and Vendors: This is a nugget of wisdom I picked up along the way. Ideally, you should order disks from different batches and vendors. This helps avoid the nightmare scenario of several drives failing simultaneously in a RAID setup. Spread out the risk, folks!
Backups, backups, backups
While I’m at it, let me stress the importance of designing and maintaining a regular backup schedule. This includes cloud storage and off-site backups. I am not going to explain best practices at this point, maybe another day?
Final Thoughts
I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll find a safer alternative soon, though I am sticking with Western Digital 12TB HDDs. Until then, I’ll be counting myself lucky that I dodged a bullet this time. Here’s to better packaging and safer deliveries in the future!
