Even on Sunday it's weird to get one of these extra HOT deals that are on AT, since people buy them in advance of the sale and do a return/rebuy. For whatever reason (Deathstar?), these are not flying out the door at CompUSA. I still got one Wednesday, and there were more in stock. Only one of the 4 stores in the area are OOS.
ZERO on the shelf. Maybe that's why they aren't flying out the door. You have to ask, and get them to search. Took them 20 minutes to confirm that the deal was real (I didn't bring a circular to show) and then locate one (somewhere in the back). They were super nice and cooperative the whole time, though. At this location, they have hundreds of HDs on display, and way above on the top stock shelves, all brands, even 300G (also on sale), but no 250G Hitachis. About 20 80G Hitachis (on sale for $40).
Originally posted by: jnmunsey
All hard drives are sucking wind these days, especially any with part made in China. Quality has gone down the drain in recent years to keep prices low. I guess consumers are so ignorant about the consequences of using an unskilled workforce to manufacture and assemble electronics they don't see the connection between it and why their hard drive suddenly failed.
I don't think any consumer HDs have been assembled in the US for the last 10, maybe 15 or 20 years. Always low wages, so that's not the problem. Mainland China, if any, would be something new, I guess. Anyway, this drive is made in Thailand.
The main thing pulling down quality is price competition, the same thing pulling down price. Manufacturers can't afford to leave any extra engineering margin in them. And a product that is too late to market can't compete at all. The pace doesn't leave much time for low quantity field testing. No wonder IBM threw in the towel and split Deskstar off to Hitachi. IBM is not good at all at marketing pitched to consumers IAC. (Last I looked, IBM still made the heads used in major manufacture's HDs, though.)
Evidence of cutting to the bone: No 5 inch adapter rails. Setup CD not in an envelope. Only 2 HD screws in the little baggy. (Must be a mistake.) Fortunately I have plenty of screws from other HDs: often you get 8. The fit and finish of everything is prefect however, just the way the Japanese demand. (Hitachi is a quality, ultra-mega size Japanese company.) I think I will give this HD a MAJOR wringout test before I use it seriously, even though no doubt Hitachi made double-sure the new HDs are perfect to undo the image of the Deathstar crop, which is somewhat overblown. And IBM has made a lot of great HDs too. That's why some people tried IBM's consumer (Deskstar) drives in industrial-strength situatiions. I don't think IBM ever turned down an RMA on one.
BTW, I have never had a HD fail (including one Deskstar), and I have been buying HDs since a 60 Megabyte (not Giga) RLL Mitsubishi. The most expensive, a 5.1G, cost $420 AR. I was holding out for $200 400G for my next, but I can't pass this $70 deal up!