New HDD shipped in a jiffy bag?

Bigpops

Bigpops

Bigpops

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,443
Location
Sheffield, UK
I heard a clatter this morning, and my new brand HDD for my server had been posted through my letter box, and obviously fell 3 or so feet to the floor.
So, two questions before I break the seal in the anti-static bag.

1) Since when was it common practice to send 3.5" HDDs through the post in a jiffy bag?
2) Should I be concerned, or is it likely to be fine?

My server will tell me if it's not. Before adding HDDs they go through about 9 hours testing where I think it writes every sector and reads it back.
 
Excuse me while I dash to the patent office to register an idea for a handy removable letter box catching net, £4.99 + P&P. :D

Seems very poor form if this is going to be the standard for sensitive components going forwards, no doubt trying to scrimp of packaging costs given the state of the economy. I think I would be ****** off be sure. I know hard drives are supposed to be rated for high G impacts, but this is one of those things where you would never dream of putting this to the test deliberately, regardless of what the the design specs are.

Joking aside, sounds like putting some cushions underneath your letterbox if you are expecting anything fragile to come in the post might just be a good idea these days.
 
I had a HDD that someone sent in a jiffy bag and it was totally fine, brand new one from some shop, might even have been OCUK, was ages ago though
 
Thanks for the responses so far. I guess I was just shocked, as usually, the bare minimum, they're in those plastic clam-shell thingies that give them a bit of bounce.

Anyway, it's going in and I'll put it through Unraid's pre-clear cycle before it's added to the array. If it turns out it is faulty after that, it will go back. If not, it's almost certainly fine.
 
In honesty it's probably been through worse on the rest of its way through the postal system.

I agree it doesn't seem right for them to be posted like that, but it's most likely going to be fine.
 
Never had a HDD just in a jiffy bag - even bare drives have had plastic/polystyrene suspension end caps so the drive isn't directly impacted.
 
SSD fair enough in a jiffy bag, HDD when we ordered them always used to arrive in a box then clamshell inside.

Fair play your testing it to check but I wouldn't have been happy receiving a HDD like that.
 
A lot of shops don't seem to give two hoots anymore about this, maybe they think a few RMAs is cheaper than higher postage costs :confused:

Part of why I don't buy oem drives, but retail ones aren't very common.
 
I'm pretty sure that these days the heads lock into a place off the platters, when the drive isn't spinning. The best way I can describe the mechanism, is that the heads slide into a comb and the heads won't release until there is enough airflow from the spinning platters to release the plastic catch that locks the arm into place.
 
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