This will be a long review but should be worth your time to read if you are considering these drives, or any other brand for that matter.
I ordered these drives for an Oyen Digital 5 bay case which I have already reviewed. These drives arrived in one box with each drive individually packed in a smaller box. The drives had fhe flexible plastic caps on each end and the two small boxes were padded in the bigger box. Both of these drives checked out and have been running just fine for almost 5 months now. They run cool to the touch so I am happy with the temperatures. They are pretty much noiseless work very nicely in a small NAS environment. It would be a no brainer recommending these drives if that were the end of the story. But as Paul Harvey used to say "now for the rest of the story".
Last week I decided it was time to add two more drives to the NAS enclosure. Since I was happy with the ones I had I ordered two more from Amazon. They actually arrived a day late via FedEx but that wasn't a problem. When I was handed the box I could hear the contents sliding around inside. The box itself had no apparent damage so I took it inside and opened it. Inside were the two drives sitting on the bottom of the box with inadequate air bag padding on top. The drives were sealed in the anti static bags.
I opened the first one and there were two warning signs right off the bat. There were two seals one sitting over the other. The label on the drive had pits and scratches in the label. It had all the looks of a used drive. I inserted the drive in a dock and after a few seconds I received the familiar not initialized warning. I told Disk Utility to initialize it which it did. When The process finished the drive mounted instead of noname I got: 801.57GB ST3000VN W6A0 Media. So my 3TB drive was actually an 801GB partition. It was obviously used. Also, the drive failed under initial testing after about an hour and would no longer even be recognized.
On to the second drive. After my experience with the first one I opened it and tried to insert it into the dock. It would not plug into the connectors. I pulled it back out and after closer inspection I could see one corner of the SATA power connector was broken and mashed into the other side preventing it from being plugged in. (Photos attached). So two drives, both unusable.
I went online and logged into my Amazon Account. Went to order and clicked on return for replacement. It was actually simple. I filled in the required info and closed out the browser. About an hour I had a message from Amazon Saying they had ordered two more drives and I had information on printing a return sheet to inclose in the box. They told me UPS would be picking it up the following day and they would have the label for it. The drives were ordered and shipped overnight to arrive the next day. This came as two separate orders from two separate vendors one via UPS the other via FedEx.
The next day the FedEx shipment arrived first. As I was handed the box I could again hear the contents moving around inside. I opened it up and it did have a new look. I started running the drive tests again and again the drive failed under testing. The second drive arrived in the evening and upon opening the box I found it packed as it should be. The small box with the caps on both ends and padded inside the big box. A surface scan of this drive came up clean and the drive is now running inside the enclosure.
My take away from all this is that if you order this, or and drive, inspect the packaging. If the drive is floating in the box make sure and test it thoroughly before relying on it. And remember Amazon has no real control when another company is shipping the item. Be sure to complain about the packaging if it is not as it should be. Amazon acted very responsibly. They answered my request quickly and took appropriate action. I would rate their service 5 stars. I have included photos of the damaged drive and both good and bad packaging.
| Hard Drive | 4 TB Mechanical Hard Disk |
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