davis@clocs.cs.unc.edu (Mark Davis) (01/01/90)
In article <9001010154.AA21507@cscaza.ncsu.edu> vijay@CSCAZA.NCSU.EDU (Vijay Srinivasan) writes: > > I would like information on reliable sellers of hard drives >(preferably mail order, but this is not a necessity). I am interested in >acquiring a hard drive for my IBM PC system, and would appreciate it if >someone could send me the following information: > ... Go to your local drug store or food store (Kerr Drug, Food Lion, Harris Teeter in your area carry it) magazine section; Buy the magazine Computer Shopper (Monthly, $2.95, about 700 pages) Read every add in the magazine. Memorize the adds for Hard Drive International, JDR, and Shamrock (note HDI and JDR always run more than one add, so memorize all of them). These are well established mail order places that give reasonable support. (Lyco and California Microchip have interesting adds, but so do a lot of other firms.) If you can get your hands on an InfoWorld or a PC Week, memorize a couple of issues of that too. (I use this group of publications all the time. Others might suggest some other sources, but Computer Shopper is the best, easiest to find, and most complete source.) After you have a handle on those data sources feel free to post a more specific question to the net or contact me by e-mail. (Minimum price of new drives is left as an exercise.) It is true you can get cheap used hard disks. Personally I would avoid them because they MAY be very unreliable. One source for 10 Meg drives is this sequence: 1. User finds drive flaky and sends it to a repair place. 2. Repair place tests drive and finds no problem (but sends user another drive). 3. Repair place sells drive as "Reconditioned." 4. New user also finds drive to be flaky. This is not the only scenario. <Please don't flame me about how your drive repair place never does this. I believe you. I just don't believe all resellers of used drives and it is hard to tell which is which, especially mail order.> On the other hand, many such drives are working drives removed from systems during upgrade. Many are drives that have really been fixed. The problem is I don't know any reliable algorithm to determine which scenario applies. If you buy a used drive for $100 be ready to accept trouble along with the good deal. (I might find this fun, but it sounds like you would rather pass up this experience.) In any event, spend the $3.07 (including tax) on the Computer Shopper and prepare yourself for data overload. Hope this helps - Mark (davis@cs.unc.edu or uunet!mcnc!davis)