# Anyone know a place to get Cheap IDE Drives (They seem to be dissappearing)...



## transam9898 (Oct 25, 2009)

Im looking for like 100-320 gb range  Practically anyone that has HDD's of this size want a arm n leg for them... Ive searched Craigslist, and Ebay is a WAR on bidding up prices ;(
Computer Geeks doesnt really have IDE Drives... Anyone know of any online small places that may have em realatively cheap ?
thanks in advance


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

I see 8 choices on newegg varying from $40 for 80GB to $72 for 500GB. Zipzoomfly has a number of choices available too. Expensive in terms of $/GB, I suppose, but this size range isn't the price sweet spot anymore. 

You could also consider SATA with an adapter.


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## transam9898 (Oct 25, 2009)

Thanks for the reply  Is there a cheap SATA to IDE Connector ? I Didnt know anything existed to convert it, I have used IDE to USB Converters but they are external for a PC 

Thanks in advance


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

transam9898 said:


> Thanks for the reply  Is there a cheap SATA to IDE Connector ? ...


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=416883


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## sdaniel105 (Nov 25, 2009)

I like NewEgg.com

They have a 250g for $55


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## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

Buy only retail drives from Newegg. OEM drives are packaged so poorly, the process of shipping them can damage them. You might as well have Newegg ship the drive directly to the manufacturer for RMA, if not for the fact the manufacturer would say the warranty is void because of the poor packaging.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=400685 among other forum posts around the 'net have documented the issues...


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## bengalfreak (Oct 20, 2002)

Worf said:


> Buy only retail drives from Newegg. OEM drives are packaged so poorly, the process of shipping them can damage them. You might as well have Newegg ship the drive directly to the manufacturer for RMA, if not for the fact the manufacturer would say the warranty is void because of the poor packaging.
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=400685 among other forum posts around the 'net have documented the issues...


Not to mention the fact that manufacturers do not warranty OEM drives to the end user. Generally, any problems you have will have to be settled with Newegg, not the drive maker.


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## sdaniel105 (Nov 25, 2009)

Worf said:


> Buy only retail drives from Newegg. OEM drives are packaged so poorly, the process of shipping them can damage them. You might as well have Newegg ship the drive directly to the manufacturer for RMA, if not for the fact the manufacturer would say the warranty is void because of the poor packaging.
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=400685 among other forum posts around the 'net have documented the issues...


Guess I have been lucky. I have bought probably 10 drives over the past 5 yrs from them for Tivo, laptops, desktops, external HDs and not a single problem. Walked into a Microcenter and bought a boxed drive for a laptop and it failed within 2 months.

Sean


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## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

bengalfreak said:


> Not to mention the fact that manufacturers do not warranty OEM drives to the end user. Generally, any problems you have will have to be settled with Newegg, not the drive maker.


Depends on the OEM drive. Some are marked OEM explicitly (they usually say "Please contact the OEM for warranty information". Other OEM drives don't say that, and yet others are even more special and are logo'd with the OEM (e.g., Apple).

The ones marked "contact the OEM" means the OEM handles it (they do it because the manufacturer ships them more drives than ordered - e.g., if an OEM orders 1000 drives, and the manufacturer expects a 1% warranty return, they'll actually ship 1010 drives), while the unmarked ones mean that it wasn't meant for end-user installation, and wasn't shipped as such.

As for whether or not Newegg works - apparently, it depends on the warehouse - some ship it right, others ship it using packing peanuts and bubblewrap (note: EVERY drive manufacturer will void the warranty if you shipped like that - you need either endcaps, packing foam, or drive trays packed tightly in the box). My suggestion is to go with the guys that use more than anti-static bags - like Seagate or Samsung. Their drive boxes offer a tiny bit of protection.

This is especially vital if you order multiple drives. Putting two drives on top of each other and shipping them like that will damage them. Maybe enough to trip the over-shock sensor.That thread I linked to had 2 piles of 5 drives each that banged into each other, a sure way to guarantee damage. The Seagate/Samsung drives have wrappers that offer protection, so they can't have metal-on-metal contact.


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