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    Retail Laptop Hard drives impossible to find?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by lesliesp, Oct 6, 2009.

  1. lesliesp

    lesliesp Notebook Geek

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    I've checked all the usual sources for laptop hard drives under 160G. None of the sources I'm aware of carry anything but OEM. Going on the reviews and predictions of my usual luck, OEM just won't do. I need a real warranty. Any suggestions as to a source for a small drive would be appreciated.
     
  2. qhn

    qhn Notebook User

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    And exactly what is the size you are looking for? form: IDE, SATA ..?

    cheers ...
     
  3. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    I'm not sure what you exactly mean but bare drives like sold on Newegg for example have real warranty.
     
  4. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    I think he/she is referring to buying a boxed drive.
    You can buy them at best buy. They are a bit more expensive than what etailers have online, but you do get the box, cd, and a manual.

    However most of the drives you buy on newegg/zipzoomfly/etc have a full manufacturer warranty. The only drives which do not have this warranty are external harddrive pulls, open box drives, and refurbished ones.

    K-TRON
     
  5. pem69

    pem69 Notebook Consultant

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    Why does it have to be under 160GB?
     
  6. surfasb

    surfasb Titles Shmm-itles

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    Probably looking for something cheap.
     
  7. pem69

    pem69 Notebook Consultant

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    Sure, except when I look at the OEM drives, the 80/120 GB Drives are no cheaper (and sometimes more expensive) than the 160GB ones. And for an extra $5-10, it's totally worth it to double (or 1.5x) your space.
     
  8. Peon

    Peon Notebook Virtuoso

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    I'd hesitate to call 1.5-3x the price to be a "bit" more expensive. Best Buy is extremely overpriced compared the etailers. Their selection is very limited too.
     
  9. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I have three OEM hard drives in my desktop, and one in my laptop. They all came with 3 or 5 year warranties.
     
  10. tresho

    tresho Newbie

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    ---- I live 30 miles from a MicroCenter, so I consider it my retail outlet for anything computer-related. They have a huge variety of PATA & SATA laptop HDD's, both regular boxed & OEM. As far as regular boxes & OEM packaging goes, I recently bought an Hitachi OEM 3.5" 1 TB SATA HDD, and found out it was identical to a previously purchased Hitachi drive of the same type purchased in a regular box, which cost $5 more.
    ---- In my opinion, every owner of a laptop should have a duplicate spare HDD, which can be used as a backup HDD. HDD's just don't cost that much anymore. I agree that Best Buy usually charges too much for their HDD's.
     
  11. newsposter

    newsposter Notebook Virtuoso

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    sounds like someone hasn't done a lot of shipping for themselves....
     
  12. MrX8503

    MrX8503 Notebook Evangelist

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    Buy a 160gb laptop harddrive from newegg and call it a day.
     
  13. neeha

    neeha Newbie

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