A number of great Seagate HDD prices on Amazon US. Shipped and sold by Amazon. Appears many models have 39% off currently
Seagate IronWolf Pro 20TB - $328.89
Seagate IronWolf Pro 18TB - $279.22
Seagate IronWolf Pro 16TB - $249.30
Seagate IronWolf 12TB - $189.47
Seagate IronWolf 8TB - $129.63
CamelCamelCamel.
Mine was DOA 20tb.
Does anyone know if you can send multiple RMA drives back to Seagate packed in one box?
The material Seagate provides says they need to be sent in separate boxes, but that will double postage and seems a bit of a waste of money.
They all came in one box anyway and I still have all the packaging material.
From the Seagate site:
Multiple Drives
Use an antistatic bag and bubble wrap to cover each individual drive before placing together inside the package.
Do not use packing pellets, peanuts, air bags, or newspaper.
Place the packing slip inside the package, and seal the box with nylon or vinyl tape along all edges and openings.
Place the label on the outside of the package.
Interesting as it kinda goes against the info they provide in the RMA: "Do not mix different RMA numbers in one box". I have 2 RMA numbers.
I'll be using the original packing they were sent in from Amazon, which were separate boxes inside one larger box. But it doesn't sound like I can really do that.
You can use the box from amazon, just wrap bubble wrap around the disk in the center. It fits fine.
If you use the online form, giving details for both drives, you will end up with a single RMA number for both.
@SirHumphreyAppleby: I did do it online. Didn't see an option to put 2 drives in at once, and when I submitted the first one it already gave me the RMA number etc
So then had to do the second one after that.
But I've called Seagate and sorted it out to do it as a single RMA for 2 drives.
@pixxelpusher: By default, there is only one line, but you can click "Add More Products" to enter multiple products. It looks like it was a bit of an afterthought because there are other places on the site where only a single serial number is shown, even though my RMA was for multiple drives.
@SirHumphreyAppleby: I see, seems like bad interface design as I never saw the add more products button to add more drives. But good to know.
Same here, if I put my RMA info into the check status box I only see 1 serial number listed.
However, if I log into my account by clicking "start claim" I can see the order listed there, and clicking on it goes to a page that says a quality of 2. Clicking on the blue "serials" link shows both drives listed under the one RMA. So I'm pretty sure they have now set it up correctly.
I was thinking the same thing and ended up just sending 2 separate parcels as the RMA number was on the shipping label they requested be attached to the parcel and might mess with the routine when they are processing all the RMA parcels.
I may have to do the same. Wondering if you can let me know how you packed yours?
Did you use the same cardboard packing boxes they came in?
Did you then put the label directly on those, or did you put the boxes in a padded post pack?
What service did you use to post? Did you take out insurance?
I just sent it back in the cardboard packing box the drive came in. Taped it all shit an slapped an Auspost label directly on it and sent it on its way. Didn't both with extra protection or anything as the drive is dead anyway, I figured not much use trying to protect it. I would take a different approach if posting a working drive to someone.
I used standard express post because I'm in regional QLD and it takes forever via standard post and only costs like $4-5 more. Didn't both with extra insurance, individually the drives aren't worth enough to bother and things rarely go missing, especially when posted to business addresses.
@stringbean402: You are not really thinking about the manufacturer side of things here, if the rma is damaged in transit then they wont accept the disk. You need to package it as if you are sending a working disk.
@stringbean402: I ended up calling Seagate to confirm and it seems if you have 2 RMA numbers then you do indeed need to send them separately as 2 parcels, they won't accept multiple RMA's in one parcel.
However, when talking to them I managed to get them to create a single RMA for the 2 drives, which you can pack into one parcel. So for future reference I guess it's good to know they can do that if you call them up. I didn't see the option to do multiple drives under one RMA when I filled out the info online.
I'm still waiting to get the email from them for the new single RMA as for some reason they said it will take a few days to process.
As someone who purchased 4 18 TB drives but may not use them in the next month or so (once I acquire a new NAS to migrate to), what does the OzBargain community suggest?
Personally, I would suggest testing them in another system before sending them back, especially if you would need to buy them in the future. If you no longer need them, then please PM me and I can buy them from you.
Option 2.
Otherwise - 4. Buy one a docking station, such as www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07RVB9162
I grabbed one for the sole purpose of testing my new drives, since like you, I suspected it would be more than a month till I put them into operation and didn't want to find a fault after the warranty period. I probably won't ever use it again, so happy to onsell mine for $30 if anyone's looking for one in mint condition…
These have a multi year warranty. There is no "return window".
Option 4. Do nothing until you get your NAS. If the drives turn out to be screwed then just warranty with Seagate at that time.
But note that you can't test them properly in a NAS - you'll need a PC to use HDSentinel / SeaTools / Whatever so you might as well start that process now… Read the rest of this thread for more details.
The return window is for amazon specifically. They will not warranty the disk only refund. If you need warranty you will need to register the disks with the manufacturer and pay postage if you want to make a claim with them.
Amazon is generally good with returns even after the return window. I have only tested 5 out of 8 18TB drives I bought so far as I can only use the laptop with HD Sentinel during weekends. So far, I’ve got 2 giving me device I/O errors, though they are initially mounting fine and even successfully passing the short self-test. Not sure if this means the drives are faulty.
@garetz: The sata cable worked fine for the next drives I tested, but I will check using a different cable to be sure.
Sell them, I buy them off you :-)
For those reading, while there does seem to be a lot of DOA's, just remember that people who have doa are much more likely to come back to this deal and post.
I ordered 5x 18tb, all tested fine and now operating fine.
5x 12TB, all running fine.
After ordering within minutes of the deal going live Auspost said the parcel is lost and no evidence of it being scanned even though tracking says it reached the distribution centre.
Hats off to the Amazon rep for refunding me more than what I paid.
I had 8 16tb drives arrive all with no issue. have done various scans on all and everything comes up healthy and running fine. This is what i would expect from pro drives, perhaps some people just got unlucky. Pretty wrapped
6x 16TB, all good! 👍
Can't comment on the random read/write but the sequential r/w looks right.