I have received two HDDs (for a NAS) in a loosely package and not really sure if it is safe to keep them. My concern is that they might have been damaged during transportation. Although it doesn't seem particularly dangerous to me all major manufacturers say it is inproper packaging. Do you think there's a risk or they should be just fine?
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I seen such packaging in the past, it seem bad, but not extreme. Does it travelled a lof ? like from China with multiple hop, or more just between two city ? – yagmoth555 Dec 10 '21 at 14:40
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Not a lot, between two cities. – devnull Dec 10 '21 at 16:30
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2Also depends on the carrier. I forget who did the tests, but one of the webzines put accelerometers in boxes shipped and in the U.S. the USPS was the best, and it was by a longshot, IIRC. Also, it's usually rapid acceleration that causes problems, so even if it is "loose", but adequately padded, the acceleration experienced by the box contents isn't actually very high. – Paul Dec 10 '21 at 17:53
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Look up the environmental specifications for this model of disk. Probably the non-operating shock tolerance will be decent, for a device that pushes known physics to encode tiny bits of information. A drop from 2 meters will probably be damaging on a hard surface, but the acceleration greatly depends on how the stop is cushioned by packaging. Bubble wrap can cushion quite well, even if the box is not a tight fit.
Drives are a point of failure already. Use them in an array that can tolerate a drive loss. Back up data to other storage media.
If you wish to complain to whomever shipped you those drives, take some measurements to support your hypothesis. Install shock sensors in the original packaging. Maybe actual drives, if doing returns or using spares. Do a drop test from a short height. Send it through the same delivery service. Should the acceleration exceed specifications, that would be concerning.
John Mahowald
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