Reuse Old HDDs to Avoid Consequences of Thailand’s Flood

The record flooding conditions in Thailand have significantly impacted HDD manufacturing and supplies around the world. One drive manufacturer, Western Digital, is completely under water-resulting in approximately 32,400,000 fewer drives expected to be produced in the fourth quarter alone. Compounding this crisis is the fact that Nidec, the manufacturer of the motors used by nearly every hard drive manufacturer, is also having to completely shut down. Thus, a critical component is no longer available to other HDD manufacturers.

These events, as well as the already lean inventories, have contributed to a global shortage of hard drives – and even unavailability of certain models – that will likely last well into 2012.

Larry O’Connor, founder/CEO of Other World Computing (OWC) said his firm has been taking steps to ensure OWC is able to offer a variety of drive capacities at competitive prices. He also suggested that a cost-effective solution to this shortage for computer users is something they already own.

"There are approximately eighty million perfectly functional hard drives sitting unused in outdated computers, broken computers, or tucked away in a drawer after being replaced by a bigger and/or faster drive," O’Connor noted. "It’s like getting a hard drive for free … you can reclaim gigabytes of data storage/backup capacity by reusing that old drive as a new external solution via the NewerTech Voyager Drive Dock or USB Universal Drive Adapter."

             
Newer Technology Voyager Drive Dock

OWC offers two plug-and-play solutions that can give consumers access up to 3TB for the capacity they need until this shortage is resolved:

• Newer Technology Voyager Drive Dock: Boot and swap 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives at will. Models with USB-only and FireWire interfaces offer the fastest connection to Macs and PCs. Priced starting from $34.99.
• Newer Technology SuperSpeed USB 3.0/2.0 Universal Drive Adapter: Connects any 2.5", 3.5" or 5.25" IDE/ATA or SATA drive via USB 3.0/2.0 interface. $29.97

OWC also offers external enclosures should a consumer desire a more permanent and protective use of a drive. Many OWC enclosures are stackable and daisy-chainable to offer storage for multiple drives in the desk space of a single one.

To help consumers prepare their old drive for new use, OWC offers free, step-by-step guides on formatting drives.