18TB HGST Ultrastar 550 $348

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Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
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Why are they still in stock? Why does a mac seller have so many enterprise drives for sale at a deep discount? I'm worried now.
It seems like they loaded up on a bunch of WD/HGST stuff as they have u.2 nvme ssds too. And I think they did this pretty much to drive some serious traffic to their site. I don't think they're making much on these. They seem to have done the same thing with Toshiba as the 16TB drive is actually cheaper per TB than the 18TB.

But I wouldn't be worried about authenticity of the products or the shipping. I read a review on their site where someone was praising their packaging which is super rare to ever see so they must be doing something right.
 
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josh

Active Member
Oct 21, 2013
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It seems like they loaded up on a bunch of WD/HGST stuff as they have u.2 nvme ssds too. And I think they did this pretty much to drive some serious traffic to their site. I don't think they're making much on these. They seem to have done the same thing with Toshiba as the 16TB drive is actually cheaper per TB than the 18TB.

But I wouldn't be worried about authenticity of the products or the shipping. I read a review on their site where someone was praising their packaging which is super rare to ever see so they must be doing something right.
I think I found what they're doing right.

But honestly BFCM is over and they still have those prices. Super weird.
 
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zack$

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2018
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This is normal. They will likely be on sale until stock is gone as was the case with the Micron S630DC and M5100 sales (search forum for threads).

What I've also noticed with OWC is that the prices fluctuates over time for some reason. When stock is low, these may hit an all time low (which could be the BF/CM price or better).

When last I checked, OWC had these drives very well stocked (000's).
 
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josh

Active Member
Oct 21, 2013
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Got an email saying they'd be delivered by UPS all the way although there's no tracking updates since 29th
 
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UhClem

just another Bozo on the bus
Jun 26, 2012
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Since about 6 months ago, I've noticed that UPS tracking no longer includes intermediate points in the itinerary. After the origin point, you get nothing until the dispatch station at destination. Whagawan widdat?
 
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UhClem

just another Bozo on the bus
Jun 26, 2012
435
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NH, USA
Bravo!
I had noticed that the sender got the details. For instance, Amazon's Track_Package/see_all_updates would give the itinerary. But UPS would not give it to me, even when I was logged in (UPS MyChoice; so they knew I was me, and it was my pkg)

Looks like 17track.net knows the backdoor.
 
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josh

Active Member
Oct 21, 2013
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Nice. I don't think they have a backdoor. They're probably still using the old API which UPS didn't disable.

Seems like all my parcels are getting delivered directly by UPS. 1 already delivered, the rest will be delivered tomorrow?
 
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73DodgeCharger

New Member
Nov 26, 2021
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Am I going to have a problem accessing this drive with my 9211-8i? The spec sheet says it has 4kn sectors, but also 512e. Thanks.
 
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Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
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Since about 6 months ago, I've noticed that UPS tracking no longer includes intermediate points in the itinerary. After the origin point, you get nothing until the dispatch station at destination. Whagawan widdat?
Yeah, it's really messed up. If you have a UPS account and are the shipper you can see the 'hops' along the way, but otherwise nothing for the receiver, which is stupid imo. I hate when companies do bs things like this, but they must have been having problems with receivers knowing too much.
 

Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
3,257
1,447
113
49
HSV and SFO
Am I going to have a problem accessing this drive with my 9211-8i? The spec sheet says it has 4kn sectors, but also 512e. Thanks.
I just got mine and checked it in WD's warranty checker:

OUT OF REGION 0F38459 PCM Drive ASM OEM-STD 18TB SATA 512e SE CMR P3 Power disable feature Not Support 25-Jul-2026

So these drives are 'out of region' purchases in bulk and then imported to the US, but when you do a warranty check, they are still covered under warranty. And knowing OWC, if there's a problem with WD, you should be able to call them.

As far as shipping, I was not terribly impressed. The box was a standard sized hard drive box, but did not have the 'two bookends' type of shipping material WD and Seagate use from the factor. Instead, there were two pieces of foam on the top and bottom of the drive that sandwiched it tight enough that it shouldn't have moved. But without any cushioning on the ends of the drive, a good enough impact would make the drive slide right into the cardboard on either end. Mine seemed pretty secure and didn't seem to have moved at all in the journey.

Inside the box, I found my packing slip as well as a small ziplocked pouch with 4 mounting screws which was nice.

Unfortunately, that's all I found nice as this box was literally just inside a plastic bag and shipped that way--so if the bag was dropped or handled rough, there's a good chance for some drive damage. I haven't run a smart long test on mine yet or hooked it up (and probably won't be able to for a week), but I'd definitely test these after you get them if yours arrives with similar packaging.