HP notebook hard drive replacement

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx

I guess PCs parts aren't like auto parts where the OE parts are beter than the aftermarket.

As an aside, I got the new better performing hard drive for under $60 with a +5 year expected life and it cost me about that much just to fill my tank up today. Something doesn't seem right about that.


OEM parts are better. They would return a whole batch in hundreds of thousands if the failure rate is more than a small percentage (i.e. 0.05% for 1000 hour infant mortality). The ones they reject tends to go to retail with huge rebates.

Usually capacity double every 12-24 months, so your new drives are faster and cheaper than the old one, perfectly normal.

 

[mechanicx]

Good to know. The store I bought the WD HD had OE versions of the same WD HDD that were on sale close in price to the retail version, but the guy there tried to tell me the ones in the retail box were the same. I even mentioned to him in the automobile world OE is much better quality than aftermarket.

My comment was more along the lines that HP used a seemingly low quality HD with using the Toshiba. But your point about comparing say the same OE vs retail Toshiba drive is well taken.

So far this WD HDD is running quieter, faster and cooler than it ever did with the Toshiba.

I guess the guy was basically telling me what Western digital says that there's no real significant difference between OEM and retail http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/deta...il-(rtl)-drives. Although my retail packaged drive didn't really have in instructions or anything besides the drive.

 

[PandaBear]

There is no real significant if you are a small builder / store. The OEM quality I mentioned above are for LARGE build like Dell, HP, Apple, Lenovo, Acer, etc. You have to buy a few million drives a year to qualify for that sort of special treatment, defining your own test criteria (I've even seen a special one request from Compaq back then when they had a case vibration issue that they want the hard drive to slow down the seek to resolve).

The small mom and pop's "OEM" are merely bulk package of 30 or so in a box, rather than individual box with foam packaging. A lot of people mishandle their drives in transit and buying retail is actually safer than buying these bulk "OEM". Some store clerks flip the box and dump them all out on the table at once, some drop their box from the shelf and drives falls out, I've even heard an entire pallet flip over and all of the drives died shortly after install.

 

[mechanicx]

I see what you're saying a real OEM drive is a big order and may have to meet higher quality/testing standards and are only available in a new PC or maybe as a spare replacement part from the PC manufacturer.

Although the store did have OE single packaged drives in plain cardboard boxes. I think the main difference is just the packaging and accessories mostly.

That said HP probably selected the hard drive model on the cheap. Even if they got the best example of the model, there was the better brands and models available. It's nothing like automotive OEM vs aftermarket where the parts are often quiet different in design, standards, quality and testing.

In this case I wouldn't even want another real OEM drive from HP even if they sold it to me for a song or gave me it. Well if they gave it to me under warranty I'd take it lol.

 

[PandaBear]

They all use the same (although multiple vendor sourced) components regardless of OEM or retail, but the OEM get the "prime" quality drives and the retail customers may not or may not, depends on the yield. The main difference is they screen and sort the top crops for the large OEM because they would not be happy with a free exchange in warranty like the retail customer. All hard drives are build with some bad sectors. The factory test would screen these sectors out, and sometimes disable (we call it "clipping") one of the read write head of the drive if that head / surface has significantly more defects. OEM do not allow these kind of drives in their systems but retail customers do not mind it. Sometimes the quality is poor enough that they would reduce the data density (i.e making a 500GB hard drive a 320GB hard drive) to compensate for the quality drop, and OEM do not allow that either.

For a mature and reliable drive that has been out for months, there's no differences. But at the beginning of a production with low yield, the manufacturer may have problem hitting the target and you'll see the retail drives in poorer quality than the OEM. This is the main reason I would not buy a new design and would buy one that has been "mature" in technology and have a lot of newegg good reviews.

They also have at least 3 suppliers at all time so in case something happens they would not be disrupted. However they may increase or reduce the order if they found pricing or quality differences to justify that. They are all priced about the same between manufacturers.