New HDD delivered by Amazon - No padding in packaging - Banged around? Return?

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi All,


Pretty disappointed with amazon packaging and transit on this occasion.


I've just had the below HDD delivered. (A £60, 2TB Western Digital HDD)

WD 2 TB My Passport for Mac Portable Hard Drive - Time Machine Ready with Password Protection, Midnight Blue​

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07VSPL8FJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1



However they simply stuck the HDD box inside one of those flatpack cardboard envelopes. There is no space for bubble wrap padding, and I can see the edges of the HDD Box pressing out etc. The envelope itself is crunched on one side etc. Is this from cramming a box into the wrong container - A flat pack cardboard envelope etc? Or is it from being bashed around in transit etc?


My missus has got me under her version of strict UK lockdown - I've put the package into the garage with gloves on, I can't open the package for 3 days, so I can't even say if the actual box inside is damaged etc. 🤣


I take it even though these a new tech Hard Drives are tiny things, they are still essentially precision magnetic discs with moving heads etc.

They really should be handled with care, not dropped into a van with no transit padding?

How sturdy are these new external Hard drives now a days? Being so tiny, I can't see there being much shock absorption built into them.



So, what do I do?

Q1) If the HDD just works when I finally set it up, do I just accept it as it is?

Q2) Can I run some kind of HDD health checker to see if it was damaged in transit?




Hope you can advise

Regards
Martin


PS:
I appreciate in the big scheme of things this isn't life a death. The chaps in the warehouses must be knackered from the xmas push. However, this HDD will be my back up drive for years to come, so its important it doesn't fail from careless transit etc.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi All,

I've had a look on You Tube, unboxing of the HDD. Looks like it has some protective plastic padding inside the box, to hold the HDD away from the sides of the cardboard box. Phew

I'm going to go with - WD is a good brand name - with shed loads of HDD experience, that's what they do - they would have thought about the best protective packaging for numpty transit to customers.


Looking forward to Sunday's opening.


I was going to look for HDD Health checker Software anyway, for my 10 year old WD, 2TD backup drive..... I'll do that in the meanwhile!

Regards
Martin

 

[James_C]

Amazon are not great at shipping HDD's, I had the same happen to me a few years ago. The HDD worked fine though, so I am sure you will be ok. Amazon are pretty good at replacing damaged goods so I would not worry.

Run the App 'Disk Utility' which is installed on all Macs. Make sure the external disk is selected in the left pane and run First Aid. It will check the disk for any errors.

 

[Apple_Robert]

In regards to your wife's security measures, someone on the forum might have a suggestion as to how you can bypass her SIP protocol which seems to rival Apple.

As to the shipping, I have found WD product packing to be minimal at best. Once you have admin ability to travel to the garage, test the HDD. If that happened to me, I would return it and make sure Amazon shipped me a new one in better packaging.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

In regards to your wife's security measures, someone on the forum might have a suggestion as to how you can bypass her SIP protocol which seems to rival Apple.

😂

 

[Marty_Macfly]

As to the shipping, I have found WD product packing to be minimal at best. Once you have admin ability to travel to the garage, test the HDD. If that happened to me, I would return it and make sure Amazon shipped me a new one in better packaging.

Hi Mr A,

Yup, I'd love to do exactly that. Hell, even walk into PC World and pick up the HDD off the shelf and transport home myself. Not sure how carefully PC world would have unboxed and stacked onto the Shelves the HDDs themselves mind though.


Realistically though, with lockdown, I'm going to give the Disk Utility stuff a go. If it says the HDD is ok, I'll leave it at that. Some backup is better than no backup!


Happy new year sir!


Best wishes
Martin

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Amazon are not great at shipping HDD's, I had the same happen to me a few years ago. The HDD worked fine though, so I am sure you will be ok. Amazon are pretty good at replacing damaged goods so I would not worry.

Run the App 'Disk Utility' which is installed on all Macs. Make sure the external disk is selected in the left pane and run First Aid. It will check the disk for any errors.

Thanks James,

I was hoping Apple had some proper apps in the box for this kind of thing.

As I say, many thanks for all you help these last few weeks, much appreciated 👍

Happy new year to you as well!


Best wishes
Martin

 

[Apple_Robert]

Hi Mr A,

Yup, I'd love to do exactly that. Hell, even walk into PC World and pick up the HDD off the shelf and transport home myself. Not sure how carefully PC world would have unboxed and stacked onto the Shelves the HDDs themselves mind though.


Realistically though, with lockdown, I'm going to give the Disk Utility stuff a go. If it says the HDD is ok, I'll leave it at that. Some backup is better than no backup!


Happy new year sir!


Best wishes
Martin

That is a good move as well given the situation. Hopefully, it will work well for you.

Happy new year to you a well, Martin. Glad to have you as a fellow member.

 

[IowaLynn]

Leave feedback for seller. Photo of box. The inside. Drives are designed to support a certain amount of drop testing.

Disk Utility does not scan all the drive sectors - unless you do a longer secure pass zero out all sectors. Otherwise just the drive catalogue index. I like to own at least one or two 3rd party disk tools. Filling a drive with garbage files and copying to another destination with CCC file integrity check.

 

[James_C]

I was hoping Apple had some proper apps in the box for this kind of thing.

As I say, many thanks for all you help these last few weeks, much appreciated 👍

Happy new year to you as well!

No worries, I remember when I had my first Mac back in 2002, and a few very helpful people on this forum, helped me out, so I am repaying the favour. Happy New Year to you as well.

 

[chabig]

Q1) If the HDD just works when I finally set it up, do I just accept it as it is?

Yes. Hard drives are precision devices, which is why they are appropriately packaged from the factory. Shippers don't need to do anything more.

 

[ght56]

As the listing you linked to notes this is a used drive, I would check the drive health with a program called DriveDX. There is a free trial. It will ensure your drive is healthy (and also ensure the listed used drive you got isn't one that has seen an insane amount of use.)

 

[Marty_Macfly]

As the listing you linked to notes this is a used drive, I would check the drive health with a program called DriveDX. There is a free trial. It will ensure your drive is healthy (and also ensure the listed used drive you got isn't one that has seen an insane amount of use.)

Hi GHT,

Oh, you made me jump there

I checked - I should have bought a brand new one. I'll find out tomorrow

Thanks for the info on that other testing app as well. Tomorrow is Time machine day!


Happy new year, and best wishes ght!


Regards
Martin

 

[ght56]

Hi GHT,

Oh, you made me jump there

I checked - I should have bought a brand new one. I'll find out tomorrow

Thanks for the info on that other testing app as well. Tomorrow is Time machine day!


Happy new year, and best wishes ght!


Regards
Martin

I would personally check it with DriveDX regardless. Hard drive (and other storage media) scams on Amazon are extremely common. Even if it comes directly from Amazon or an Amazon Fulfilled Seller, it is still worth checking IMHO. With the way Amazon works, it is a prime (pun intended) platform for the sale of certain tech items that are either fraudulent or not as described. That particular drive is probably less prone to the typical hard drive scam scale (which entails selling a used drive as new) than say a bare hard drive, but I would still check just for peace of mind.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

I would personally check it with DriveDX regardless. Hard drive (and other storage media) scams on Amazon are extremely common. Even if it comes directly from Amazon or an Amazon Fulfilled Seller, it is still worth checking IMHO. With the way Amazon works, it is a prime (pun intended) platform for the sale of certain tech items that are either fraudulent or not as described. That particular drive is probably less prone to the typical hard drive scam scale (which entails selling a used drive as new) than say a bare hard drive, but I would still check just for peace of mind.

Hiya GHT,


Physical package looks fine - phew

I'm doing the DriveX trial period thing - works great for the internal SDD

Having problem with it recognising the external HDD though. Can you advise what to try next?
Screenshot below. I've tried reinstalling and checking the Security settings.


Screenshot:

PS:
Also I've got questions on how to erase and set up the HDD as well, link below - your assistance here would be appreciated as well. (Dunno if this is related to DriveDX not working as well!)

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ect-you-tube-was-talking-about-exfat.2278503/

 

[Cameront9]

Can't comment on the Hard Drive except to say I've had zero issues with drives shipped from Amazon. They probably had worse conditions getting from the manufacturer to the warehouse.

As to your wife's quarantine procedures: We just wipe the boxes down with a bleach and water solution. However, there's been recent research that indicates that wiping stuff down isn't necessary as there's been exactly zero cases of transmission from touching something. They don't find live viruses on the hospital floors, for example.

 

[hallux]

I know of SIX drives shipped by Amazon (sold by and shipped from Amazon) in use by myself and my father that are running perfectly fine. One drive was shipped with only the drive box, the label was literally attached to the manufacturer's brown box. Four of the drives are Seagate Ironwolf drives, two are WD Red NAS drives. The remaining three were shipped in a larger box, with just a couple airpaks as filler.

As long as the drive was in a manufacturer-designed or supplied box, it should be fine.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

I know of SIX drives shipped by Amazon (sold by and shipped from Amazon) in use by myself and my father that are running perfectly fine. One drive was shipped with only the drive box, the label was literally attached to the manufacturer's brown box. Four of the drives are Seagate Ironwolf drives, two are WD Red NAS drives. The remaining three were shipped in a larger box, with just a couple airpaks as filler.

As long as the drive was in a manufacturer-designed or supplied box, it should be fine.

Thanks H,

That's really good to know!

Martin 👍

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I just had a 16TB external hard drive delivered from Amazon and it wasn't in any kind of shipping box, just its own box. The shipping label was on the front of a retail type box and set on the porch by Amazon. Anyone walking by could see it was hard drive as it wasn't inside any kind of box. It was scheduled to rain/snow and the only thing protecting it was the box's own shrink wrap. I've never seen anything like it from them. I've reported it, but it was just like, "Thanks for the feedback". Unbelievable. I haven't tested it yet to see if there's any issues. Even an Amazon hand delivery should be in a brown wrapper with some padding in it or something before setting it on a porch.

 

[chabig]

I just had a 16TB external hard drive delivered from Amazon and it wasn't in any kind of shipping box, just its own box.

I agree that's unusual but it should be fine.