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Thailand Hard Drive Production Resuming

Monday, December 5th, 2011 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

We’ve finally got some positive news amongst the dire supply conditions brought on by the Thailand floods; Western Digital has resumed its hard drive production in Thailand.

According to a press release on the WD Web site, the company restarted production of hard drives in one of its buildings on November 30, one week ahead of schedule.

They have also removed all the the slider head equipment (a key component in drive manufacturing) for refurbishment. Head slider manufacturing is expected to restart some time in March. Other facilities are expected to be pumped dry within the next ten days or so, allowing refurbishment to commence there, as well.

While it’s a glimmer of hope, it should be noted that those slider heads are a significant component of hard drives, and that supplies are still low. WD estimates this quarter’s hard drive production will be around 120 million units (including inventoried supply at the beginning of the quarter) versus a demand of between 170 million and 180 million units.

So, hard drive supplies are still going to be short for a while, but at least there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

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Thailand Flood Update: It May Be Longer Than We Thought.

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

We know that, to some, we seem to be talking about the Thailand situation an awful lot. However, since the flooding has affected hard drive production, that impacts the entire industry and we figure it’s better to let you know what’s happening, so you can make the best purchase decisions for your storage needs.

As we’ve mentioned before, not only are plants for major drive brands like Western Digital affected by the flooding, so are manufacturers of the individual hard drive components. As you might not know, most hard drives have upwards of 200 individual components that go into them (many of them produced by individual suppliers in the flooded region), even if the drive manufacturer’s plants weren’t directly affected by the floods, they are still facing shortages of components. Hard drive motor manufacturer Nidec, who we’ve mentioned before, is just one example.

Even once the waters recede, drive industry experts are saying it could take a year for these component manufacturers to replace their machinery, and many may have to relocate as well. Some companies, like Nidec, aren’t waiting for the waters to recede and have sent divers in to unbolt and retrieve equipment. Others, like suspension arm maker Hutchinson Technology, still has $50 million worth of specialty manufacturing equipment bolted to their now-submerged factory floor.

While many analysts have stated that production should be back to normal by the end of Summer 2012, others are now projecting shortages until the end of 2012 at the very least, primarily because many of the components are surprisingly single source supplied.

In other words, it doesn’t matter if you can push a car down the assembly line if an essential component, say the steering wheel, isn’t available.

 

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Thailand Floods & The Resulting Consequences

Friday, November 11th, 2011 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Let’s face it: the recent flooding situation in Thailand and the imminent hard drive shortage has many of us concerned, as approximately 40-50% of the world’s hard disk drives are manufactured in the affected areas. With production halted, suppliers and customers alike are worried about the impact this may have on hard drive availability, not to mention the looming price increases on currently available units.

While damage assessments from these major memory component manufacturers in Thailand are trickling in, several plants still remain submerged from the floods and photos capture the still “soggy” situation for Nikon’s factories, as crews work fervently to pump out the excess water from the area with generators. Aerial footage also demonstrates the severity of the situation and the long clean-up ahead:

 

A Simple Solution

Last week we discussed how to make the most of what you have by utilizing older, possibly forgotten, hard disk drive solutions to store your files now and in the future if you need to do so. If you’re using the Newer Technology Voyager or USB Universal Drive Adapter, a cool accessory like NewerTech’s StoraDrive is a simple way for keeping those drives organized for such future uses. After all, in light of recent events, you can never be too prepared…

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OWC Options Address Hard Drive Shortage

Friday, November 4th, 2011 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Over the last week or so, we’ve talked about the flooding situation in Thailand and how it will likely result in a widespread shortage of platter-based drives. In the wake of all this, a question has arisen: if you’re running out of room, what does one do instead of trying to purchase a possibly non-existent hard drive or deleting files? After all, you need to store your files somehow.

Yes, this shortage is certainly inconvenient, but it helps if you look at it like this: it’s not about what you can’t get; it’s about making the most of what you already have.

Fortunately, a solution may be sitting in your basement, that bottom desk drawer or the old storage unit. If you’ve been a computer user for more than a few years, there’s a good chance that you have an older hard drive or two laying around unused. Sure, they’re not the multi-terabyte, super-fast drives that we’ve been seeing recently, but in a pinch, 80GB is 80GB.

Connecting the Drives

The trick is, of course, mounting those drives on your desktop, so you can transfer files over to them. Fortunately, OWC has a number of different options for using those older drives externally with your current system. Let’s take a look at the different options. Article Continues…

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Thailand Floods Affecting Hard Drive Availability & Prices – UPDATE

Monday, October 31st, 2011 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Last Tuesday, we told you about how flooding in Thailand may affect hard drive prices and availability. One week later, things aren’t looking so good.

We mentioned that Western Digital’s Thailand plants are mostly underwater from the flooding. Those two plants produce about 60% of WD’s drives. Last quarter, WD produced about 54 million drives, which, extended outward, means there’s approximately 32,400,000 fewer drives being produced—and that’s just from Western Digital.

Unfortunately, they’re not the only ones affected. Article Continues…

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