Watch Out For Cheap External Drive Enclosures!

oldefoxx · Post by **oldefoxx** » Thu May 25, 2006 8:05 pm

China is now making lots of cheap slimline USB hard drive enclosures. I bought five recently, through different sources, and three of the five had defective USB/IDE Adapters. Actually four of the five, initially, but in trying to test them all, I finally got a second one to work.

Looks like China goods may have some quality control issues. I was told that all these drives are alike because they are designed by committee, then manufactured in different shops, and finally put together and sold as units by little mom and pop shops. My guess is that they get mishandled by people who do not know about their suseptability to static electricity discharge.

A 60% - 80% failure rate is pretty significant, and you are now concerned with what the vender is going to do about making good on the deal. Further, having to ship them back, the time spent and wasted on trying to use or test them, and the aggrivation involved is not insignificant.

The good news is that www.computernyc.com (Madison Computer Corp),
which sold me four of the units, did give me an RMA # for the two that I sent back to them. I don't know what sort of credit or exchange I am going to get from them, though. The other bad unit was bought from a guy on eBay, and so far he has ignored three emails that I sent him. Guess he doesn't care if I give him a thumbs-down when I write my comment on the transaction.

Looks like it's buyer beware when buying "Made in China" external drive enclosures, either with or without fans. Better spend a bit more and get a better quality enclosure - the China versions are not that great at getting rid of heat either, because the cases are snug and enclosed (including the ones with fans) and give the drive no way to breathe to get rid of the heat.

utopiomania · Post by **utopiomania** » Thu May 25, 2006 9:47 pm

Looks like China goods may have some quality control issues.

Are you shure ??

Jan Vooijs · Post by **Jan Vooijs** » Thu May 25, 2006 10:12 pm

This problem of "quality control" is for almost every product bought from China. Cheap MP3 players (toss them in the bin) DVD players etc. Cheap computer parts are rubbish from there...

oldefoxx · Post by **oldefoxx** » Thu May 25, 2006 10:21 pm

The problem is, you don't know where something is made, because another company will stick its name on it. But what I can tell you is that the USB HD cases from China are at the very bottom of the price rung here, so if you see a super deal - it ain't.

Let me add another point" If you see someone promoting and selling these super deals, best to stay clear of them as well.