discover free extra gigs on your hard drive!

[ToiletDuck]

I think in this particular case, if WD could have marketed a larger drive to begin with, they certainly would have

I disagree!!! It comes down to marketing. If I currently had a 10ghz processor right now the last thing I would do is sell it. Why? Because there aren't any anywhere close to that outhere. Why would I sell it. Let everyone buy it. Then give them no reason to purchase a new one for several years. You put out one product that is slightly better than the current one. Market the hell out of it. once the purchases of it start to go down or once another firm decides to rush the market and toss out a bigger one then you do the same. You put out as many products in the line as you can before you reach the end of the rope and have to go to another setup. SCSI was not in the market with IDE. IDE was much cheaper no matter which way you sliced it. The goal was to get these computers in every home out there and to do so meant lower prices. Look at ATI and Nvidia. Before the 9x series Nvidia was the highest. Then ati waited for them to play their next card which was the new line of cards and then BOOM the 9x series popped out and slammed. They waited then trumped. Had the 9x series come out first then Nvidia might have skipped to their next gen card which happened shortly afterwards. ATI gained a huge share of the market by waiting and playing the technology when it needed to be played. Not just tossing it out there.

 

[electromagnetic]

I don't think it would be a big deal if Maxtor/Seagte/WD/IBM released a 600 GB drive tomorrow, therefore I don't believe they're playing the market. Besides, Seagte just recently announced 100GB platters so obviously they are the first to reach such high density. Currently you can get 4 platters in one standard size drive, that's 400GB. Do you really want to hang onto your claim of a 600GB HDD?

 

[zachj]

While I won't deny that WD likely had the 74GB version in the works when they released the 36, I don't really know that they could have released it. Remember that these are NOT targeted at home users, despite the fact that hardcore gamers and OCers buy them. They didn't expect to sell a lot of them. They only wanted to get into the market and make a name for themselves by proving reliability and speed IS possible without SCSI (whether they're reliable is yet to be seen). Either way, I don't think I accept that the 36GB drive is the same drive as the 74GB, simply because they're not the same models. I can be wrong, of course. I work at ResNet, not Western Digital

Z

 

[ToiletDuck]

@electromagnetic not thinking it would be a big deal might be why you don't head a huge corporation. My brother-in-law does nothing but sales to 3billion+ companies for IBM, my sister for IBM who is the only one with her job title. She consults with all the VP's everday and makes their marketing gameplan, and I work for Dell. Marketing is everything. EVERYTHING. No two ways about it. It cost Dell about $200 per person that calls in to order something. They aren't going to put a 600GB drive in a computer and sell it knowing that the mom and pop user who is over 95% of the people out there never use the 120gb ones we put in them now. And as far as my "claim" of the 600gb Hd it isn't a claim, a whole group of us saw them. 5 people. My roomate saw it first then came and got the rest of us. SCSI 5400rpm drives starting at $3999 at Fry's in Ft. Worth Tx.

And ResNet booooo! I didn't know you guys were a big company. At college they ran the Dorm internet and lan and they drove us nuts. And since Baylor University is a baptist college they blocked everywebsite associated with porn which you can't search google hardly without seeing at least something lol.

 

[electromagnetic]

Completely off topic: Since you work at Dell, by any slight chance do you know what the new deals starting on the 18th are going to be? I'm buying a laptop soon, looking at the 5100 right now.

Back on topic: I would think it would be much easier to exploit hidden HDD space if it existed. If a 120GB drive was sold as a 80GB drive, Say 3 platters, the 3rd is somehow just not accounted for by the drive controller? You could just change the drive geometry to see it.

 

[zachj]

Well . . . at Northeastern, ResNet fixes people's computers and diagnoses bad ports. Network Services, of which we are a division, handles wiring and the network itself. And the network here is HORRIBLE right now. Ever since the end of Christmas break, it's been SOOO slow and one has to refresh EVERY page three times before it'll come up. BAH!

Either way, ResNet is useless. We should just confiscate people's computers! We instituted a new policy where people have to stay in the office while we work on their computers. Now people aren't coming to get their computers fixed, and when they do, some of them are very unhappy about it. [/rant]

Z

 

[ToiletDuck]

lol yep that's them and no i don't know the deals coming up on the laptops. We don't know in advance. Few tips...

1. Always better to buy when there isn't free shipping. They really knock off 2-3 times the value in hardware for that.

2. It really depends on how much you plan on spending. For instance you could pay some $1250 on the 5100 and get a good laptop. Or buy the 8600 for the same price and get a great laptop as well that has a 16:9 screen and a DVD burner in it. They woudl almost be identical. I guess what I am getting at is look at what you plan on spending and then buy the higher model with a starting pricee in that range. Dell literally makes things free so you wouldn't get any money if you took them off yet if you added that item onto another laptop you are looking at $200. PM me if you have any questions. Or hell just PM me a price and I'll tell you the best one to get.

3. NEVER IN YOUR LIFE GET THE WARRANTY. This is where all of dells money comes from. The computer comes with a 1yr mail in which is ok because if it doesn't break within one year then no biggie it most likely won't for a while.

4. Use the DPA (dell preferred account) at your own risk. If you have a CITIbank card use that and you get a free digital camera that they won't tell you about.

5. Give them these coupon codes to get some mula...
E182D16B1586 <--$25 off any order over $500 3/31/04 exp
V$B1H6CW791PDB <---$200 of $1999 or more book 3/17/04
$QZ8G5V1D96$2Q <---$150 off $1499 or more book 3/17/04
G78DPD$82D9NMZ<-----$75 off $999 or more book 3/17/04

They might tell you they can't do those but they are full of it because it would hurt the sales reps number. However tell them another sales rep said it could be done and they will call the help desk and have them applied. Also they probably won't want to place an order for you because you won't be getting the warranty. Just tell them to do it they are recorded. Make sure you put the emphasis on extactly what you want and nothing more or they will literally bombard you for a good half hour to push the warranty.

On another note.... If you are willing to go for $1250 your best bet would be to get the 8600 or even look into the 9100 series. They come with so much that if you upgraded the 5100 or 5150 to their specs you could be well over $500 more. Also if I were you I would call in tomorrow and place the order. Or at least get them to make you a quote. Then ask for the quote number. A quote is good for 24hrs so just call in tomorrow and configure a comp and tell them to give you a quote number, get your beauty sleep, then call back and see what the new deals are the next day. If the deals aren't as good then just tell them you want to use the other quote.

Duck

 

[ToiletDuck]

also on a fun note they have to ask you if you would like two dellware items, aka digital camera, printer, external monitor and such. When you get on tell them right away before they can ask that you don't need those things and watch them try to think of some BS like a lcdd tv or a projector.

 

[Cowboy X]

Good info on haggling with Dell , or should it be " Dueling With Dell , How To Defeat Dell's Sales Reps " a comprehensive guide by ToiletDuck published by Oc-Forums Press 2004

 

[pulsarnx]

If a 120GB drive was sold as a 80GB drive, Say 3 platters, the 3rd is somehow just not accounted for by the drive controller? You could just change the drive geometry to see it. [/B]

did i not already say that ?



Jason

 

[pulsarnx]

reply @ the dell stuff..


or you could just not buy a dell...

"dude your getting ****ed, i mean DELL"

just custom build it... get an asus barebones laptop and go from there


sorry duckman

Jason

 

[tom10167]

Ok, you want proof that they're not just cutting out some of the drives and selling it as less than it really is?

Pick up an 80gig drive, go ahead, do it. Now pick up a 120gb drive, wow, it's signifcantly heavier.

Discussion over.

 

[ToiletDuck]

That isn't true in all cases.

One more thought, I have a 36.7gb WD Raptor 10000rpm sata hd, and the 74gb version RAPTOR is EXTACTLY THE SAME PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS SAME WEIGHT !!! Which suggest thats this entire thread is based on some truth.. I belive someone else in this thread posted something about weighing drives[end quote]

There are several drives that are close to or same weight. There is only a small difference between my 120 gig and my 60gig.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

I smell a conspiracy theory... which is being beaten to death.

It's a lot harder to believe in when you look for the holes in the theory instead of only looking at the possible implications if true.

Thats usually how these things work... Conspiracy theories propose grand possibilities to pull you into believing, and distract from the obvious red flags that something isn't right.

 

[ToiletDuck]

Not saying it's a practile thought. Just stating is could be possible and that Tom's statement was way off.

 

[maximusdm]

4 pages of BS, yuck!
The 5th page has some helpful tips for dell
and i'm adding to the madness with this post Mwhahahaha.

<hums> Another one bytes the dust </hums>

 

[tom10167]

I stand corrected.

I just know that my 80gig is about 4 times heavier than my 7 gig.

 

[ToiletDuck]

lol tom i think we can all assume that much

 

[Alice]

I tried it before I read that it didn't work. I ghosted my drive to another and tried this on both of them. The first disk got corrupted, and displayed 5 extra gigs (11 total). The second one dispayed 188 extra Megs and didn't get corrupted. Since I didn't have a backup, and I have a fresh install of windoze, I decided to switch it back. Sure was an interesting night though.

 

[unreal]

well it was a nice ideea that would have been cewl if it workedd, especailly with the 48bt encryption drive which should be able to do terabytes of over 32lba doing giga's