Western Digital has been able to start resuming hard drive production in flood-ravaged Thailand earlier this week. It was a surprise for the industry, though a pleasant one.
Ending the shortage will take time of course, but this will answer some of the questions and end some of the speculation.
Western Digital expects the shortage will extend until at least March. So if you’re in the market for a drive and can wait, think about late spring or early summer. Seagate wasn’t affected as much, but since Western Digital hasn’t been able to produce drives, Seagate isn’t able to take up all of the slack. That’s why drive prices are up across the board, regardless of make.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.