After destroying the GPU market, then RAM market then SSD market, AI has come for hard disks too.
WD confirmed it is already sold out for 2026 and has long term contracts for 2027 and 2028. As a result of capacity shifting to AI and business customers, its share of the consumer market has shrunk to 5%.
Assume we can expect more 2nd hand drives getting sold as new ones. https://www.seagate.com/blog/the-second-hand-drive-market-what-you-need-to-know-and-how-to-spot-a-counterfeit-product/
Since I moved everything to the cloud I’ve had a 2T and 1T hard drive sitting on my desk basically unused.
Perhaps the cost of cloud storage is going to go through the roof?
It’s anyway good to keep a local backup. The cloud is not infallible. There was a story where one of the cloud providers accidentally deleted terabytes of a commercial customers critical data. Luckily the customer was smart enough to have a 2nd different provider with backups.
Two local back ups. I discovered last week that I can’t read the data from one of mine.
(I haven’t investigated at all yet so may be something I can force).
My biggest fear about cloud storage (apple, google) is not privacy, nor security, nor loss of data, nor hackers, but one day apple or google refusing my login credentials … and refusing access to my files
Little hope of recovering the account (as many stories on the internet show) - simply all gone one day with no explanation other than ‘we noticed something on your account, but cannot tell you’. But still, we cannot let you back on.
Is the solution to have two cloud devices and mirror the two (if that is possible). Not certain if I want my home Mac devoting so much time backing up …
Put mine on a USB key, job done. I don’t keep anything on the cloud, too unreliable for me.
A few weeks ago my W11 lost its authorisation code and I kept getting messages it was illegal.
Last week I bit the bullet and backed up my complete disc using my regular IDrive tool.
Ran the manufacturers W11 recovery tool and W11 is reporting as legal again.
Then ran the Idrive restore and horrible.
Only a few Kbps, restored only partially and to the wrong location, panic.
I tried again yesterday and it ran perfectly. A couple of hundred GB in a couple of hours and everything in the correct location.
So looking at using some sort of removeable media as a second back up.
To use the recovery tool I needed a new USB stick with at least 32GB.
Rolled up to my local Jumbo and they had a USB 3.0 with 64GB, for CHF 39.95, luckily out of stock.
Why lucky?
I went over the road to Landi who had a USB 3.2 with 64GB for CHF 5.95.
Unless you are NASA
Have read that USB and other solid state drives have bit rot. Especially if they are not used very often. Even old fashioned hard drives have bit rot but not as fast.
https://www.howtogeek.com/887618/how-long-do-usb-thumb-drives-hold-data/
https://www.howtogeek.com/660727/bit-rot-how-hard-drives-and-ssds-die-over-time/
But then again https://www.howtogeek.com/858426/whats-the-best-way-to-store-data-for-decades-or-centuries/
As of today, ricardo.ch still has reasonably priced used HDs and SSDs. Many HDs and SSDs have low usage - knowledgeable sellers will even include SSD % usage/life left details. Relatively cheap to pick up (used) SSD adapter cases that will fit fit into a 2.5 in HDD slot.
Many sellers of used units have not yet picked up on the spiking prices and (un)availability of new units.
Yes, SSDs are not great for long tern offline storage (where the SSD is unplugged and put in a cupboard).
Hard disks are better for this, but they can also ‘gum up’ if you leave them unused for too long. It is a good idea to run them periodically.
F***. Wife’s laptop is dying…this is going to hurt.
HP Inc. has revealed that memory now accounts for 35 percent of the cost of materials it needs to build a PC, up from between 15 and 18 percent last quarter. And the company expects RAM’s contribution will rise through the year.
My laptop died too. Luckily it was only the battery, so I managed to get a replacement!
I’m hoping not to need to buy any computer stuff for the next few years and hope the AI boom dies down. Although one guy I talk to believes it is only going to get worse.
The AI boom may not die down but semiconductor companies are building a lot of new fab plants.
These have a long lead time from planning through construction to commissioning and finally production.
Interesting, some of these are in the US and not Asia - possibly in part (or wholly) due to Trump’s tariffs.
It’s a chassis failure for this laptop. And, the screen has started to flicker. I could transplant all the internals to a new chassis but I’ve read that this is an issue with similar models. So, no point in getting a 30-40 CHF old laptop for the chassis if it’s going to break apart soon too.
Also, it’s not compatible with windows 11, 10 years old by now. It served well.
I checked the digitec website and this on the top of the homepage. Clicked out of curiosity and…
I was seeing a lot of hype about the Kojima edition of that laptop and was looking at that too yesterday!
I think this is why my friend is probably right: he’s working in AI and sees that the companies are making money on this and the demand is only going to increase more as it moves beyond the early adopters.
I think supply will probably not adapt quickly enough to meet growing demand and so we’ll have a crunch until supply catches up.
I was laughing at the price. Then, I realized a Zenbook S14 with Intel/AMD CPU and 2880 x 1800 px is basically 1’500 CHF. Since when Asus is more expensive than Apple? 
But, I had no idea there were Zenbooks with Snapdragon CPU. Lower pixel count (1920 x 1200px), but 978 grams, 30+ hours battery life, and 500 CHF less. Reading about them right now.
