Re: Why is this HDD so small?

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 13 Mar 2021 17:57:51 -0500, Wolf K
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On 2021-03-13 16:24, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
>> On 2021-03-13 3:01 p.m., Ken Blake wrote:
>>> On 3/13/2021 1:26 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
>>>> micky <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>> Why is this so small?
>>>>> Alternatively, why aren't they all so small?                Less 
>>>>> than 4" x 1 1/4" x 1/3".
>>>>> Is it a real HDD, a spinner, with a rotating platter?   It calls it a
>>>>> harddrive more than once, and never uses SSD, etc. but it's so small.
>>>>> https://www.amazon.com/External-Hard-Drive-Portable-Laptop/dp/B08VNQZ4KY/ref=sr_1_11?crid=3C0WFJ8T7ELDA&dchild=1&keywords=external%2Bhard%2Bdrive&qid=1615603990&s=pc&sprefix=ext%2Celectronics%2C179&sr=1-11&th=1 
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> What about that it has no brand name?  Would you buy it for a backup
>>>>> drive?
>>>>>
>>>>> For file backup, is a real 2.5" external drive better for backup?
>>>>> external 2.5" HDD, SSD, 3.5" HDD in a dock
>>>>
>>>>    No offense, but why even consider stuff from weird merchants which
>>>> peddle their stuff via Amazon!?
>>>>
>>>>    Don't you have *reputable* webshops in the US?
>>>
>>>
>>> As far as I'm concerned, Amazon is completely reputable. I buy many 
>>> things from them--probably somewhere around 100 a year--and I've never 
>>> had a problem, except once when a product I expected to receive never 
>>> arrived. Amazon not only refunded what I had paid, but also gave me a 
>>> credit ($10, If I remember correctly).
>>>
>>>
>> Yes,  Amazon itself is very reliable, I too place many orders per year 
>> and have no problems. what you have to watch for are the crappy shyster 
>> vendors and their stupidly outages prices.
>> Yesterday my son went to Safeway and got me nine packages of flieshmans 
>> fast rising yeast, 9 pack cost $6.87 cdn, just for kicks I went on 
>> Amazon.ca, the same 9 packs sold for $15.25. Buyer Beware!
>> 
>> Rene
>> 
>
>Amazon relies on "It's Amazon, so it must be OK" factor. My take is the 
>precise opposite. If it's Amazon, it's probably not OK. For one thing, 
>Amazon takes a hefty slice of that vendor's prices. I prefer to deal 
>with vendors directly, not through Amazon. They are not alone. Even Best 
>Buy is a problem, most of their bargains are from 3rd party vendors. 
>Even Staples now offers goods "shipped directly from the merchant".
>
>I prefer supporting a local brick'n'mortar shop if possible. They pay 
>taxes locally. Amazon doesn't. It's a free-loader. Example: The town 

The law in the US is that if a merchant has a physical presence in a
state, they have to collect sales tax and send the money to the state
where the customer is.   For years Amazon had few locations, I'm
guessing 3 or 4 warehouses, but 5 or so years ago I guess because they
had launched their speedy deliver plan, they built warehouses in maybe
47 of the 50 states.   (including a big one in Baltimore where part of
Bethlehem Steel was, and a big one near NorthEast Md that stocks a
different category of things.)   So they do collect sales tax. 

(What I don't understand is when they say "Only 2 left" but they still
deliver in about the same length of time. Are they counting only things
in warehouses near me, or do they only have 2 in the entire country? If
the latter, there must be an awful lot of shipping back and forth and
hither and yon and to and fro. 

>needs cash to pay for snow plowing. Amazon depends on that service so 

And they pay property tax, and their mostly low-paid workers pay taxes. 

>the delivery trucks can get to the customers. But Amazon don't pay a 
>cent towards the cost of that service.
>
>Best,

But I do prefer to buy things locally.  If I were not old and fat and
worried about Corona, I wouldn't rely on mail order (and grocery
delivery) so much, and I hope to go back to normal within a year.