The US news media has not covered this much, so in case you missed it, there has been epic flooding in Thailand, home to much of the world’s electronics manufacturing. In addition to the immeasurable human suffering, that flooding is having a HUGE impact that all of you will soon see. Hundreds of major electronic factories were flooded and knocked offline. Many are not expected to be back online until mid 2012. One industry hit especially hard is hard drive manufacturing. Many factories are offline and hard drives are becoming VERY scarce. One major PC manufacturer noted in an investor call they will run out of HD’s by the end of November. One company that makes 75% of the motors used to spin hard drives from all type of manufacturers is completely offline. A 2TB Western Digital HD, selling for $70 on Amazon just a few weeks ago is now $150 and rising. The price of computers and other electronics are going to skyrocket in the coming months. So be warned – as the holiday shopping season…


Some images of WD’s Thailand facilities.
Hopefully, this will explain what all the fuss is about on Hard Drive Prices and no stock being available etc…