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London, 27 December 2011 – The floods in Thailand have resulted in computer manufacturers turning to the grey market for hard disks. The floods – in October and November of this year – mean production numbers have fallen in factories and there is currently a shortage of HDDs. This has brought about a significant rise in the price of hard disks, with manufacturers turning to the grey market as a solution to this problem. Stellar Data Recovery believes this is a worrying development. It means the quality of many products, PCs, laptops and cheaper servers could be compromised. “We will be closely watching for the effects of this development in our day-to-day business and will be monitoring any increase in the number of ‘grey’ HDDs”, says Kees Jan Meerman of Stellar Data Recovery.

The floods in Thailand have given the markets a sharp knock, as well as the market in HDDs. Factories in Thailand have been closed and the production of HDDs has been partially halted for many weeks, while demand remains at the same level. The price of HDDs has risen sharply and is not expected to see any drop for the next few months. The HDDs that continue to be available on the market since the floods are reserved for ‘high-end products’. These are products destined for the more expensive corporate segment. However, the numbers of good quality HDDs currently available are nowhere near enough to supply the entire market.

An alarming development

The lack of good quality HDDs means computer manufacturers will seek out other markets and procurement channels in order to meet demand. The grey market is likely to appear in the guise of an attractive and easy alternative. Stellar Data Recovery is keeping a vigilant eye on this alarming development, for the simple reason that HDDs from grey sources are more likely to fail, as they are unlikely to have undergone all the necessary quality checks. Normally, Stellar Data Recovery is able to recover lost data, even from ‘grey’ HDDs. Nonetheless, the increase in data loss and downtime due to the reduced quality of HDDs will have unwanted knock-on effects for many businesses in the future.

British broadsheet The Guardian quotes a number of industry sources: “It could take between nine months and two years for hard drive production to return to normal, industry sources suggested.”

Stellar Data Recovery

Stellar provides a wide range of data recovery software and services. Stellar has laboratories in Europe, the United States and Asia and has more than 100 R&D professionals and data recovery experts, several CLASS 100 clean rooms and the most extensive suite of data recovery software in the world. Stellar provides total data recovery solutions for all data loss incidents and holds a top-5 position internationally in the data recovery sector.


For further information on the rise of the grey market for HDDs, please contact:

Chief Operations Officer, Kees Jan Meerman
Stellar Data Recovery
81 Oxford St
London W1D 2EU
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 203 1670545
Email: info@stellardatarecovery.co.uk

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