Storage Effect

Custom-built PCs are big in China

In China there are over 200 million internet users and the number is growing fast.  Those that can afford their own PC usually go to a PC mall to get it, or to build their own. 

There are 15 PC malls in Shanghai. I visited 2 sprawling malls last week and talked to Cheng Yue Fang, owner of seven “DIY” (Do It Yourself) PC shops in the Shanghai area.  Her customers usually take 10-20 minutes to select component options from a printed “menu” for their build-while-you-wait computers.  It takes about 30 minutes to build the PC. 

She says two thirds of customers pretty much know what they want.  They often come in requesting the lowest price disk drive.  She recommends Seagate drives for their 5-year warranty. About half choose price, half choose the warranty. 

Even in this price-sensitive market, reliability matters when it comes where people keep their content!

If you’re up to literally doing it yourself, there are scores of component shops shoulder to shoulder in these malls, ready to give you a deal.  As you can imagine, the competition is fierce!

I haven’t been able to post from China - looks like WordPress is blocked there.  I don’t know if it’s because of the Katrina-esque storms and travel issues, or business as usual.

Anyway, I’m in Japan now. I’ll post on technology in Shanghai shortly. 

The weather had my colleagues in Shanghai reeling, and many were sad because their New Year’s celebrations wouldn’t be including their family members stuck throughout China.

Life went on anyway - in Shanghai at least - despite traffic hassles and buildings not designed to stay warm in the coldest weather in 50 years.

Iomega announced plans to acquire ExcelStor Group, a Chinese HDD and storage manufacturer.   

Limited number of drives infected, free virus software available

As you may have heard, some of our Maxtor Personal Storage PS3200 drives were infected with a virus before they shipped. Here are some facts:

• A small number drives were infected (I don’t know the number) by a Chinese sub-contractor.
•  The Taiwan investigative bureau’s claim that the virus sent all user data to Chines authorities was false, and Seagate has asked them to correct that misinformation.
• All the drives still in the factory and inventory have been reworked and are free of the virus.
• We’re providing a free 60-day version of Kaspersky Lab 7.0 to those who bought a drive that may have been infected.
• The virus is the Virus.Win32.AutoRun.ah, a molar virus that searches for passwords to online games and gaming websites and sends them to a server located in China. It also deletes other molar viruses and can disable virus detection software.
• It affects the following games and gaming sites (all Chinese except World of Warcraft):

WSGame, 91.com, QQ, Woool, rxjh.17game.com, TianLongBaBu, AskTao, Perfect World (Wanmei Shijie), World of Warcraft

• The drives were infected accidentally; it was not malicious.
• The manufacturing process has been changed so that every drive is scanned for viruses before being shipped.
• Maxtor products are manufactured by Seagate, which bought Maxtor about a year and a half ago.

This was an unfortunate, accidental event.  I’m relieved at least that it was limited in scope, and that we at Seagate seem to be learning from it.