Hard drive prices shot up?

Question

I am looking into building a new computer again and I have just noticed that prices on Hard drives shot up drastically.
The last drive that I purchased was $60 for 1TB now that same drive is $150
What was the reasoning behind this? when will they be coming back down in prices?
Any other information you need/want to provide?

Thanks for any help provided.

Answer 1

Updated********

Thanks for the extra info, however I hadn't seen todays news until now....Have just seen an article on PC Advisor about HDD prices increasing due to flooding in Thailand [as i mentioned below they are a key country for HDD components] Article is here: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/desktop-pc/3318019/hard-drive-shortages-will-result-in-more-expensive-pcs-says-gartner/?cmpid=HTML-DN141111&olo=daily%20news



I imagine this could be the culprit and have just seen another answer to this question quoting a different but similar article



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Don't know what models or sites you are looking at [obviously would have helped to give this info] but currently [[in 2011] traditional hard drives with platters for both laptops and desktops are at the lowest price per GB that they have ever been!

I suppose there could be problems or shortages of certain drives/particular models that might drive up the prices or maybe a key manufacturer has production problems [Korea and Thailand make many HDD's and components]. These types of things are normally short lived, give it a few weeks or shop around a few different suppliers

Answer 2

There was a huge flood in Thailand that has pretty much shut down production. So in the laws of supply and demand the prices have gone up as demand has remained the same but supply has been cut short. Check out this link for more information

http://www.maximumpc.com/search/Hard%20Drive%20Thailand



Thanks.

Answer 3

Inflation.

Answer 4

The reason is the hard drives you see are not the same as they were before. The ones you saw last were Sata 2 hard drives. The ones you see on there now with the higher prices are Sata 3. Faster and newer drives, so more expensive. That is why.