I wouild like to register a complaint! Trays and screws

[Zebraitis]

To the Buffalo folks that may have influence and provide feedback to the engineers in Japan:

OLD:
The TS5800 trays had holes in the bottom of the tray to secure the SATA drive.   You could use ANY screws.

NOW:
The TS5810 has holes in the SIDE of the tray to secure the SATA drives.  Suddenly you MUST use Buffalo provided screws. 

Opinion:  Not a fan of this change.  It is customer unfriendly.

Why: 
*  I bought my TS5810 used.  It came with NO drive screws.

*  I looked at the hole design and saw the beveled hole on the side and lack of holes in the bottom.

* Looking at https://ew.buffalotech.com/collections/spare-parts/products/replacement-set-of-screws-for-hard-drive-trays by that time you add quantity 2 and shipping, you are at $18.98  (...not exactly a deal when you could have used almost any screw in the previous drive trays.)

* I tried an alternate supplier:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016OCJQBQ  ... their price: $5.90 for quantity 50.

*HOWEVER -- Your machining / design of the drive bay is SO tight that with the head of that screw barely protruding it would not fit into bays 1, 4, 5, 8   So, failure, of course.

BUT COMPARE:  I was able to reuse my trays from my old TS5800 with the screw on the bottom of the tray and they slid right into the TS5810 just like butter.


Result:  Looks like I will likely throw away those nicely numbered red graphic stickered trays that the marketing folks thought would look SO cool...   Harrumph!


MY TWO QUESTIONS:

1) Why would you make this type of change, from an easy retaining solution to one that is problematic?

2) Considering that small drive screws tend to run away on their own and disappear, and that an easy screw hole in the bottom of the tray is no longer available, why would you make replacements SO expensive?  Is this an intentional move?


Price comparison (quantity each):

Amazon special beveled screws for NAS trays:  US$0.12

Buffalo Terastation Hard Drive Tray screws:  US$0.593
.
Junk drawer screws that fit all old trays and any SATA drives:  US$0.00


Please let me be clear:  I am not attempting to say that you should be at Amazon's price...  I am saying that the change in design that actually made me SO irritated that I took the time to document this ... THAT CHANGE of the screw location (or not including a choice of having BOTH in that tray) is what was unnecessary and unwanted.

If someone at Buffalo would like to discuss this further, I would be glad to do so via DM.

[Kane88]

Thanks for the heads up on this.  I didn't look at my drives when I got my 5810.

Conversely, I am glad they made this change.  I will be able to put larger drives in my 5810 later, because the screws will actually line up correctly on the side.

With the older drive trays you're using now, the problem is some of them have SIX mounting holes on the bottom and some of them only have FOUR.  And the ones with only FOUR, the holes do not line up for larger helium filled drives.  You can only screw in 2 of the 4 screws needed.  Though it works, I'd be worried about vibration with 8 drives mounted only with two screws each.


My suggestion would be to look on ebay and see if you can find the right kind of screw. I bet they are out there- some where.

I have the reverse of this problem you're facing- but with M.2 screws.  It's amazing how many PCs won't come with M.2 slot screws, unless a drive is in the slot.  I picked up a 500 pack from ebay for under 2c per screw, and the heads on them are a little too small to where the M.2 drive needs to be like 1mm or less closer to the screw post, and so it is not 100% in the slot, more like 99.90% but it works.

Maybe take a size measurement of the gap in the side of the tray, and see what other screws are out there.


Maybe in quantity Buffalo could come down in price.  The problem is that shipping is through the roof with any carrier right now.  And small stuff shipped like this is with UPS is a deal breaker for those on a budget- for sure.

USPS should be cheaper for small stuff like this.  Maybe you can talk them into using USPS ground advantage or something cheaper.