For all those considering buildin a vanilla hard drive, I have been
recommending (in my online articles and posts on a variety of services)
Hard Drives International, a company from which I have purchased several
hard drives during the past year and a half.  I have been getting some
pretty negative feedback from folks who have ordered from HDI recently
and I want to relate my recent experiences.
     The last time I ordered a drive, I was told that it was indeed in
stock and would be shipped "immediately" (next day) for receipt within
"5 business days".  After nearly two weeks with no drive showing up, I
called HDI and was told that "that drive has been on back-order for 3
weeks now" meaning they had it on back-order when I placed my order.
Three more weeks later, I finally received it.
     Two weeks ago, I ordered another hard drive from HDI, was told it
was in stock, would be shipped "immediately" and that I should have it
"within 5 business days", meaning this past Wednesday at the latest.
Wednesday came but the drive didn't.  Thursday came but the drive didn't.
Thursday evening I placed a call to check the order status and was told
that their system crashed and they were in the process of restoring their
backup and thus couldn't tell me even if it had been shipped or not, let
alone when.  I called Friday, and spoke with no less than 4 people, spent
no less than 45 min of the phone, was asked to call my credit card vendor
and see if HDI had submitted the bill yet, received a call back from HDI
and then had to call HDI again - all this to determine my order was "lost
in our latest system crash".  Apparently they have these system crashes
frequently enough to refer to the last one as "our latest".  I explained
that I was relying on receiving the drive in time to complete a job this
weekend, and was "guaranteed" that they would ship it that day via FedEx
(my cost) for overnight delivery and receipt today.  No show.  I called
today and was again told "our system crashed and we can't check order
status".  I then proceeded to review my situation with them, and when I
threatened to cancel, they could suddenly check my order's status.  It was
NOT shipped as "guaranteed" yesterday, but I got that famous HDI guarantee
that it would be shipped today, via FedEx, for receipt on Monday.
     Thus, from my past two experiences with HDI, I can easily believe all the
negative feedback I have received about HDI.  I can no longer recommend them
in good faith, and publically advise all to consider taking their business
elsewhere (but NOT to Lyco o  r Treasure Chest).  I was willing to allow for
several errors, but HDI has been pushing it too much lately.  I have heard
quite a few stories about drives taking weeks and weeks to arrive (one or two
folks then wound up with the wrong drive after all that wait).

     My objectives in the vanilla hard drive and tape backup systems was to
help my fellow Apple // users gain reliable and inexpensive hardware while
enjoying themselves (nothing like building your own to get that great feeling
of satisfaction), and dealing with an unreliable vendor is NOT fun.  HDI was
NEVER the rock-bottom-priced distributor that some folks seek, but they came
close on price and they were highly reliable and quite timely in filling
orders.  That apparently has changed.  There are only so many "honest  
errors" one can make before you cross the line into "incompetent".

     To those who took my advice and ordered from HDI only to have some
hassles, I offer my sincere apologies - my recommendations were made with the
best of intentions, I assure you.