There have been massive flooding in Thailand which in turn has shut down manufacturing plants for both Seagate and Western Digital, the two largest remaining hard drive manufacturers.

According to analysts, Seagate and Western Digital will likely try to supply their largest customers: the computer system manufacturers such as HP, Dell, etc.  They’ve also predicted that retail channels and end users will likely suffer the most.  Prices have already begun to sky rocket significantly.

The average price for a single 1.5GB 3.5″ hard drive has gone from roughly less than $100.00 up to $200+ dollars.  That is a significant jump in price!

What does that mean for our customers?  We just want to give our customers a heads up that with the price increases, you will likely be affected too.  Analyst’s also predict that production won’t get up to speed until sometime in mid to late 2012.

Another thing that we’ll all be watching out for is after production ramps back up to speed, will see see the prices drop back down to levels of pre-flooding or will the two manufacturer’s want to continue to reap the rewards of the high prices of their hard drives?