Another way to look at it is they potentially found an inexpensive form of credit. They save money now and might have to repay it back later -- the interesting

Another way to look at it is they potentially found an inexpensive form of credit. They save money now and might have to repay it back later -- the interesting question will be how much "credit" they'll have to "repay" because of a higher failure rate. I hope they're keeping some basic metadata about the shucked drives, so they can compile some statistics for us. It would be fascinating to see what the lifespan of these drives will be over the next few years!