HDD warranty lengths quietly dropped, be careful when buying

[Socks]

Normally I buy the biggest cheapest HDDs I can find, because for my purposes they're all pretty similar.

I've had 2 fail on me in the last 2 weeks though, both still under warranty, both Seagates.

So I looked at new ones, and I clicked warranty which I normally don't do, and it says ONE year.. wtf?!

I called the store and he said Seagate just did this very recently, and other companies may follow soon, because if they can get away with it why not.

I see a deal on today for a 2TB Seagate on sale for $109, 7200rpm with a 5 year warranty still, so I think I'm gonna go get a few.

[AdultEUhost]

always get WD Black or the enterprise series from Seagate or WD

[WarChild]

There's a reason they did this.

It used to be that enterprise series harddrives and standard consumer models both had the exact same warranty period. Consumer models are not meant to be used 24/7 in high data access enviroments. The enterprise series stuff is much more expensive but since the same warranty was available on the much cheapter consumer models, many companies would just buy the cheaper models and then warranty them when they failed.

You'll notice the warranty period remains the original length on the enterprise series models.

[bronco67]

Buy Hitachi and you'll be all set.

[raymor]

Originally Posted by bronco67

Buy Hitachi and you'll be all set.

We've RMAed fewer Hitchachis than the other brands. Studies say it really depends on the model, though. All manufacturers have reliable models and unreliable models.

[Grapesoda]

Originally Posted by Socks

Normally I buy the biggest cheapest HDDs I can find, because for my purposes they're all pretty similar.

I've had 2 fail on me in the last 2 weeks though, both still under warranty, both Seagates.

So I looked at new ones, and I clicked warranty which I normally don't do, and it says ONE year.. wtf?!

I called the store and he said Seagate just did this very recently, and other companies may follow soon, because if they can get away with it why not.

I see a deal on today for a 2TB Seagate on sale for $109, 7200rpm with a 5 year warranty still, so I think I'm gonna go get a few.

had several seagates fail on me

[Brent 3dSexCash]

Originally Posted by bronco67

Buy Hitachi and you'll be all set.

Can't go wrong with a Deskstar

[iwantchixx]

A hard drive is a hard drive, they all last just as long if cooled properly

Up here most are 1 year, has been for ages, The odd few that are more were the higher end lacies, hp pocket drives etc that advertised the 3 and 5 year warranties. That's why i always bought extended warranty for 5 years anyways just in case. I only ever had to replace 1 hard drive.

[InfoGuy]

Originally Posted by Socks

I've had 2 fail on me in the last 2 weeks though, both still under warranty, both Seagates. ... I see a deal on today for a 2TB Seagate on sale for $109, 7200rpm with a 5 year warranty still, so I think I'm gonna go get a few.

You're a sucker for punishment. Why would you buy more Seagate HDDs if you just had 2 fail in the last 2 weeks? Seagate HDDs are total shit. Spend the extra money, get peace of mind and go with Western Digital Black.

[woj]

so how does the warranty work anyway? you ship it to the manufacturer and they send you back a new drive?

[ner0]

Yeah stay away from Seagate. I've had problems with them as well as friends. Go with what everyone is saying, WD black drives. Samsung drives are popular too

[bronco67]

Have you ever seen how a hard drive actually works? With all of the crazy mechanical shit going on inside, I'm surprised they don't fly apart after a day of hard use.

[anexsia]

Seagate used to be great and I believe they used to offer a 5 year warranty on all their drives as well...they went down the crapper though. I've been using WD harddrives for the past few years and haven't had one fail yet, I usually pick up the Caviar Blacks. If there's a good deal on harddrives though I will pick them up, I bought a bunch of cheap ones awhile back and they're still ticking.

[Socks]

I bought Seagate drives because they've been reliable for me over the years, and had a longer warranty than other brands. Just never had one die on me. Which company is good is cyclical. I remember the WD Fireballs were great drives way back, then Barracuda SCSI drives, and they've gone back and forth.

My luck has been so incredible that having two die on me now is just, well, I was due!

Their return process is great too. They have a 2 day advanced return if you pay $10. For that, they send you a replacement drive in advance within 2 days, and a pre-paid return shipping label. Also they only accept drives back that have been properly packaged, so the box they send you the replacement drive in has plastic inserts, a magnetic bag and is the right size etc.. So you just open it, take out the new drive, put your dead drive back in, put the sticker over the old one and send it out. Sending it back would cost a few bucks anyways, so it's a really convenient service.

Only problem is they send you back repaired / refurb drives, which all manufacturer's do.

Anyways when I went to the store today, I had the manager look into what the actual warranty was, and it wasn't 5 years as they advertised but 2 years.. He said it was a "misprint" which is covered by their TOS, and since it's a manufacturer's warranty I really didn't have much to argue.. So I just didn't buy any new drives. At $109 for 7200 rpm drives at 5 years I would have bought a bunch. Too bad! The WD Blacks with 5 year warranty same specs are $199 each.

[Socks]

Originally Posted by raymor

We've RMAed fewer Hitchachis than the other brands. Studies say it really depends on the model, though. All manufacturers have reliable models and unreliable models.

I own a bunch of Hitachi's and they have 3 year warranties at good prices, so I'll be getting more of those likely in the future.

[Paul&John]

I'm glad that we have a mandatory 2 year warranty for everything in eu..

[raymor]

Originally Posted by woj

so how does the warranty work anyway? you ship it to the manufacturer and they send you back a new drive?

Yep. They like you to first test it with their utility or similar, then they give you an RMA number and you send it back. Turn around has been pretty quick when we've done it.

Though about half of all drives sent back to manufacturers test perfectly fine (loose cable?), they've never given us a hassle. I do tell them what test I ran when I request an RMA so they know it really is a bad drive.

[Lykos]

$109 bucks ???
Jesus that's cheap, they are 165 euros here, the internal ones. External are 200+ euros ....

[Houdini]

FYI, if you have an American Express card, they add a 1 year warranty to any product that has a U.S. warranty of 5 years or less.

[Why]

this didnt just happen, consumer level hard drives have only had one year warrantees for almost a decade i would guess. only enterprise level drives have 3 and 5 years, but you will pay for it.

that being said, buy enterprise

[shake]

WD Black is the way to go, sometimes for not too bad a price either.

[Why]

Originally Posted by woj

so how does the warranty work anyway? you ship it to the manufacturer and they send you back a new drive?

they send you a remanufactured drive. Think replacement, not new.

[WiredGuy]

If you've had 2 Seagate HD's fail on you in 2 weeks, why on earth would you buy more? That would be a sign to start buying a different brand to me.
WG

[InfoGuy]

HDD prices are inflated now due to the floods in Thailand last year that disrupted a significant amount of HDD production. Prices are expected to go back down to normal levels by Summer 2012, so there's no reason to stock up on HDDs now.

[CurrentlySober]

I cant afford a HHD...

I write everything down on paper, then type it back in, after I've rebooted my pc... Just like 'BASIC' in the old days...

Good Times !!!

[V_RocKs]

Originally Posted by Socks

Normally I buy the biggest cheapest HDDs I can find, because for my purposes they're all pretty similar.

I've had 2 fail on me in the last 2 weeks though, both still under warranty, both Seagates.

So I looked at new ones, and I clicked warranty which I normally don't do, and it says ONE year.. wtf?!

I called the store and he said Seagate just did this very recently, and other companies may follow soon, because if they can get away with it why not.

I see a deal on today for a 2TB Seagate on sale for $109, 7200rpm with a 5 year warranty still, so I think I'm gonna go get a few.

FUCK! got a link?

[suesheboy]

Why isn't anyone using SSD drives. I have to assume much fewer failures and lower power and heat exchange

[AdultEUhost]

Originally Posted by suesheboy

Why isn't anyone using SSD drives. I have to assume much fewer failures and lower power and heat exchange

uhm capacity vs pricing maybe?

[Socks]

V_Rocks it was a 1 day sale. For whatever reason (competition) our computer prices are better than yours. It's like the only thing that's cheaper, but it's cheaper usually.

See http://www.canadacomputers.com or http://www.tigerdirect.ca

I use SSD as my OS drive, but I have a silly amount of terabytes on HDD's, obviously SSD isn't going to help me there.

[Socks]

Originally Posted by WiredGuy

If you've had 2 Seagate HD's fail on you in 2 weeks, why on earth would you buy more? That would be a sign to start buying a different brand to me.
WG

You'd think right, but these things aren't supposed to last forever. Seagate has served me well.. But now I'll just go with price/warranty. All HD's die, all brands.. Unless there's news of massive problems, have to figure they're all within 1% of each other failure rate wise.

[Socks]

http://static.googleusercontent.com/...k_failures.pdf