Hard Disk with a 3yr Warranty?

Hitachi offer 3yrs warrenty on drives over 80Gb
"*** JD" wrote in message
...
Can anyone let me know which Manufacturers offer 3yr warrantys on Hard
Disks, as my Maxtor is failing & it is only a 1yr warranty (run out
6months ago!!)

Thanks in advance

MCheu wrote in message . ..

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 15:45:59 +0100, "*** JD"
wrote:

Can anyone let me know which Manufacturers offer 3yr
warrantys on Hard Disks,

Only two that I'm aware of -- at least at the consumer level.

Seagate. Recently upped their warranty to 5 years, however, the drive
has to have been made after the date they made that announcement.
According to one store, the ones with a manufacture date code before
then aren't covered. They still have the old 1 year. Trouble is,
nobody seems to know when exactly the cut off date was

Seagate's press release (button on the right of their home page,
www.seagate.com), http://www.barracudadrives.com/warra...ss-release.pdf
,
says the 5-year warranty applies to all internal drives shipped since
July 26, 2004. Unfortunately many of the retail boxes are still
mislabelled, so the only way to verify the warranty is by entering the
serial number (visible on outside) at www.seagate.com. Some boxes
have a red round sticker saying "5-year warranty", but I didn't find
any 160GB boxes that did, although the serial numbers I checked showed
expiration dates in 2009.

WD. They've got 3 year warranties on all their "special edition" (8MB
cache) drives. The regular drives with only 2 MB cache still only
have 1 year warranty.

Last week, Fry's Electronics had an 80GB w/ 8MB cache "JB" series
drive (anodized grey top, possibly fluid bearing) with only a 1-year
warranty, just like the silver-topped, ball-bearing version I bought
last Feb. from OfficeMax. But WD upgraded its warranty for free to
three years over the phone, although I believe that this was a rare
exception, possibly caused by a misprint in an ad.

Hitachi (previously IBM Deskstar) is a 1 year warranty.

A few months ago I bought a 200GB Hitachi w/ 8M cache and a 3-year
warranty (mentioned on box), and Hitachi says that all 8M cache
Deskstars are warranted for three years. Hitachi was also fast with
the rebate, just six weeks.

"*** JD" wrote in message ...

Can anyone let me know which Manufacturers offer 3yr
warrantys on Hard Disks, as my Maxtor is failing & it
is only a 1yr warranty (run out 6months ago!!)

Did you pay for it with an American Express or gold or platinum
Mastercard or Visa? If so, then you probably have an extra year's
worth of coverage tacked on to the standard 1-year warranty (MC does
this only for 1-year or shorter warranties, Visa for = 3-year, and
Amex for = 5-year).

Hitachi drives with 8MB buffers are covered for three years, but
Seagate internals shipped since July 26, 2004 are covered for five
year (must check serial number on box at www.seagate.com to verify
because many boxes are labelled wrong).

www.salescircular.com lists local store deals on computers and
electronics, but they usually miss Fry's specials, and Fry's often has
the best specials. You can get an idea of their offers by checking
the computers & electronics ads at http://newspaperads.dfw.com (prices
often vary slightly by location0. There are also discussions of these
deals in the Hot Deals forums at http://forums.anandtech.com and
www.fatwallet.com . Fry's is also www.outpost.com and often has the
same offers, including rebates, although you have to pay for shipping.
This week, the cheapest deal seems to be a $35, after rebate, 80GB WD
or a $60, after rebate, 120GB (Maxtor?).

To make a drive last longer, blow air over its electronics or mount
the drive vertically so that natural air flow will cool the chips.
Maxtors have several teeny chips that drive the motor and heads and
run really hot, but any air flow at all cools them like 10-20C.

*** JD wrote:

Can anyone let me know which Manufacturers offer 3yr warrantys on Hard
Disks, as my Maxtor is failing & it is only a 1yr warranty (run out
6months ago!!)

Thanks in advance

Why so much concern about a warranty for a thing that, relative to its
utility, is dirt cheap and rarely fails? Especially when the worst
consequence of hard drive failure -- loss of data -- is not covered by
that warranty?

"larrymoencurly" wrote in message
om...
MCheu wrote in message
. ..

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 15:45:59 +0100, "*** JD"
wrote:

Can anyone let me know which Manufacturers offer 3yr
warrantys on Hard Disks,

Only two that I'm aware of -- at least at the consumer level.

Seagate. Recently upped their warranty to 5 years, however, the drive
has to have been made after the date they made that announcement.
According to one store, the ones with a manufacture date code before
then aren't covered. They still have the old 1 year. Trouble is,
nobody seems to know when exactly the cut off date was

Seagate's press release (button on the right of their home page,
www.seagate.com),
http://www.barracudadrives.com/warra...ss-release.pdf
,
says the 5-year warranty applies to all internal drives shipped since
July 26, 2004.

Actually it says:
"The new warranty applies retroactively to applicable hard drives shipped
since June 1, 2004."

Note the word 'shipped'.

Unfortunately many of the retail boxes are still
mislabelled, so the only way to verify the warranty

Nope, the way to verify the warranty is with the date on the sales receipt.
Box labeling has nothing to do with it.

"SgtMinor" wrote in message
. ..
*** JD wrote:

Can anyone let me know which Manufacturers offer 3yr warrantys on Hard
Disks, as my Maxtor is failing & it is only a 1yr warranty (run out
6months ago!!)

Thanks in advance

Why so much concern about a warranty for a thing that, relative to its
utility, is dirt cheap and rarely fails? Especially when the worst
consequence of hard drive failure -- loss of data -- is not covered by
that warranty?

As i've backed up the drive there will be no data loss, however the hdd will
fail eventually (probably soon), so i'd obviously need it replaced as my
other hdd is only a 10Gb hdd - and that doesnt store much after the windows
installation & all the programs.
However, i do see your point.

Howdy!

"MCheu" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 15:45:59 +0100, "*** JD"
wrote:

Can anyone let me know which Manufacturers offer 3yr warrantys on Hard
Disks, as my Maxtor is failing & it is only a 1yr warranty (run out
6months ago!!)

Thanks in advance


Only two that I'm aware of -- at least at the consumer level.

Seagate. Recently upped their warranty to 5 years, however, the drive
has to have been made after the date they made that announcement.
According to one store, the ones with a manufacture date code before
then aren't covered. They still have the old 1 year. Trouble is,
nobody seems to know when exactly the cut off date was, and I haven't
been able to figure out their date coding system.

Drives SHIPPED after 1 June 2004, according to the press release at
http://www.seagate.com/cda/newsinfo/...3,2291,00.html
...

And why bother? Go to their web site and check the warranty status
if you're in a store. Or have the store check and print the page.

No huhu.


WD. They've got 3 year warranties on all their "special edition" (8MB
cache) drives. The regular drives with only 2 MB cache still only
have 1 year warranty.

You might want to refresh on this also. Retail boxed 8MB cache
models that are new are also 1 year, according to
http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp .


Maxtor still has a 1 year warranty on their drives across the board --
at least on consumer drives. Their Industrial hard drives apparently
have a 3 year warranty. Aside from price and warranty, I've no idea
what the difference is.

That's about it.


Hitachi (previously IBM Deskstar) is a 1 year warranty.

8MB cache units are 3year.

RwP

"larrymoencurly" wrote in message

Seagate internals shipped since July 26, 2004 are covered for five
year (must check serial number on box at www.seagate.com to verify
because many boxes are labelled wrong).

Serial number has nothing to do with it. It's purely based on ship date and
that date boundary is on or after is Jun 1, 2004 gets 5 years warranty.

To make a drive last longer, blow air over its electronics or mount
the drive vertically so that natural air flow will cool the chips.
Maxtors have several teeny chips that drive the motor and heads and
run really hot, but any air flow at all cools them like 10-20C.

Cool the entire drive as long drive life is highly temp dependent until 35C
and under is reached.

"Ron Reaugh" wrote in message
...

"larrymoencurly" wrote in message

Seagate internals shipped since July 26, 2004 are covered for five
year (must check serial number on box at www.seagate.com to verify
because many boxes are labelled wrong).

Serial number has nothing to do with it.

That is just stupid. Try and rma one without a serial number and see how far
you get.

It's purely based on ship date and
that date boundary is on or after is Jun 1, 2004 gets 5 years warranty.

To make a drive last longer, blow air over its electronics or mount
the drive vertically so that natural air flow will cool the chips.
Maxtors have several teeny chips that drive the motor and heads and
run really hot, but any air flow at all cools them like 10-20C.

Cool the entire drive as long drive life is highly temp dependent until
35C
and under is reached.

"ImhoTech" wrote in message
...

"Ron Reaugh" wrote in message
...

"larrymoencurly" wrote in message

Seagate internals shipped since July 26, 2004 are covered for five
year (must check serial number on box at www.seagate.com to verify
because many boxes are labelled wrong).

Serial number has nothing to do with it.

That is just stupid. Try and rma one without a serial number and see how
far
you get.

Clueless...the warranty length is the issue and the serial number does not
determine that but the ship date does!

It's purely based on ship date and
that date boundary is on or after is Jun 1, 2004 gets 5 years warranty.

To make a drive last longer, blow air over its electronics or mount
the drive vertically so that natural air flow will cool the chips.
Maxtors have several teeny chips that drive the motor and heads and
run really hot, but any air flow at all cools them like 10-20C.

Cool the entire drive as long drive life is highly temp dependent until
35C
and under is reached.