New Maxtor ATA Drives only 1 year warranty.

[Fred H]

well like i already said it's a law (edit: at least in germany, i just read other posts) and not voluntary it doesn't matter what they say

Germany =EU country = you buy for €, = 24 months warranty.
Sweden = EU country = we still buy for SKR = 12 months warranty. Voluntary up to 3 years, no law.
Is it an advantage of the Euro (€) ?
Should I vote for € next year?
No man, I won’t !

Fred H

[Marshmallowman]

if any thing in your computer has to be reliable it has to be your Harddrive FFS.

The most important thing on any computer is the information,data & software. Hdd manufacturers better realise that, or a few more may end up being sued.

I am not going to buy a Harddrive with less than 3 years...

I want 2 years at least of active life, plus at least 1 year margin for error.

Just say NO to low warranty on HDD"s, it will screw you in the end.

PS do good scsi drives still get 5 years warranty

[Fred H]

I am not going to buy a Harddrive with less than 3 years...

Agree. 100% right.
But, the dealer follows the manufacturers 1 years warranty.
I have the choice to buy or not to buy HD with 1-year warranty.
I’ll correct my post above: the general warranty law is 24 months in Sweden, but there are exceptions, like some computer parts, if the dealer tells about it in their announcement.
How could we change it?

Fred H

[Jammrock]

Any HDD maker with only a 1 year warranty scares me. I've had tons of clients have lots of problems with Maxtor drives. Definately on my crap list now.

Jammrock

[DirtFarmer]

Maybe it's time the IDE HD manufacturers offer some extended warranty plan. The cheap buggers can buy it for rock bottom prices and get the standard warranty those with concerns can pay the extra.

As the drives get faster and bigger the reliability seems to be dropping off. Who's fault is that? The cheap consumers who want the biggest/fastest/cheapest drives.

All the IDE drive manufacturers are having a tough go. Hell, there aren't many options out there anymore.

If a person was around the computer business long enough, held a grudge against a manufacturer who had a bad model run on HD's, they would all be on the "crap" list now.

If the reliability/quality/warranty of SCSI drives is superior to IDE then it might be time to get the credit card out and switch to SCSI. I fear the competitiveness in SCSI may eventually drive the profitibility down to the point that the warranties will decrease there also.

Just my $0.02 Canadian.

[Wombat]

I wonder what Best Buy will do, with that crappy warranty they always try to push.

[GT98]

Damn that is pretty idiotic....most people I know keep a computer for at least 2 years before worrying about upgrading it and with my luck with hard drives I've had, most of them crap out within 2-3 years anyway. I would much rather have a 2 year warrenty to cover my ass till I upgrade again.

[KvHagedorn]

The drives I depend on are all SCSI. I have a couple of computers with Seagate Barracuda ATAs in them though. As much as I like Seagate, I would start worrying about them if they lowered the warranty from three years for any reason. I would not buy any drive with under a three year warranty. There always needs to be a higher end choice.. server admins would not accept such crap under any conditions, so we may all be stuck with a choice between el cheapo crap or expensive SCSI drives.. as long as there are enough young/inexperieneced people who can't/wont spend the bucks and are too unwise and shortsighted to think about warranties, the competition will continue to drive quality down.

[az]

Well, many, many people are buying OEM drives anyhow, for which you have no manufacturer warranty whatsoever, and only 6 months from the dealer in germany (until this year, where the dealer has to give 24 months), so it's not THAT big a deal. Shows the manufacturers' confidence into their own parts though...

AZ

[Fred H]

Talk, talk, and talk...
But what should we do?
Not buying a 1-year warranty HD just makes the dealers laughing.
They CAN sell drives with 1-year of warranty. Who is the loser?
Again: what can WE do?

On the other side, I've heard that one has sent 2 defective IBM HD (IBM again) for warranty-repair to Holland and the drives came after, more than 4 or 5 months of waiting.
Who is the loser?
A 2 or 3 years of warranty is not a guarantee for higher quality and more safe storage. Warranty covers only the HW not the data lost.
IMHO, a longer warranty doesn't make that the HD keep a higher quality. They, technically can’t do that for that price. But, of course, we will longer warranty for HDs!!!

Fred H

[Wombat]

A 2 or 3 years of warranty is not a guarantee for higher quality and more safe storage. Warranty covers only the HW not the data lost.
IMHO, a longer warranty doesn't make that the HD keep a higher quality.

I disagree. My data is worthless to the company, but having to take the time to replace my defective hardware is a significant expense to them. If they decide that the extra expense of replacing those drives in year 2 & 3 is so high, then they think the drive is more likely to fail. That tells me the customer not to trust my data to that company.

[KeiFront]

Originally posted by Fred H
On the other side, I've heard that one has sent 2 defective IBM HD (IBM again) for warranty-repair to Holland and the drives came after, more than 4 or 5 months of waiting.

Wow glad that I already got my replacement (my GXP 60 died this week) I just returned it to the shop and I got a replacement within 5 minutes, altough a refurbished one .

[Fred H]

KeiFront
Lucky you
It denotes how bad IBM drives are.
I can't replace my, with "only" 3-4 MB bad sectors. The warranty doesn't cover such errors I tried. And the 1 year warranty went out in AUG.
The solution (for me) is to frequently Ghost this HD.
Fred H