# Hard Drive Manufacturers Slash Warranty Periods



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

From PC World:

*Hard Drive Manufacturers Slash Warranty Periods*


> Seagate and Western Digital are cutting back on hard drive warranties, in some instances from five years to one, in order to save money or redirect it to product development.
> 
> Seagate's warranties on certain drives will be reduced as of Dec. 31, and WD will follow beginning Jan. 2. All drives shipped prior to those dates will continue to carry the current warranty term associated with the products.


FULL ARTICLE HERE


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Not to defend them, but most of the drive failures I've had happen in the first year, actually usually in first 90 days.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

There is well known curve of failures for many electronics device - 'bed' curve. Like /\__________________/\___

So, if the companies cut second peak of failures, then we will have mass complain after year or two of using the drives. 
Following latest technology it seems they begin treat their drives as short living goods, like TV, DVR, etc.


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

We have had it pretty nice for many years with one of the pieces of equipment that truly does "wear out" in computers.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

We're not there yet, but solid state is certainly improving, prices coming down. Capacities will increase, prices continue to drop.


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

One suspected hard drive failure in over 20 years using PC's. Computer just wouldn't boot anymore and I gave up without investigating further. First PC in 1984 doesn't count; it only had two floppy drives.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Ive had one "off brand" hard drive failure since I got my first 10MB hard drive (yep, 10MB).
I find I replace them with bigger drives before I ever give them a chance to fail.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

In the last decade I have had an OS-version-upgrade-related-computer design failure - slow processor, not enough RAM, hard drive too small - before a hard drive failed. I did have a motherboard failure once.

On the other hand, my paranoia kicks in when I realize that this coincides with probable manufacturing changes resulting from the Thailand flooding.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

phrelin said:


> On the other hand, my paranoia kicks in when I realize that this coincides with probable manufacturing changes resulting from the Thailand flooding.


I was thinking the same thing, and there is no way it is a coincidence.

However, I don't think it has to do with them predicting their is going to be more failures... but that they have to recover their losses from the flood, and this is one of the areas to trim.

5 years is great, 3 years was okay... 1 year... probably wont' be RMAing too many hard drives anymore.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Well, in all fairness, when you're getting a 2 or 3 TB internal HDD for $100 or so (they're coming back down), does it really make sense to deal with shipping back and forth plus the costs of labor for handling in-house? Aren't they pretty much throw-aways at that price-point? They don't cover data anyways.


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