Hard Drive warranties

[Andrew1990]

Ok I have been buying some OEM drives lately and it seems when I receive them the warranty is not valid, but after about a week or so they will have a 3-5 year warranty left.

Do the Sellers such as newegg and amazon contact the HDD makers to activate the warranty or is it something else?

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

It's proabably based on MFG date and a buffer for them to get through the chain and the warranty starts automatically.

 

[RebateMonger]

I've never heard of this effect. I do know of at least one recent instance where a HD maker mistakenly listed a bunch of Newegg OEM drives as ineligible for warranty and quickly corrected it when buyers complained.

 

[Jumpem]

HDD warranties are worthless to me. I would never send a drive back for replacement (well unless it was brand new with no data on it).

 

[faxon]

Originally posted by: Jumpem
HDD warranties are worthless to me. I would never send a drive back for replacement (well unless it was brand new with no data on it).

you obviously dont run RAID backups. if 1 drive in a raid backup array dies, you simply replace it and RMA the old one if it's under warranty. chances are if your drives are dying out of warranty it wont matter anyway since those drives are probably in need of an upgrade anyway.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: Jumpem
HDD warranties are worthless to me. I would never send a drive back for replacement (well unless it was brand new with no data on it).

This is why encryption is important. If you don't want someone to see what you have, encrypt it. What happens if someone steals your computer?

I'll send a drive back in a heart beat. I paid for a product and if it has a 5 year warranty I expect it to last that long, and I will make the company honor that commitment.

 

[Jumpem]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
This is why encryption is important. If you don't want someone to see what you have, encrypt it. What happens if someone steals your computer?

I'll send a drive back in a heart beat. I paid for a product and if it has a 5 year warranty I expect it to last that long, and I will make the company honor that commitment.

Do you encrypt via Windows Vista or some third party app?

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: faxon

Originally posted by: Jumpem
HDD warranties are worthless to me. I would never send a drive back for replacement (well unless it was brand new with no data on it).

you obviously dont run RAID backups. if 1 drive in a raid backup array dies, you simply replace it and RMA the old one if it's under warranty. chances are if your drives are dying out of warranty it wont matter anyway since those drives are probably in need of an upgrade anyway.

+1

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Jumpem
HDD warranties are worthless to me. I would never send a drive back for replacement (well unless it was brand new with no data on it).

Me, neither. I throw them away. To me, it's not worth the time and money required to RMA and ship the drive. It'll cost my clients more than the drive's worth, and I really don't want to put a "refurbished" hard drive into a computer that I care about.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: Andrew1990
Do the Sellers such as newegg and amazon contact the HDD makers to activate the warranty or is it something else?

The big distributors and resellers are connected to various distribution/inventory/fulfillment systems, yes. A few times per week or more, the serial numbers that were scanned and shipped get uploaded to the distributor and/or manufacturer's system.