3 years is just too long for WD

[Adcadet]

"In the near future we will be unveiling an extended warranty offering with special pricing."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/15/wd_warranty_period_cuts/

 

[time]

Been there, done that.

That's what you get with a duopoly, a nice f**k-you from WD.

 

[Mercutio]

One wonders how that will impact what are currently Hitachi products.

 

[Adcadet]

I really like the bit about how there will be a time with product out out there with 2- and 3-year warranties mixed together. Great for the consumer. This duopoly business is great. I only wish they could take it two steps further to first give us Westerngate and then Microwesterngate. Would really avoid terrorism (software piracy) if all drives came pre-installed with a legit (read: already paid the MS tax) copy of Windows that you couldn't erase.

 

[BingBangBop]

As far as I can tell, HD manufacturers don't want to supply any warranty other than paid 3rd party warranty's. From my experience, recent HD's, regardless of manufacturer, are not reliable period. From their point of view any warranty, even a short one, is simply an insurance policy that costs them money. So, if they can transfer that cost to the consumer then that is a good thing. The consumer looks at that as bad but the less competition between manufacturers means the less they need to bother with consumer expectations.

 

[Adcadet]

The move from 5 year to 3 year warranties didn't piss me off that much; rarely have I used hard drives for >3 years anyway. But I fear with a short warranty period, there will be little incentive to build reliable drives.

 

[Mercutio]

From my experience, recent HD's, regardless of manufacturer, are not reliable

Recent-ish drives I know to be reliable:
Samsung drives
1.5TB 7200 RPM Seagate Barracuda 7200.11*
2 & 3TB 5400 RPM Hitachi Deskstar

Drives I know to not be reliable
Any Seagate or Western Digital "green" drive.
In fact, every 3.5" Seagate drive that isn't a 1.5TB 7200.11
Every WD drive ever made in the history of time.
1 & 2TB 7200 RPM Hitachi Deskstars



* The 7200.11 is the same drive that had the data loss firmware issues a couple years ago. They got as cheap as $60 and they behave properly in RAID arrays and external enclosures. I suspect they benefited from some extra scrutiny after the firmware fiasco.

 

[BingBangBop]

I've tried the Seagate 1.5TB 7200.11. It took 2 returns to get one that lasted. The first, clicked every 3-5 seconds doing continuous resets. It's replacement (from the retailer) ran dangerously hot. I returned that one too and got a good one. I contend that 1 out of 3 is not reliable. Not a particularly big sample but it is my experience.

I have never tried the any of 5400 Hitachi for I've always heard that all modern Hitachi's run hot. I really don't like drives that tend to run hot for I don't like having to rely on a fans to keep them cool.

 

[Mercutio]

I didn't start buying them until November 2010, after a string of problems with 2TB 5400rpm drives. They were priced low enough that I could get a comparable amount of storage (4 1.5TB vs. 3 2TB) for the same amount of money. So far I haven't had any issues with them. Given my recent experiences with Seagate that's remarkable all by itself. I've probably bought 50 - 60 of them in the last year and personally use around a dozen of them.

I don't let drive heat bother me all that much. I had a 7200rpm Micropolis SCSI drive when I was in college that actually got hot enough to deform a telephone I set down on top of it for a day or so. Hot as it got, it was still working 12 years after I got it.

 

[Adcadet]

Yay! Now Seagate is doing even more cutting!

Effective December 31, 2011, Seagate will be changing its warranty policy from a 5 year to a 3 year warranty period for Nearline drives, 5 years to 1 year for certain Desktop and Notebook Bare Drives, 5 years to 3 years on Barracuda XT and Momentus XT, and from as much as 5 years to 2 years on Consumer Electronics.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/16/seagate_cutting_warranties/

 

[CougTek]

By aligning to current industry standards Seagate can continue to focus its investments on technology innovation and unique product features that drive value for our customers rather than holding long-term reserves for warranty returns.

Shit eaters! How about developping drives that last a reasonnable amout of time, ass holes. 1 year warranty for a hard drive is not a joke, it's an insult! I'm not happy of Western Digital's decision, but Seagate's move is even worse. No more fishy drives in my computers or those of my customers. Ever.

 

[CityK]

Yeah, pretty sad.

One of the things I get a chuckle out of the whole impact that the Thai floods have had on the HDD market is that I remember Mickey (WD) say, several years ago on SR, that they had a measure of redundancy built into their platter supply chain.

hehe -- looks like everyone's supply chain consisted of building manufacturing operations in Thailand and then, after that, in the next town over in Thailand

 

[Stereodude]

Who really cares? WD and Seagate are going to be the modern equivalent of the last two buggy whip makers.

 

[CougTek]

Try to assemble a decent computer with reasonnable storage capacity for 500$ and you'll see mecanical hard drives still are relevant. And no, 90GB isn't enough for a common user. Not to his eyes, at least, when the store next door proposes 500GB or 1TB at the same price.

 

[CougTek]

Oh and ask Merc how much it would cost him to put all his video collection on SSD.

 

[BingBangBop]

I have a buggy whip, it was given to me as a gift. So there must still be a market and a supplier somewhere.

It was given to me, so I could whip wild rug-rats back into line. Not an officially approved usage, but I assure you it does the job efficiently. Where yelling and authority may be ignored, they do pay attention when that whip is snapped.

 

[Bozo]

They still sell them in my neck of the woods.

 

[Stereodude]

Try to assemble a decent computer with reasonnable storage capacity for 500$ and you'll see mecanical hard drives still are relevant. And no, 90GB isn't enough for a common user. Not to his eyes, at least, when the store next door proposes 500GB or 1TB at the same price.

I didn't say mechanical drives weren't relevant today. I think the warranty isn't particularly relevant. My experience with modern drives is that they will either last nearly forever or die quickly. So, you buy a few spare for your RAID setup and don't worry about the warranty not being 5 years.

I do think that long term neither company is going to be relevant unless they start selling competitive SSDs though.

 

[Bozo]

Actually, the warranties will go back up after they are sure all the hard drives that are full of muddy water are out of warranty. :-D

 

[sdbardwick]

The limited retention times of flash will keep HDD makers relevant for longer than most expect.
Not to mention Seagate/WDC's inevitable promotion of their own data recovery services (or acquisition of the independents); it wouldn't surprise me if they make it extraordinarily difficult for 3rd party recovery firms to function (say by [double] encrypting the data on the drive with the manufacturer's private keys, or by not sharing crucial information under the guise of trade secrets).

 

[sechs]

I feel like the spinning disk manufacturers are trying to put themselves out of business.

 

[LunarMist]

I didn't say mechanical drives weren't relevant today. I think the warranty isn't particularly relevant. My experience with modern drives is that they will either last nearly forever or die quickly. So, you buy a few spare for your RAID setup and don't worry about the warranty not being 5 years.

I do think that long term neither company is going to be relevant unless they start selling competitive SSDs though.

What percentage are the RAID drives? I suspect it is well under half. The companies buying drives in volume like Dell, HP, Lendovo, etc. want drives that die after the computer warranty expires and most of those are only one year.

 

[CougTek]

I've just realized that WD's Scorpio Black 500GB (WD5000BPKT) is only ~10$ more than the desktop Caviar Blue of a similar capacity, but it carries a 5-years warranty instead of only two. IMO, it's worth the additional 10$. The performances of both drives should be comparable.

 

[LunarMist]

Really? I thought that the notebook drives were always significantly slower due to the smaller diameter platters, longer access times, and smaller butter.

 

[CougTek]

Really? I thought that the notebook drives were always significantly slower due to the smaller diameter platters, longer access times, and smaller butter.

Well, of course they don't need to put as much butter to grease the bearing since the actuator is smaller in a 2.5" drive. I'd never have guessed that's what they meant by organic bearing oil.

 

[LunarMist]

The cache buffer. The Android does strange things.