Windows 7: Western Digital Cuts Hard Drive Warranties – Seagate Follows Suit

Read more at:
Maximum PC | Western Digital Cuts Hard Drive Warranties

That's sad knowing that hard drives can be quite unpredictable.

Well this is horrible, seems these industries can care less about their consumer base these days.

Make them cheaper, die sooner, sell more and make more money. American automobile industry business model.

Its only on some models. WD will still have 5 yr on the Black and enterprise models. Seagate will also still have 5 yr on some models. I have not seen any direct information from WD or Seagate as to the exact changes but need to check their sites and see what can be found. I did read some were that Seagate would have a different warranty period for "retail drives" and "bulk drives" like they and WD had years ago. The retail drives are the ones in the fancy box and you usually find in a retail shop. The bulk drive are the ones is a plain box and found online and usually cheaper. Will have to see after Jan 1 and see how this shakes out. As a consumer we will really have to watch what we buy and from whom. Here is a link to WD current policy. Will have to check after Jan 1 and see what changes.

WD Support / Warranty Services / End User / Worldwide Warranty Policy and Limitations

Jim

For some reason this quote popped into my head:

"Live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse"

I wonder if that warranty data is the most current, because it conflicts with the info in the Maximum PC article on the length of the Caviar Blacks? It is times of shortages that changes like this seem to occur. I wonder if it will remain the same when the supply returns to normal?

EDIT: I think that you may be right about needing to check back after the first of the year, because I had missed the part about the delayed changes. But I didn't see anything on their warranty page that seemed to specifically say that Black and Enterprise drives would remain as they have been.

Realistically, most people do not typically use their HD more than 3 years. Most of the time, they upgrade to a larger HD. Perhaps this change in warranty is more in line with the direction of SSD hard drives where most people are now heading towards.

At least drives purchased prior to 2012 seem subject to the warranty terms at the date purchased.
The build quality must be such that the manufacturers feel their drives may normally fail after 12 months! WD appear to be acquiring Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Does that leave Samsung?

my latest WD died just 20 days out of warranty!!!!
I'm not wasting any more money on them that's for sure

-DG