If you use computers long enough and often enough, you will eventually will have to
deal with a failed drive. It really is only a matter of time and luck.
When this occurs with a drive that is reasonably new, you'll want to have it repaired or
replaced under warranty. Unfortunately, most people couldn't tell you anything about their
hard disk's warranty other than its length--and in some
cases they later find out that they were mistaken about even that! The vast majority of
hard disk users don't read the "fine print", and many manufacturers don't
exactly make it easy to find even if you want to read it.
There are a lot of issues related to warranty coverage on hard disks that you need to
understand to be sure of your warranty status and what will happen in the event that you
need to exercise your warranty rights. Hard disk manufacturers differ drastically in
terms of their warranty and service procedures, which is something most people don't think
of at the time they buy. But if reliability is important to you, you must
understand how various manufacturers approach warranty issues before making your purchase.
For some people, this matter is more important than all the other quality and performance
issues put together.
In this section I take a close look at the warranty issues related to hard drives. This
includes a discussion of manufacturer warranty policies, a look at the important matter of
OEM and retail drives, and a look at issues involved in returning a drive for repair or
replacement. I also discuss data recovery and data security, essential topics to those
with very important or confidential data.
Next: Warranty Coverage: Retail, OEM and Stolen Drives
