[TriLUG] Hard drive advice

[Cristobal Palmer]

I must've misunderstood Western Digital's "advance RMA" explanation

http://websupport.wdc.com/warranty/rmainfo.asp?custtype=end&lang=en

because I was under the impression that I would be charged for the new
drive and then reimbursed once they cleared the old one. On the bright
side, a "standard" RMA all the way out to California still only took
about 10 business days.

Thanks for the heads up. :)

-CMP

On 9/22/05, Pat Regan <thehead at patshead.com> wrote:
> Cristobal Palmer wrote:
> > I'll echo Joe's comments and give an endorsement to Intrex, especially
> > since they give discounts to TriLUG members. That said, if you don't
> > _mind_ keeping shipping supplies around and are meticulous about
> > keeping records (such as receipts), then you can safely go with an
> > internet bargain that includes a nice (eg. 3-5 yr.) warranty.
>
> Keeping shipping supplies around shouldn't be an issue.  Every time I
> have RMAed an IDE drive I have used "advance RMA," or whatever the
> particular vendor calls it.  You give them your credit card number, they
> ship you a drive.  Swap the drive and put the old drive in the new
> packaging, then send it back.  As long as they get the drive they don't
> charge your card.
>
> As has been said already, any brand of drive has the same chance of
> failing.  Hopefully, though, the drives with a longer warranty passed
> more tests :).
>
> For my purposes, the best reason to choose a manufacturer is their RMA
> policy.  I have recently had to RMA both Maxtor and Western Digital
> drives, both brands connected to my 3ware IDE controller.
>
> My Maxtor drive started throwing errors like crazy.  In order to RMA a
> Maxtor drive you have to run MaxBlast on the drive, which means I had to
> put the drive on an IDE controller.  This wouldn't have been terrible...
>  Except that MaxBlast claimed that it was able to repair my problem.  I
> had to go through this garbage 2 more times before I could get the code
> that would let me get the drive replaced.  I do not ever want to deal
> with that again, so I will never buy a Maxtor drive again.
>
> Western Digital doesn't ask any questions, it seems they will RMA
> anything.
>
> I would like to know what Seagate's policy is, if anyone knows.
>
> Pat
>
>
>
>
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>


--

Cristobal M. Palmer
UNC-CH SILS Student
cristobalpalmer at gmail.com
cmpalmer at ils.unc.edu
ils.unc.edu/~cmpalmer
"Television-free since 2003"