Seagate ups drive warranties to five years

[The Hunter]

Disk drive maker Seagate Technology announced on Monday a longer, five-year warranty on certain products, a move that could prompt an industrywide change in warranty policy.

Seagate said its internal computer hard drives shipped through distributors and retailers now carry a five-year warranty, up from its former one-year coverage.

Other major disk drive makers have one-year warranties on drives shipped through distributors such as Bell Microproducts or retailers like CompUSA, said Dave Reinsel, an analyst at researcher IDC. About two years ago, drive maker Maxtor led a charge from three-year warranties to one-year warranties, and Seagate's shift will likely force rivals to adopt similar policies, he said.

More info here:http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5284146.html

[shawners]

How much for the warranty!! Or will it be factored into the price, and it will be with new drives sold under this policy and none that was bought before the policy?

[hawkburn]

At least it would end Best Buy's extended warranty. On hard drives, anyway.

[g-smooth2k]

For Immediate Release

DISC DRIVE LEADER SEAGATE INTRODUCES 5-YEAR WARRANTY ON ALL INTERNAL COMPUTER HARD DRIVES SHIPPED IN DISTRIBUTION AND RETAIL CHANNELS

World's most reliable hard drives now feature industry's best warranty protection

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.—26 July 2004— Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX), the world's leading hard disc drive maker, today announced it has introduced a 5-year warranty, effective immediately, on every Seagate internal PC, notebook and enterprise hard drive shipped through its distribution and retail channels throughout the world. This unprecedented move establishes Seagate as the undisputed leader in providing best-in-class warranty protection, boosting standard 1-year and 3-year warranties to an industry-leading 5 years on the world's most reliable hard drives. Together with the company's unparalleled introduction last month of 12 new products for every hard drive application, Seagate has further strengthened its category leadership in the storage market. The new warranty applies retroactively to applicable hard drives shipped since June 1, 2004.

"Seagate stands proudly behind its hard drives with the industry's best warranty," said Jeff Loebbaka, Seagate vice president of Global Marketing. "Success for our channel partners and customers is critical to Seagate's success; the new 5-year warranty enables our channel partners to sell the best drives to their customers and minimizes the cost and time they spend on warranty related issues. Seagate channel customers have made it clear that this unprecedented 5-year warranty protection will improve their ability to be successful. The new warranty shows again that Seagate leads the industry in deploying innovative programs to meet the needs of the channel."

"One of Seagate's greatest strengths is that we can leverage our operational excellence to bring the newest technology and products to market first, while always ensuring the highest product quality," said Bill Watkins, Seagate president and CEO. "For several years Seagate has made industry-leading investments in Six Sigma design and quality processes, common design platforms, and advanced manufacturing, and as a result we believe we have shown that reliability and quality leadership are synonymous with the name Seagate."

Seagate is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacturing and marketing of hard disc drives, providing products for a wide-range of Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile, and Consumer Electronics applications. The company is committed to delivering award-winning products, customer support and reliability, to meet the world's growing demand for information storage. Seagate can be found around the globe and at www.seagate.com.

Seagate and Seagate Technology are registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC.

For further information, contact John Paulsen, 831-439-2499.

[phalkon30]

I've got 2 160 gig barracudas. They're cool, quiet, fast, and have so far been rock solid. I wish i could say the same for the couple maxtor and western digital drives laying in pieces on my floor...

[nasrules]

Hell yeah. Owning a Seagate and, more recently, a Samsung (due to it being faster and quieter than the Seagates yet still having a three-year warranty), all I can say is that things look better and better for the hard drive market :)

[cpugeniusmv]

i think my next hard disk purchase will likely be a seagate...do they still have those overly complex jumper settings? or have they finally done away with them and gone to a standard master/slave/cs configuration?

currently running 3 WDs and a Maxtor...all 80s. i have 2 dead drives in this room, an 8 gig maxtor and a 40 gig samsung.

[phalkon30]

Their pin configs are normal on mine. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-025&depa=0 is the model I have.

When I was still running a seagate and a WD I removed both drives completely from my case after an intensive defrag and some file moving (on both drives). On every single part of the seagate drive it was cool to the touch. I couldn't tell the drive had been running. On the WD it was quite warm. The seagates temps are helped by my case setup I'm sure, but the fact that a 40 gig drive was warmer than a 160 is awesome.

[cpugeniusmv]

Their pin configs are normal on mine. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-025&depa=0 is the model I have.

When I was still running a seagate and a WD I removed both drives completely from my case after an intensive defrag and some file moving (on both drives). On every single part of the seagate drive it was cool to the touch. I couldn't tell the drive had been running. On the WD it was quite warm. The seagates temps are helped by my case setup I'm sure, but the fact that a 40 gig drive was warmer than a 160 is awesome.
yep, i stopped by the seagate website and it looks like they're doing sane jumpers now.

i've decided to pick up a 200 gig before i head off to college.