None of us are likely to use enough harddrives to get a good statistical representation here. I'll just take the companys word for it. Maxtor doesn't think their drives will last more than a year. Hitachi thinks theirs can go for 3 years and Seagate is willing to bet they can run for 5 years 24/7. Its not that I would never buy a Maxtor at this point. I used to buy them when they had 3 yr warr. The question is how much cheaper does a maxtor need to be before I take them up on such a weak bet. I can get 200gig 5yr for $50 AR. I guess I'd buy a maxtor 200gig 1/r for $30-40 AR or maybe $50-55 no rebate. Not too likely to do a rebate. Its alot of hassle for something the mfg tells me I will need to do again in a year. Thats not what I think its what they think. I've had 48 month car batteries that have lasted 60+ months but its amazing how many 48 month batteries died before 50 mo. and 72 month last around 72mo. My guess is seagate needs to keep returns under 5% for 5 yrs to keep from wiping out. For maxtor they must have been hitting 15% returns within 3 years and probably gave up on even hoping for 3 years when they dropped to a 1 yr warrenty. None of this even counts the value of your data and time.
Anyone know the actual return numbers? I'm just guessing/estimating.
Anyone know the actual return numbers? I'm just guessing/estimating.