Rant: USB hard drives and warranty
Friday, October 30th, 2009Thinking of buying a USB hard drive?
Obviously you’re gonna go for the one with the longest warranty – three years will surely see you through your CompSci degree, yeah?
Hold on for a minute. There’s a point I’d like to make.
Hard drives are reasonably equal beings, nowadays; some tend to fail more than others, but it’s impossible to tell for years after they’ve hit the market, and nobody’s going to wait that long. They’re also a very competitive market, where prices fluctuate by mere dollars and cents every week, and when the pressure gets as high as it is now, they’re going to cut costs everywhere they can to stay in the game.
They can’t cut many corners with the drives themselves. I’m talking about the cheap crappy boxes they put them in.
