RMA'd hard drives - used replacements?

[Will Dormann]

When a drive is replaced under warranty, is it common for the
replacement drive to be a used one?

I've RMA'd two Maxtor drives within the past year, and both times the
replacement drives were obviously used. When I got the first
replacement, the drive had "??" written in pen on the label. (Very
reassuring, huh?). Well, that drive failed after a couple months.
Returned it, and the replacement drive I got has scratches on the top
and sides of the drive.

Is this a common occurrence??


-WD

 

[jaeger]

Is this a common occurrence??

Yes. Few manufacturers of any type will replace a failed unit with a
brand new one.

 

[Rod Speed]

When a drive is replaced under warranty, is it
common for the replacement drive to be a used one?

Yep, terminally stupid policy, but very common.

I've RMA'd two Maxtor drives within the past year, and both
times the replacement drives were obviously used. When I
got the first replacement, the drive had "??" written in pen on
the label. (Very reassuring, huh?). Well, that drive failed
after a couple months. Returned it, and the replacement drive
I got has scratches on the top and sides of the drive.

Is this a common occurrence??

Yep.

Makes a hell of a lot more sense to ship a brand
new drive to the customer, but most dont do that.

 

[J.Clarke]

Hi,
not sure if that was the problem, tried many different ways to enter
the number, but no joy, my credit cards are fine, so I figure it's
just an error with that page?

Not sure it applies to you but some credit card companies have started
bouncing charges when the charge requested by an ecommerce site in a
different country from the one in which the card was issued.

Wayne ][

 

[David A.Lethe]

When a drive is replaced under warranty, is it common for the
replacement drive to be a used one?

I've RMA'd two Maxtor drives within the past year, and both times the
replacement drives were obviously used. When I got the first
replacement, the drive had "??" written in pen on the label. (Very
reassuring, huh?). Well, that drive failed after a couple months.
Returned it, and the replacement drive I got has scratches on the top
and sides of the drive.

Is this a common occurrence??


-WD

Yes. This makes perfect sense. Vast majority of replacement disks
have nothing wrong with them (ie., operator error, MSFT windows
issues, controller/cable problems).

Manufacturers then run full diags, and blow data away before
repackaging and placing them in the replacement disk pool. Of course
the risk to you is that you get a remanufactured disk instead of a
"used" disk that some computer retailer turned around because they
didn't see anything wrong with it. Depending on the model and
manufacturer, true refurbs have a slightly different inquiry string --
appended with an "R" for example, refurb labels, different part
number, etc..

I'd rather have a refurbished disk then a new one, since you know the
refurbished disks have had a full diagnositic suite performed on them.

Manufacturers only run full diagnostics on a sample of the new disks,
which means that you have a higher probability of a drive failure on a
new one, rather than a refurbished disk, assuming you are not using
some of the fatter-margin fibre channel and high-end SCSI disks.

David

 

[Will Dormann]

I'd rather have a refurbished disk then a new one, since you know the
refurbished disks have had a full diagnositic suite performed on them.

I hope that their "diagnostic suite" involves more than a Powermax
"Factory Re-certification" test.

Before my drive kicked the bucket, I ran that test on the drive and it
found and corrected errors. When the test was complete, it was "Factory
Re-certified". Two days later I ran the test again, and it found more
errors (bad sectors). Once again, at the end of the test it was
Factory Re-certified.

Call me crazy, but I'd rather have new...


-WD

 

[Wayne Youngman]

When a drive is replaced under warranty, is it common for the
replacement drive to be a used one?

I've RMA'd two Maxtor drives within the past year, and both times the
replacement drives were obviously used. When I got the first
replacement, the drive had "??" written in pen on the label. (Very
reassuring, huh?). Well, that drive failed after a couple months.
Returned it, and the replacement drive I got has scratches on the top
and sides of the drive.

Is this a common occurrence??

Hi,

I just been through this process last week. I bought a brand new MAXTOR
ATA/133 8MB for a friend who wanted to upgrade to Windows XP. 3 months
later I get the dreaded phone call from my friend saying *it's broke!*, yup
in fact it had died like no other dead drive I seen before, like the
internal power was dead, even when powered it didn't get warm or make any
noise. . .

I live in the U.K so I went to the Maxtor website and used their *Online*
RMA page to enter all the details. I tried (several times!) to do an
*Advanced* RMA (using credit cards) but it wasn't working properly, kept
saying enter a *Valid* card number???. Anyway after loosing a day or two
trying to do an advanced RMA I finally opted for the regular RMA. Packed
the drive in original box, took it to my local postal shop, paid about
£11.00 for recorded delivery (lol they first wanted to charge me £45.00 for
DHL. . .wtf!!) and sent it off to Ireland. A week later the package arrived
from Maxtor, and as far as I can tell it is a totally brand new drive,
manufacture date was like 2 weeks ago, no fingerprints on it or any other
tell-tale signs of use. . .

Drive is working well, even thought it is plugged into a BX chipset with
IDE/33!.

One point I picked up about Maxtor RMA is that is the drive become defective
within 30 days of use you get a totally brand new Disk, if it is over 30
days you get a factory-fresh reconditioned unit. As I said my one looks new
and it didn't become mash-up till 3 months of use. . .

So actually the RMA service was pretty good, just a pity I never had much
long term luck with Maxtor drives. .

I crossed to Western Digital now, rate their SE series ;P

Wayne ][

 

[Wayne Youngman]

I find it quite odd that there are so many websites that are too
braindead to automatically remove spaces from credit card numbers.

Hi,
not sure if that was the problem, tried many different ways to enter the
number, but no joy, my credit cards are fine, so I figure it's just an error
with that page?

Wayne ][

 

[Will Dormann]

I live in the U.K so I went to the Maxtor website and used their *Online*
RMA page to enter all the details. I tried (several times!) to do an
*Advanced* RMA (using credit cards) but it wasn't working properly, kept
saying enter a *Valid* card number???.

I find it quite odd that there are so many websites that are too
braindead to automatically remove spaces from credit card numbers.


-WD

 

[Egil Solberg]

Drive is working well, even thought it is plugged into a BX chipset with
IDE/33!.

Nothing remarkable in that. I've installed quite a few drives that way.

 

[Scott Alfter]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

When a drive is replaced under warranty, is it common for the
replacement drive to be a used one?

I've RMA'd two Maxtor drives within the past year, and both times the
replacement drives were obviously used. When I got the first
replacement, the drive had "??" written in pen on the label. (Very
reassuring, huh?). Well, that drive failed after a couple months.
Returned it, and the replacement drive I got has scratches on the top
and sides of the drive.

When you RMA a drive, you almost always get back a factory-refurbished
drive. (You're sending them a used drive...why would someone expect a new
drive as a replacement, especially if it's a model no longer in production?)

That the drives you've gotten back were scuffed up is a bit unusual...the
ones I've gotten have looked like new drives, other than the "refurbished"
sticker.

_/_ Scott Alfter
/ v \ (e-mail address removed)
(IIGS( http://alfter.us Top-posting!
\_^_/ pkill -9 /bin/laden >What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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[John Green]

Yep, I have RMA'd 2 Maxtor drives in the UK in the last few months and both
replacements were new....but both failed again shortly afterwards. The
latest one lasted only 5 weeks and failed again today. It's the end of
Maxtor for me :-(

When a drive is replaced under warranty, is it common for the
replacement drive to be a used one?

I've RMA'd two Maxtor drives within the past year, and both times the
replacement drives were obviously used. When I got the first
replacement, the drive had "??" written in pen on the label. (Very
reassuring, huh?). Well, that drive failed after a couple months.
Returned it, and the replacement drive I got has scratches on the top
and sides of the drive.

Is this a common occurrence??

Hi,

I just been through this process last week. I bought a brand new MAXTOR
ATA/133 8MB for a friend who wanted to upgrade to Windows XP. 3 months
later I get the dreaded phone call from my friend saying *it's broke!*, yup
in fact it had died like no other dead drive I seen before, like the
internal power was dead, even when powered it didn't get warm or make any
noise. . .

I live in the U.K so I went to the Maxtor website and used their *Online*
RMA page to enter all the details. I tried (several times!) to do an
*Advanced* RMA (using credit cards) but it wasn't working properly, kept
saying enter a *Valid* card number???. Anyway after loosing a day or two
trying to do an advanced RMA I finally opted for the regular RMA. Packed
the drive in original box, took it to my local postal shop, paid about
£11.00 for recorded delivery (lol they first wanted to charge me £45.00 for
DHL. . .wtf!!) and sent it off to Ireland. A week later the package arrived
from Maxtor, and as far as I can tell it is a totally brand new drive,
manufacture date was like 2 weeks ago, no fingerprints on it or any other
tell-tale signs of use. . .

Drive is working well, even thought it is plugged into a BX chipset with
IDE/33!.

One point I picked up about Maxtor RMA is that is the drive become defective
within 30 days of use you get a totally brand new Disk, if it is over 30
days you get a factory-fresh reconditioned unit. As I said my one looks new
and it didn't become mash-up till 3 months of use. . .

So actually the RMA service was pretty good, just a pity I never had much
long term luck with Maxtor drives. .

I crossed to Western Digital now, rate their SE series ;P

Wayne ][

 

[J.Clarke]

OMG! don't say that please. . . .you are giving me *The Fear*

Don't worry about it--just make sure that the drives have adequate
cooling and that your power supply is of decent quality and working
properly and you should have no problems with any contemporary drive.
Of course there is always the possibility that the drive you get will be
a lemon, but that's life.

Wayne ][

 

[Wayne Youngman]

Yep, I have RMA'd 2 Maxtor drives in the UK in the last few months and both
replacements were new....but both failed again shortly afterwards. The
latest one lasted only 5 weeks and failed again today. It's the end of
Maxtor for me :-(

OMG! don't say that please. . . .you are giving me *The Fear*

Wayne ][

 

[Egil Solberg]

OMG! don't say that please. . . .you are giving me *The Fear*

I'm on the other hand on my third Maxtor drive now.
DiamondMax Plus 13,6GB ATA66
D740X 60GB
Diamondmax 9+ 120GB
They all still spin happily.
IBM 75GXP and Seagate Barracuda IV died on me, the IBM was revived from
death.
So I'm onto Maxtor drives now. You see that due to the fact that each one of
us only test a few drives, we cannot make general statements.