# Hard Drive Warranty Question



## LoneStar1981 (May 21, 2006)

i have a drive that was purchased from weaknees about 15 months ago. (maxtor) the drive is going out. i got a response it will cost $129 to have it replaced, but you can almost buy a new drive for that amount.  does anybody know what the duration of the warranty should be? 

thanx


----------



## mick66 (Oct 15, 2004)

LoneStar1981 said:


> i have a drive that was purchased from weaknees about 15 months ago. (maxtor) the drive is going out. i got a response it will cost $129 to have it replaced, but you can almost buy a new drive for that amount.  does anybody know what the duration of the warranty should be?
> 
> thanx


Weaknees offers a 6 month warranty
http://www.weaknees.com/warranty.php

For maxtor warranty info
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...?channelpath=/en_us/Support/Warranty Services


----------



## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

LoneStar1981 said:


> i have a drive that was purchased from weaknees about 15 months ago. (maxtor) the drive is going out. i got a response it will cost $129 to have it replaced, but you can almost buy a new drive for that amount.  does anybody know what the duration of the warranty should be?
> 
> thanx


This discussion maybe of interest...
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4045272&&#post4045272

Your Maxtor drive (depending on the size, and when you bought it) _*may*_ have a 3 year manufaturer's warranty. Plug in the S/N from the drive into the maxtor site Mick listed and find out.



> Many of our newly-installed TiVo hard drives come with a full manufacturer's warranty, which is generally one to three years. *Some of our drive kits use OEM drives which have our six-month warranty only.* If your drive fails after our six month warranty, but before the manufacturer's warranty (if existent) is over, we will help you exchange the drive quickly for a service charge.


I am suprised weaknees charges that large a service fee if the drive is still under manufacturer's warranty (it probably is not). But if you go straight through maxtor for free, you'll have to image the drive yourself. (which is not difficult)


----------



## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

LoneStar1981 said:


> i have a drive that was purchased from weaknees about 15 months ago. (maxtor) the drive is going out. i got a response it will cost $129 to have it replaced, but you can almost buy a new drive for that amount.  does anybody know what the duration of the warranty should be?
> 
> thanx


Trust me, $129 will buy you a MUCH larger drive than that... Few weeks ago, CompUSA ran Samsung 300gb drives for $99.


----------



## LoneStar1981 (May 21, 2006)

greg_burns said:


> Your Maxtor drive (depending on the size, and when you bought it) _*may*_ have a 3 year manufaturer's warranty. Plug in the S/N from the drive into the maxtor site Mick listed and find out.
> 
> I am suprised weaknees charges that large a service fee if the drive is still under manufacturer's warranty (it probably is not). But if you go straight through maxtor for free, you'll have to image the drive yourself. (which is not difficult)


thanks, it shows a manufacture date of Nov-2004 on the drive. it is a 300gb Quickview, so I think it has a 3 year warranty. weaknees said that they would lose money if they discounted the $129 to have it replaced, so I guess I will try going through maxtor.  i would rather image it anyway...


----------



## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

LoneStar1981 said:


> thanks, it shows a manufacture date of Nov-2004 on the drive. it is a 300gb Quickview, so I think it has a 3 year warranty. weaknees said that they would lose money if they discounted the $129 to have it replaced, so I guess I will try going through maxtor.  i would rather image it anyway...


Don't go by the manfacture date. Take the S/N and plug it into this web site:
https://www4.maxtor.com/en/support/service/rma/create/01_serial_number.cfm?dt=

Except you can't do it tonight! 



> Maxtor's online warranty services (warranty status, RMA creation, and RMA status) will be unavailable from 9:00 AM Friday May 19th through 4:00 PM Sunday May 21st (Pacific Daylight Time, GMT -8 ) due to system maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.


From what I quoted from weakness, I am guessing your drive is OEM and will not be eligible for warranty from Maxtor at all. Sorry.


----------



## LoneStar1981 (May 21, 2006)

greg_burns said:


> From what I quoted from weakness, I am guessing your drive is OEM and will not be eligible for warranty from Maxtor at all. Sorry.


weaknees told me that maxtor could replace mine under warranty, but it would not be a new one or a "quick view". that is fine with me, as long as it can be replaced. weaknees also told me that if I paid their $129 fee, they would replace it with a new one.  oh well

update: I typed in the serial number on the maxtor website, and it shows "in warranty until 1/2010) 

thanks :up:


----------



## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

LoneStar1981 said:


> update: I typed in the serial number on the maxtor website, and it shows "in warranty until 1/2010)


Holy cow! 

Report back and let us know what drive Maxtor returns to you. I have done lots of these warranty returns to WD and Maxtor at my workplace. I always get the exact same drive back or (if it is really old) a larger version of it. I would think Maxtor themselves could round up a Quickview drive to send you. If you provide credit card info, they usually will send you the new drive first with a pre-paid return label included. :up:

Sometimes Maxtor wants to know what the status error code returns when you run PowerMax on the drive. You can find that software on their site. Not sure how critical it is to the warranty process to include it.

PowerMax


----------



## LoneStar1981 (May 21, 2006)

I actually ran PowerMax on the drive, and it failed. Well, first it said it could corrected the error, and then it failed the second test. I had to use that code to setup the RMA. (won't let you continue without it..) Once I did that, I decided to use a credit card number to initiate the process. I am suppose to receive a replacement next week. It also stated that the warranty would continue on the replacement too. :up: I will post back and let you know what they replaced it with. I'm glad I checked here before I went with weaknees... 

thanks for all the help!


----------



## vman41 (Jun 18, 2002)

greg_burns said:


> From what I quoted from weakness, I am guessing your drive is OEM and will not be eligible for warranty from Maxtor at all. Sorry.


The website said my failed drive was still under warranty, if I sent it to Maxtor in the weaknees box will they reconsider?


----------



## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

vman41 said:


> The website said my failed drive was still under warranty, if I sent it to Maxtor in the weaknees box will they reconsider?


When you say "weaknees box", I assume you mean the packaging the sent you your drive kit in. Not the Tivo itself, right? 

If you are concerned about it, don't send it in that packaging. Go get a box at UPS/Fedex location. Doubt if the RMA processing location would even recognize what a weakness box was, nor care.


----------



## GBL (Apr 20, 2000)

vman41 said:


> The website said my failed drive was still under warranty, if I sent it to Maxtor in the weaknees box will they reconsider?


With the advance replacement you receive the replacement drive before you have to send back to failed drive - simply use the packaging of the replacement drive to send back the failed drive.


----------



## mick66 (Oct 15, 2004)

GBL said:


> With the advance replacement you receive the replacement drive before you have to send back to failed drive - simply use the packaging of the replacement drive to send back the failed drive.


The last time I had a Maxtor replaced under warranty, the new one came in a huge box with the inserts to hold 6 drives. I didn't use that box to send in the bad drive.


----------



## Yog-Sothoth (Jun 14, 2005)

> I typed in the serial number on the maxtor website, and it shows "in warranty until 1/2010


I can only assume that since Seagate acquired Maxtor, they extended the warranties on Maxtor drives (Seagate drives have a five-year warranty).


----------



## bmgoodman (Dec 20, 2000)

I'll just chime in here to say that I went exclusively Seagate after having been exclusively Maxtor for years. Of course, this was before Seagate=Maxtor  

I changed for 3 reasons:

* I had several Maxtor-upgraded Tivos fail in the 11-18 month range,
* The last time, Maxtor gave me huge grief when they found out the drive was in a Tivo. I had to escalate and go through several e-mails and calls until they gave in. And then they wanted to make like they were doing me a favor!
* Maxtor cut their warranty, while Seagate increased theirs.

I now have done several Seagate upgrades with no problems to date. Of course, YMMV.

I have no idea how Maxtor is now with RMAs of drives from Tivos.


----------



## Yog-Sothoth (Jun 14, 2005)

> have no idea how Maxtor is now with RMAs of drives from Tivos.


Never volunteer information....


----------



## bmgoodman (Dec 20, 2000)

IIRC, information was not volunteered, at least not without prodding. The failure code gave the tech some idea the file system wasn't one they were familiar with. I guess I could have lied when asked if it was in a Tivo, but my own integrity is worth more than a replacement drive costs. Besides, I had returned several Maxtors previously and they had never given me grief.

Once I reached a supervisor at a high-enough level, he said it didn't matter it was in a Tivo. I am not sure what their policy is now.


----------



## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

bmgoodman said:


> IIRC, information was not volunteered, at least not without prodding. The failure code gave the tech some idea the file system wasn't one they were familiar with. I guess I could have lied when asked if it was in a Tivo, but my own integrity is worth more than a replacement drive costs. Besides, I had returned several Maxtors previously and they had never given me grief.
> 
> Once I reached a supervisor at a high-enough level, he said it didn't matter it was in a Tivo. I am not sure what their policy is now.


Was your initial contact with them through the online RMA process or had your called? I've never had a request for RMA done online questioned before.


----------



## bmgoodman (Dec 20, 2000)

greg_burns said:


> Was your initial contact with them through the online RMA process or had your called? I've never had a request for RMA done online questioned before.


I tried the online RMA process, but the site refused the failure code the MaxBlast returned after testing. I had no idea that calling them would unleash the hounds!


----------



## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

bmgoodman said:


> I tried the online RMA process, but the site refused the failure code the MaxBlast returned after testing. I had no idea that calling them would unleash the hounds!


A friend of mine has a non-Tivo drive that won't work even spin up. So he can't run PowerMax at all. I'll have to ask him how the hounds have treated him so far.


----------



## bmgoodman (Dec 20, 2000)

Next time, I'll just go to one of those crakz sites and get me a "clean" Maxtor failure code!  

Seriously, I'll stick with Seagate, though I am tempted to try Samsung. I expect they ironed out some issues they inherited from IBM, though I haven't researched this yet.


----------



## Andy in NYC (Apr 3, 2002)

If you arrange for a cross-ship (you get the new drive and then ship the old drive using your credit card as collateral) you can run dd or dd_rescue to copy the old drive to the new. This will save your shows, etc.


----------



## LoneStar1981 (May 21, 2006)

I just received the replacement drive. The label looks just like the old one, except it does not say "QuickView". It does say "refurbished" though.... I sometimes notice a very faint knocking sound coming from it too...  This one will continue with the same warranty, so I'm not worried.


----------



## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

I took a look at an older 60GB I had returned awhile back. I guess it does say "Refurbished to MAXTOR Specifications" at the bottom of the stick-on label. Unfortunately, it didn't last long at all. (I had returned it originally at the zero hour, so the warranty is already up on it.  ).


----------

