Seems like the days of extended HDD warranties are over. According to a report over at PC World, both Seagate and Western Digital are cutting the warranty periods of their hard disk drives. Seagate is slated to slash warranties of some of its products come Dec. 31, with Western Digital following suit on Jan. 2. All HDD shipped before this date will still enjoy the current warranty terms that they carry as of the moment.
Seagate has responded to the change of policy by saying that it was standardizing its terms to be more consistent with those commonly applied throughout the consumer electronics and technology industries. “By aligning to current industry standards, Seagate can continue to focus its investments on technology innovation and unique product features that drive value for our customers,” the company said.
Seagate will be cutting the warranties of internal drives for notebooks and desktops. Warranties for external hard drives and drives for commercial applications remain unchanged.
Western Digital meanwhile will be reducing the warranties on its Caviar Blue, Caviar Green and Scorpio Blue drives from their usual three years to two. A WD rep told PC World that the changes are not a reaction to the recent flooding of their plants in Thailand. “Standard PC warranties are one year. Even so, WD will continue to maintain five-year warranties on its premium desktop/notebook products, including the WD Caviar Black, WD Scorpio Black and WD VelociRaptor products.”
Source: PC World