@kerry Lyons - warranty problem

" A fried of mine rang Seagate in the USA recently after one of his sata drives failed. It was 2-3 years old, so he was expecting the warranty to cover him. Turns out that it was actually out of warranty. What Seagate DON'T tell consumers is that the warranty starts from when the drive is manufactured, NOT when the customer buys it from a retailer. So if it's been sitting on a shelf for 3 years before you buy, you only get 2 years warranty. Good, isn't it?

Trading Standards in the UK aren't interested, because they say Seagate is an American company, and thus out of their remit. Cop-out, anyone?"

I too, bought and "off the shelf" model which turned out to have already been "warranty expired" by the manufacturer... However, in the US, the warranty starts the moment the consumer purchases the item; NOT when the manufacturer pops it off their production line. If they refuse to honor the warranty the customer should contact the state attorney general and the FTC.

Note about my bad drive...a short email discourse to the company with a copy of the original receipt solved my problem...new / reconditioned drive sent out.. As I was told by the company in question....drivers are ALL warranty expired as they are made and they make NO attempt to correct the issue unless the customer has the receipt showing exactly when the drive was purchase....

As for Seagate - I think they are cutting their own thoats with this....I just purchased two oem driver for my computer and my neighbors computer....because they were Seagate with 5 year warranty on them.