OEM HD's (specifically Western Digital)

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Asrial

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I need to get an ATA hard drive for a customer of mine, and I want something brand new.

How does the warranty work on OEM hard drives?

I purchased a Western Digital drive online, so I couldn't check anything beforehand.

The manufacturing date is November of 2008, and doing a warranty check online with Western Digital shows the warranty expired June of 2012.

1) I thought OEM hard drives weren't warrantied through the manufacturer?

2) This indicates that the hard drive has been in use before, right? Or maybe it was sold and then returned? When would the warranty be started? Actually, after asking that question, now it makes me wonder if the warranty was activated by someone sending it in and that would make this drive refurbished.

Basically, I think my next step is to get this one returned and buy a more expensive one from Newegg in the hopes of getting one that hasn't been used yet.

Thoughts?

The computer this is going in is a register based computer and so replacing the hard drive (and cloning data) is the best route right now.
 
Where and when did you purchase this hard drive? If you just purchased it within the last few days you should be able to return it to the place of purchase and not need to do a warranty replacment through WD. How I understand it warranties start from the point of when the item was "first" purchased from the manufacturer. So if newegg purchased it in may 2013 then you purchased it from newegg in July. The warranty started in May. Most manufacturers will honor to back date it if you show them a paid receipt from a valid retail company.

Your situation can mean this item has been used before and returned, it's refurbished, or it just has been sitting around for a very long time and never used. Not sure where you got this HD from but I always try to purchase parts that I am going to resell from a well established distributor like D&H. Most items you purchase from them you have 30 days or more to return for refund or replacment.
 
I just checked Synnex inventory and they have 3 WD PATA drives in stock.

WD1600AAJB - WD BLUE 160GB 8MB 7200RPM 3.5# PATA 100MB/S 7200RPM
WD2500AAJB - WD BLUE 250GB 8MB 7200RPM 3.5# PATA 100MB/S 7200RPM
WD3200AAJB - WD BLUE 320GB 8MB 7200RPM 3.5# PATA 100MB/S 7200RPM

As they are a distributor, I can assure you that the drives are unused. As to their manufacture date, it is difficult to say. They are still being manufactured, so I imagine that they should be relatively new.
 
Asrial said:
I need to get an ATA hard drive for a customer of mine, and I want something brand new.

How does the warranty work on OEM hard drives?

I purchased a Western Digital drive online, so I couldn't check anything beforehand.

The manufacturing date is November of 2008, and doing a warranty check online with Western Digital shows the warranty expired June of 2012.

1) I thought OEM hard drives weren't warrantied through the manufacturer?

2) This indicates that the hard drive has been in use before, right? Or maybe it was sold and then returned? When would the warranty be started? Actually, after asking that question, now it makes me wonder if the warranty was activated by someone sending it in and that would make this drive refurbished.

Basically, I think my next step is to get this one returned and buy a more expensive one from Newegg in the hopes of getting one that hasn't been used yet.

Thoughts?

The computer this is going in is a register based computer and so replacing the hard drive (and cloning data) is the best route right now.
Click to expand...

#1....From what I understand OEM drives are usually warranted through the builder manufacturer....Dell....HP...Acer, etc. Most of the time 1 year, unless an extended warranty bought.
Most drive failures I see are just after the 1 year warranty expired. Are they putting a timer on these things....LOL.

In my opinion Newegg has issues with packaging hard drives for the abuse of shipping. Look at the reviews and a lot of negatives for packaging. I've been getting WD black through my Prime Account with Amazon and free 2nd day delivery. Very pleased with the packaging and no dead drives yet.....knock on wood.

Warranties are a mute subject with me. I don't care if it has a 1 year, 3 year or 5 year warranty. I want a drive that WORKS. I don't want the headaches of explaining to the customer why their last drive lasted 4+ years and their new one only lasted 14 months. Why their data can't be recovered, or it will cost X amount of dollars. Why weren't they backing up their data. I hate having my name associated with hard drive recommendations.

WD black series is the only thing I use. They seem to have the best reliability going right now. Even they have issues, just not as many. Plus a 5 year warranty if you want to get into warranty replacements. Personally, I just want a drive that works.

Please.....don't turn this thread into a this drive vs. that drive. There are enough of them already.
 
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Good points Harold. But, one issue for the OP is that he needs an IDE drive, which limits his choices. I could be wrong, but I think the WD Blue drives are the only series of IDE drive that is still being manufactured these days.

One thing to note with WD Blue drives...9 times out of 10, we get them here with at least one missing slider off the read/write heads (aka, damaged crashing heads...not good).

I'd be more concerned about a good solid backup over the warranty period. Any drive, even if you buy a $500 SAS drive, could fail a week after installation. So, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
 
Oooops.

I didn't see where he needed IDE.

That certainly narrows down his choices.

Could the issues you are seeing be caused by hidden damage when being shipped?
 
The new one was purchased through some random company through Amazon.

I normally purchase hard drives from Newegg. I'll look into D&H.

I used to be a Maxtor man, but then switched over to Western Digital when Maxtor got bought out.

I really just used to be "whatever is on sale," but Seagate's handling of the 7200.11 still has me turned off of them.

Hitachi, Samsung and Toshiba.. I'll dip down into them when price is high on the list of importance since that gives me more options.

The Western Digital from Newegg is $75! This is for an IDE 160gb drive. So I poked around Amazon and found the same drive for $35.

When a manufacturer refurbishes a hard drive, what kind of labels do they put on it? This drive has no indication of being refurbished beyond the warranty being expired. The main label is fully intact (so no puncture holes over the screws or indication of pried corners). My concern is the internal mechanisms as those are a lot trickier than just replacing the system board (and a lot more fickle).

It passed Drive Fitness Test, and is very quiet, so aside from being an IDE hard drive.. I'd not really suspect anything were it not for the warranty check.

My biggest concern is buying a new computer and then having to get the receipt printer, cash drawer and credit card charging software installed. No experience with their setup yet. Also, it's under XP so it's not like I can rely on Windows 7 changing drivers for a new motherboard.
 
HFultzjr said:
Could the issues you are seeing be caused by hidden damage when being shipped?
Click to expand...
I assume this is pertaining to my comment about the missing sliders. No, it is because the drives crashed and thus why clients are shipping them to me for data recovery. I'm just saying that the reliability of the WD Blue is not very high...but, considering the price, you shouldn't expect more than a year out of these drives anyway.
 
lcoughey said:
I assume this is pertaining to my comment about the missing sliders. No, it is because the drives crashed and thus why clients are shipping them to me for data recovery. I'm just saying that the reliability of the WD Blue is not very high...but, considering the price, you shouldn't expect more than a year out of these drives anyway.
Click to expand...

Thanks Lcoughey,

I was just curious, as I see a lot of negative reviews concerning poor packaging/shipping.

Harold
 
Okay, I think I have an answer to this and it looks like numnutz is the winner here.

I managed to get another Western Digital hard drive from an OEM computer (HP).

To make a long story short.. it too has an expired warranty and I'm confident that it's either the original or a brand new one.

That makes me feel a lot better about this hard drive I purchased.
 
Aren't those drives S.M.A.R.T. compliant ? If so you could slave it to a machine and see the readings for hours, cycles, etc.
 
Dang. Looks like it's too good to be true... power on hours count is 29k (3 years). Going to return it and buy one from Newegg. I just can't put this hard drive into a primary register computer and feel safe about it.
 
lcoughey said:
The fact that you can buy a brand new IDE drive for $65 makes me wonder if all the time wasted on other options is worth it.
Click to expand...

Amen. Talk about a waste of time. You should be buying the most expensive, best warrantied hard drive you can - not working the Amazon flea market for bargains. This is for a machine that is essential to your customer's business where just one hour of down time would probably cost much more than the $30 differential.

I had the same thing with a customer last week. He wanted a serial to usb adapter for his pc to connect to many different types of devices (alarms and fire panels). Balked at €60 for a decent quality adapter with a good chipset. "I can get one for €5 on Ebay" He arrived back today for a good one having lost a full day in the last week trying to get el-cheapo to work!
 
lcoughey said:
The fact that you can buy a brand new IDE drive for $65 makes me wonder if all the time wasted on other options is worth it.
Click to expand...
You're quite correct.

Too bad the place that listed it for $35 didn't indicate whether it was new/used/refurbished.

I won't know if the one from Newegg is new until I get it and check the SMART status.
 
OEM hard drives are generally only warrantied through the manufacturer. The warranty extends from the date of manufacture through the duration of the OEM’s warranty (in this case, it appears to be around 48 months), not when the drive is actually installed or in use. Even if the drive in question was never actually in use, the warranty may have expired.

FYI, we carry drives in stock. Don’t know if we have what you need on hand, or if we have it brand-new, but we do carry some factory-sealed drives. On refurbished drives that we test, we apply our own one-year limited warranty.
 
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Another question I have is why you are ordering components for your clients through Newegg rather than through a real parts supplier?
 
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