Warranty when you buy a second hand hard drive?

[dirtydog]

I see a lot of people selling used hard drives and stating there is still some warranty left but what is the situation with that, because my understanding is that warranties only cover the initial purchaser of the item, and aren't transferable to subsequent owners.

For example from Western Digital:

Your Use of the Product

WD will have no liability for any Product returned if WD determines that:

* The product was stolen from WD.
* The asserted defect:
o is not present,
o cannot reasonably be fixed because of damage occurring when the Product is in the possession of someone other than WD, or
o is attributable to misuse, improper installation, alteration (including removing or obliterating labels and opening or removing external covers (unless authorized to do so by Western Digital or an authorized Service Center)), accident or mishandling while in the possession of someone other than WD.
* The Product was not sold to you as new.

http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp?custtype=end&lang=en

Note the last line - it seems to explicitly exclude second hand purchasers from being able to claim on the warranty.

Can someone in the know clarify the position because I might be tempted to buy a used Velociraptor but not if the warranty won't cover it.

 

[AbsenceJam]

Whatever the legal position may be it makes no difference. You give them the serial, they gave you an RMA no. if it's in warranty.

 

[drunkenmaster]

its more a case of when you buy retail, you can buy refurbed drives and the like that will have different warranties and the like, when bought initially as new, the drive will have a full warranty.

WHen you rma a drive I've not seen any of the companies ask for anything but the serial number, they'll send out a replacement to whoever the heck applies for it and they couldn't care less about proof of sale or not, they know which of their drives have what warranty and its really that simple. Hard drives have to be the single easiest to RMA product made.

 

[Greenlizard0]

~ Hard drives have to be the single easiest to RMA product made.

Indeed and may that remain the case!

 

[drunkenmaster]

Indeed and may that remain the case!

have to say, haven't had one die in years now, I used to have a shedload of 40's, 80's, 120's back when a 200-250 was considered big. Several of those, but not that many, died, Maxtor were always great, would send off for an advanced RMA, get a drive(was bigger/newer version every single time) and send the old one back in same packaging, freaking awesome.

Actually with a good 10-15 drives across all the computers in the house(4 people, 4 comps + lappy) none have died in probably 5 years. Got a few smaller really old 80-120's in a drawer as backup which also still work. Useful for moving everything off a raid array in a pinch before breaking a raid 0 up.

 

[Dox]

I agree, if there is warranty left you just RMA it. Few manufacturers will ask for the original receipt

 

[Deadude]

weve found WD brilliant at work they even give us some new drives from ones weve sent back that are out of warranty

 

[PhillyDee]

have to say, haven't had one die in years now, I used to have a shedload of 40's, 80's, 120's back when a 200-250 was considered big. Several of those, but not that many, died, Maxtor were always great, would send off for an advanced RMA, get a drive(was bigger/newer version every single time) and send the old one back in same packaging, freaking awesome.

Actually with a good 10-15 drives across all the computers in the house(4 people, 4 comps + lappy) none have died in probably 5 years. Got a few smaller really old 80-120's in a drawer as backup which also still work. Useful for moving everything off a raid array in a pinch before breaking a raid 0 up.

Lies!

 

[miniyazz]

Maxtor's allowed to have a good RMA process, just not good hard drives