Bad News

My hard drive crapped out, it seems. This happened on my last Western Digital drive as well. Looks like it's Seagate from now on. I'd switch now, except I'm getting this one RMA'd. A 5 year warranty is a pretty good deal on a drive these days. The pressure from Seagate has pushed WD and Maxtor to up theirs to 3 again, like it should be. The only thing I really like about the longer warranties is that it gives you an expectation that the manufacturer doesn't expect it to fail within that time, or else they wouldn't warranty them that long. I think for some reason the build quality is going down on these drives. I never used to have them go out.

Three year, five year, or 30 year, I don't want to ever have to use a warranty on a drive. It sucks reformatting. Especially if you've got a lot of important stuff on there. And especially after you've been drinking. But then again, drinking makes computer repair a little more palatable.