[ale] [semi OT] encouraging and discouraging HDD and SSD observations

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

-snipping-

see inline

Sincerely,

Ron



David Tomaschik <david at systemoverlord.com> wrote:

>On Fri, Nov 1, 2013 at 12:38 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
>atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
>


>
>Is your claim now that "all manufacturing is crap," or are these
>unrelated?
>
>
>

I did not use such all pervasive terminology.  I will clarify thusly:

There are many products, in many industries, that are being made more crappy than they were before.

Observation 1) 80's vintage dehumidifier lasts 20 years.
2010's vintage dehumidifier lasts one year.
Conclusion 1) 10's vintage dehumidifiers are more crappy.

Observation 2) Fuel Pumps.  I don't remember ever replacing a fuel pump in my entire life in a car prior to 2010.
I've had to replace the one in our '07 Hyundai Sonata.
My dad has just replaced his fuel pump for the 2nd or 3rd time in two months.
Mechanic says runs of 3-5 bad ones from the factory are common.
Conclusion 2) Modern low end fuel pumps are more crappy.

Observation 3) Hard Drives.  Rather than talking time, let's talk capacity. In my own experience, before capacities exceeded 500 GB, having a HDD run 5 years was fairly common. 5 year warranties were fairly common. And, warranty claims were rare.
Right now, I'm about to replace my 3rd or 4th Seagate 1 TB drive within 2 years.  I'm replacing the replacement drive.
Conclusion 3) Modern hard drives, particularly big ones, and more particularly big refurb ones, are more crappy.

>>
>> "shouldn't even be failing": based on what evidence?
>
>

Let's define failing.  I define a hard drive failure as a condition which makes me no longer able to trust the drive with my data.  This usually manifests itself as increasing numbers of read errors or reallocated sectors.

Very simple.  The warranty on the box says 5 year warranty.  I'm a very light user, except that the pc runs 24 x 7 in fair weather.  However, it's usually very lightly loaded with a few exceptions of short periods of intense usage.

The drive I'm about to replace was a replacement.  It's a refurb that they sent me to take care of my last warranty claim less than a year ago.  The new warranty period only extends to the end of the original period.  I have no problem with that.  But, the refurb drive has been in service less than 1 year.  There is simply no way it should be doing throwing errors at this time, especially since it is supposed to be a replacement for a 5 year drive.

Here's what a 5 year warranty on the box should mean.  This product will almost always last 5 years or more, and in the unlikely event that it doesn't, we'll make it right by replacing it at no charge.

So, a product with a 5 year warranty generally SHOULD NOT fail within the warranty.  It should last 5 years plus.  Warranty claims should be rare.

>
>Hard drive technology today and in the 1980s are simply not comparable.
> It
>makes no sense to compare them.
>
>

I was talking about the general product quality levels across the board pre 1980, not hard drives.

>
>Seagate seems to be holding up their end of the bargain by replacing
>your
>drives.
>
>

They will, as far as I know, replace the drive.  That still costs a $ 15 service charge to get the replacement here and provide me with a return box and shipping label.  The point is, that if they had held up their end of the bargain in making a drive that would indeed last 5 years as the box said, then they wouldn't have to hold up their end by replacing it and I would't have to be returning my 3rd or 4th of this product.

>
>-- 
>David Tomaschik
>OpenPGP: 0x5DEA789B
>http://systemoverlord.com
>david at systemoverlord.com




--

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Ron Frazier
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