Used hard drive?

Read the service contract.  It says that Dell will replace parts with either new or refurbished parts.  Most of the time you get a part that says refurbished and it could in fact be new, but all replacement parts I have ever received always say refurbished.

Steve

Almost all companies replace with refurbished parts, it's standard business practice.....western digital, buslink, iomega, maxtor, dell, etc....

One positive note, is sometimes you get a better drive than you had.  I had a 40 GB IBM DeathStar go bad me and had it replaced with a 60 GB Drive.  Like the others said Maxtor, WD do the same.    I think the only exception should be when the unit is less than 90 days old.

 

I know,it too has the same warranty, its just a pain.  I guess they did convince me to never buy the extended warranty.  At least, I wouldn't replace anything with a refurbished part, even if it is warrantied!

 

And along those same lines, it carries the same warranty you have.

Ryan

A neat little technicality you may not be aware of, is that all repair parts shipped from the repair depot, by law, must be labled REFURBISHED. (repair parts are not shipped from the same location as where the systems are assembled.) Depending on the item, like about 70% of some replacement parts are actually new.

Even if it is "refurbished", it carries the full force of the warranty, so what is the big deal.

This is standard policy in every major computer corporation's repair contract, Gateway, HP/Compaq, IBM, & so on. I've been buying refurbished parts for my systems for years with few issues.

onlyafour,

Thanks for using the Dell Community Forum.

Any system that leaves manufacturing and comes back is considered refurbished, even if it's never used.  A car dealer can take a car out for 20 test drives and still sell it as new.  Computer manufacturers can't.  Once it leaves the manufacturing facility, arrives at it's destination and comes back, it's used. 

Also, as stated by the other members here on the Forum, it does carry the same warranty.  I can assure you that Dell does not want to replace any parts on any system so they are checked before they go out. 

I never said Dell replaced it 4 times.  I said I was on my 3rd hard drive in four years.  The original, the second that Dell replaced and now, because the warranty has expired, I replaced the second with a third.

Check my sig this is a Dell refurb saved a few hundred dollars and got a great system with 3 year warranty and on site 3 year. It's brand new as far as i'm concerned and i couldn't be happier!!

onlyafour,

I'm sorry but checking under your service tag, I don't see that we replaced the drive 4 times.  In fact, the tag you gave says the warranty expired.  If it was for a different system, send me the tag in Private Message and I'll look into it.

As far as those $99 computer systems go, they are usually sold "as is" with no warranty at all. 

As stated by some of the other users, every major computer manufacturer uses "refurbished" parts out for replacement.  Again, that doesn't mean they were ever used.  It's not uncommon at all for Fortune 100 companies to order more than what they need and then send the rest back.  Even though they were never taken out of the box, by law they are considered used. 

Also, when it comes to computer parts, just because something has been used it doesn't mean it's going to fail quicker than a new part.  Most computer parts are never repaired, they are disposed of.  It's not cost effective to repair something.  But, even it it has not been used, if it left the factory it's considered used.

Nice computer. I would have saved money too skipping the extended warranty!  Is this normal life for a hard drive or should I look for something else causing the drives to go bad?  The power supply is factory, I defrag once a week, I leave the computer on all the time the computer is unchanged from purchase other than more RAM and Win XP.

I guess I'm complaining too much.  I guess three hard drives in four years is normal?  I understand they carry the same warranty it's just a huge pain to reinstall and update all the software, redownload programs, register software, restart the computer countless times (all on dialup).  I tried Norton Ghost after the last drive went bad and it might have worked if I had kept the CD's up to date.  (I started thinking 12 CD's was a waste and stopped creating them.  Now the CD's are old compared to the current configuration).  I usually associate refurbished computer hardware with big computer shows--you know---"THIS WEEKEND ONLY computers from $99, flat screen plasma TV's $150, brand name shoes $10, blah, blah, blah."  Next time I'll skip the extended warranty, go to the computer show, get the part, and maybe pick up some shoes while I'm at it.

Thanks

Ryan

Sorry onlyafour

Sounds like really bad luck. In my other computer, 5 years old still has orginal hard drive i bought another 80 gig 3 years ago Maxtor that i put in this comp for second drive. I turn my comp off every nite but it stays on all day.