OEM with a 3 year warranty, should I still stay away from it?

Huh? The OEM hard drives just don't come with a formatting disc, instructions, or anything else.

You get a HD in a box.

But with Maxtor (and probably all the big guys) you just go to their site, download the stuff you need, and it walks you right through the install and formatting.

You can save a few bucks if you're not too intimidated by stuff like this.

Good luck.
 
don't be afraid of OEM .. you get the same product, minus the manual you'll never read and the packaging you'll throw away
 
I have run into problems with Western Digital...drives that were built into some of the machines I've purchased at work here couldn't be replaced directly through western digital.

I have never had a problem with replacing OEM maxtor drives, and I've probably replaced 3 or 4 in the past 3 years (no, they're not unreliable).

Slackmaster 2000
 
Here's the deal on OEM. OEM drives are often sold by the manufactuer with no warranty. Then th retailer adds the warranty to the drive themselves, which means that the warranty is only as good as the retailer who stands behind it.

This can be a good deal, or bad deal depending on who you buy it from.

If I buy a regular drive and it breaks, and the guy I bought it from is no longer in business, I have the option of sending it right back to the manufactuer for replacement.

However, if its an OEM drive, I contact the manufactuer and they will tell me to take it back where I bought it...And if they are out of biz, then I'm out of luck.


That said, I buy OEM drives all the time. Some times its a roll of the dice, but the price break is worth it.
 
When you get the drive, just go online and punch the serial into the manufacturer's website to check the warranty. If you bought a maxtor, chances are that you'll be in luck.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Slackmaster2K said:
I have run into problems with Western Digital...drives that were built into some of the machines I've purchased at work here couldn't be replaced directly through western digital.

Slackmaster 2000
Click to expand...

IT all depends on the deal whoever bought the drive from the WD or Maxtor etc made originally.

Sometimes the big companys will buy the drives with no warranty to get a big price break, knowing that few are going to fail within the machines warranty period anyway. The few that do fail, they just replace out of their own stash.

Then, when a new bigger drive comes out, and warranty on the machines they already sold runs out, the left over drives they have get sold off to the general public as OEM drives. Then, places like Frys, or little mom and pop stores buy them cheap and agree to take on the warranty themselves.....with mixed results.
 
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