[mythtv-users] How is this pricing possible?

[Dan Armbrust]

> Most current SATA drives on the market are flawed. I the expectation
> is 1% to 7% of all your drives will fail each year. And the failures
> do not always have anything to do with old age or usage. Out of 100 to
> 200 drives I have at work I sent back RMAs on 6 to 8 and had 5 other
> failures last year. Most of the RMAs were from drives that were less
> than 3 years old. This year I have RMD'd 3 drives, had a DOA and 1
> more drive ready to RMA.
>
> John

I completely concur... drives these days are shit  They are dirt
cheap.  But they are horrible for longevity.  I would say my failure
rates are even higher than 10% within the warranty period.  When the
major drive makers dropped their warranties down to 1 year a few years
ago... that was really the low point.  Absolute, utter crap.  If it
costs them too much to offer a 3 or a 5 year warranty, that should
tell you something about the drive.  Meanwhile, I have drives that are
over 10 years old, which still work fine (and have been working fine
for 10 years straight).

While the warranty lengths have gone back up... the drive quality
seems to be a bit slower in following.  You just need to adjust your
thinking to the quality of the drives.  Buying enough cheap drives to
have proper backups is still cheaper than buying "commercial"
drives... which in practice, probably aren't any better anyway

Once you accept that your drives will fail, and will fail early... you
will make proper arrangements for it... and then it won't bother you
when the inevitable happens.  Just buy the drives with the longest
warranty, and expect to use it.