reg number data base ?

the one i use is

Many insurance services can also do this when requesting a quotation ..

Yes, and thanks for reminding me of a really annoying gripe I have with this site...

Having been an RAC member for 25+ years, it won't let me register. Tried it last time someone posted about this, tried it again a few minutes ago - nope, no chance... 'kin crap...

Agreed. It's a continued gripe that they charge £30 more in subsequent years after the initial 'introductory offer'. A slightly odd loyalty bonus really, which a small amount of screaming has generally rectified. Only family loyalty keeps me a member now, although with my recent usage history they'll be glad to see the back of me.

On a more positive note...

I broke a Western Digital USB hard drive over the weekend. Well, I unplugged it, and then plugged it back in again. Silly me!

I was told to bin it today (apparently it isn't an essential kitchen table item) and thought it probably out of warranty. A quick serial number look up on

Very impressed, although there is nothing inherently clever about any of it.

Mother"

It just let me register, but I've only been a member for 10 years so I don't think that's the factor!

We once had a batch of WD drives which were known faulty. I also got a very quick (via the telephone) RMA when one failed. They then contacted me and asked if I had many more. When I told them we had 20 or so, they sent a courier on overnight with replacements and arranged for the courier to come and pick up the old ones once we'd swapped them over (which took over a week to do). Now THAT was 'kin impressive and rather acted as an incentive to buy the 'brand' again.

Shame really, fidelity and loyalty are rarely rewarded. Nice to know that there are at least a few standards and positive approaches toward customer 'service' left, other than wishing you a nice day...

I recently got a 'cold call' from another drive vendor pushing Hitachi Deskstar drives. I told him we buy WD - he's sent me two 160gig drives to 'try out'. If I don't like them, no cost, no further sales calls. If I do like them, buy some more... Seems alright to me!

was it WD that made the big batch of faulty drives a couple of years ago?, or am i getting my manufacturers mixed up?

If so, then didnt they deny everything for a fair while, and then suddenly decide to own up and replace everything?

At one of my schools a technician came and replaced about 50 of em for us. That must have been an exciting job. We had been loosing about 3 or 4 a week prior to the replacement.

That sounds like the Fujitsu c*ck up. We had lots of drives here that failed at the time, all 10 or 15 gig Fujitsu's. IIRC they blamed Cirrus Logic for not encapsulating one of the controller chips properly.

The way they denied it put me off buying the brand again.

The Hitachi's Martins got should be good as they took over IBM's drive business and I've never had a problem with an IBM drive. Ever.

Possibly, but the first I knew of it was when a drive failed, they acted well to resolve it, which was nice.

Ah... I must try to keep up with what's happening in this industry!

They do seem well built.

According to them my Series IIa is 2003 years old!!!

Mother"

Not too far off then ... ;)

It's quite simple, there's only two or three manufacturers left

I narrow it down to:

Fijutsu/Hitachi/IBM Seagate/WD Maxtor Excelstor Samsung

Excelstor I've never heard of, and Samsung I don't think make thier drives. Anyone know any more?

I remember the old manufacturers, like Connor, CDC etc etc. They were the proper computing days, when you had to know all the parameters, including setting the interleave, before you could prep the HDD.

Alex

On or around Thu, 29 Apr 2004 18:09:27 +0000 (UTC), "Richard Brookman" enlightened us thusly:

It may just be me - but the Maxtor drives seem to generate much more heat than the IBM/Hitachi or WDs

I guess it's natural to expect faulty products every now and then. The difference is how the problem is addressed and resolved. I'm currently highly inclined toward Oki after they provided an excellent swap-out for a (not broken, but not what I thought I'd ordered) colour laser printer for a far better model at no extra cost. Because of this 'service' (I've mentioned it to other colleagues) they've had 4 more sales.

That's familiar....

we had just bought over 800 PCs with this problem..... the supplier had to come in (overnight & weekends), replace all the disks, re-install the OS....

Bruce.