When to register for warranty? Does it matter?

[schoolpost]

Recently ran to the store to grab a replacement drive when I thought one of my disks died. ( long story short, the disk is still fine but might have other issues pertaining to HBA or data cables )

I bought a WD RED 4TB drive, date of manufacture shows earlier this year in April. I don't want to add it to my server until It's really needed ( unnecessary idle ) so I'm thinking I'll just keep it sidelined for now.

As for registration for warranty, does one need to register the drive immediately or can I "wait" till it actually goes into use for this. The advantages are obvious here, but not sure if this actual works? Is warranty determined from date of purchase? ( I'd imagine yes, but want to see if there is any potential for the contrary )

Aside from warranty, is there any good reasons to keep the drive on the shelf for the time being or throw it into the system regardless and let it break in even if it's not going to do anything in the pool? ( I have 10x4TB Z3 pool that is fully healthy right now )

 

[Arwen]

From what I little I know, all warranties are from when YOU buy it. It's always nice to have a receipt to prove when, in case a vendor gives you trouble.

More recently, if you register the warranty with the vendor upon purchase, you can verify the date the warranty becomes active. Thus, complain now, if that date is 6 months before your purchase date, (thus loosing out on 1/6 of a 3 year warranty).

Some people suggest testing or "burning" in drives. Their is always a chance that the drive has or will very shortly have, a serious enough issue to warranty it now. Plus, you could use it for backups of the more critical data.

 

[ornias]

From what I little I know, all warranties are from when YOU buy it. It's always nice to have a receipt to prove when, in case a vendor gives you trouble.

It depends if it's under EU or US law, under EU law warranty is fully the responsibility of the seller, but some manufacturers also offer warranty (which often happens to be faster). Under US law, warranty might not be with the seller (also depends a bit on state-law afaik)

 

[Spearfoot]

@Arwen's advice to check the warranty period ahead of time is a good idea.

And to amplify on the Good Lady's reply: in the USA it's also a good idea to find DOA disks within 30 days, as most sellers will exchange a new replacement for the faulty unit within that time. After 30 days, you are most likely dealing with the manufacturer, who may or may not send you a 'refurbished' replacement for a failed disk. Don't know about you, but I'd feel cheated if I bought a drive that failed after, say, six months, and the replacement I rec'd for it was a refurbished drive!

Full disclosure: I advocate burning in disks, and have written a script for that purpose:

Github repository for FreeNAS scripts, including disk burnin and rsync support

Github repository for FreeNAS scripts, including disk burnin and rsync support I am maintaining three repositories on GitHub for these purposes: Administration and reporting Disk burn-in Rsync These are all POSIX-compliant shell scripts that...

www.ixsystems.com

or the GitHub repo, here:

GitHub - Spearfoot/disk-burnin-and-testing: Shell script for burn-in and testing of new or re-purposed drives

Shell script for burn-in and testing of new or re-purposed drives - Spearfoot/disk-burnin-and-testing

github.com

 

[ornias]

Yeah, always burn disks asap.
Vendors also really appreciate it if you report any issues too.

 

[Arwen]

@ornias, my comment was "when" the drive is bought, the warranty starts. Not who you deal with on the warranty. But your point is taken, that "who" warranty drives can depend on local laws.


Back in the bad old days last century, I worked with a guy who had previously worked on Burroughs mainframes. He said that they had gotten enough bad disk drives, (the really big ones), he wrote a disk drive tester program. If a new disk drive failed, he didn't put it in production. Just returned it. Eventually Burroughs started sending them new tech to "test", since Burroughs did not apparently know how to do it themselves. Quite amusing years later, but still frightening at times.