"Powell" wrote in message
...

"WorldJAZZ Chairman" wrote

Not to pick nits, but simply as an illustration, I would
point out that the citation of 0.5% failure rate is not
mathematically complete unless the time span is
given.

Well, yes and no. WD, for example, established a design
point (1/2 of 1%) that is based on a number of factors
when it places a price tag on a commodity for the market
niche they want to occupy. If you believe that it is a truly
competitive market place (hard drives) then all similar
companies have comparable products
(WD/Seagate/Maxtor). I think that's true.

This is a good post, though I disagree slightly with the above.
It might actually be true with respect to the last few years.
Go back 4 years or more, and occasionally in the past two years, there have
been noticed differences in hard disk reliablity.
Going back a few years, WD drives became known to me for sticktion problems.
The IBM Deskstar debacle.
Noisy spindle bearings on 60 gB Maxtors.
These are just my personal anecdotes, but I think it's too early to conclude
that hard drives have become utterly generic in their failure
characteristics. It might have happened, but we need to observe a little
longer.

The proof of the pudding would include a review of
insurance tables for the industry. Many aspects of the
intended user's application are beyond the
manufacture's ability to control or reasonably design
for, in their market niche. For example a power surge
on a unprotected computer which destroys the HD. In
addition each product line has different intended users
(consumers/business/enterprise). Point being is that
the ½ of 1 % is a more accurate overview because is a
summary of many different factors not just the specific
technical specification of the product itself.

I remember a time when a hard drive crash meant that
the mechanicals in the HD stopped working. Today it
usually means that the tech can't fix the OS problem.
Hence a new HD is installed and unnecessary billing
hours are charged to the consumer/business.

For example, if questioned further, the WD salesman
may clarify by saying that's the percentage they get back
during the warranty period. Recently, disk drive
manufacturers have reduced their warranty coverage
from three years to one.

I agree. The megabit per dollar is so low now that there
is little profit margin per unit. The cost for providing a
longer warranty cannot be justify. Even so, I'd take my
chances on a 3% failure rate if the cost per unit justified
it. HD failure is a non-issue. The majority of
computers headed for the recycle bid have full operating
hard drives.