[nylug-talk] Paper IT certs and disk drive fabrication differences -- clarification

[Gregg Levine]

On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 12:42 AM, Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-05-23 at 00:35 -0400, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
>> IN A NUTSHELL:
>>   If you're selling hundreds of units as an OEM, don't play stupid.  ;)
>
> Likewise, if you are an end-consumer buying an OEM drive, understand
> your warranty is actually with the reseller, not the manufacturer.  In
> most cases, the reseller negotiates both the warranty period and its
> terms that any consumers purchasing the drives will be covered by.
>
> This is all commercial/uniform/consumer code 101 stuff.  I hope you
> would recognize this.  If not, please educate yourself because you could
> be opening your employer to some liability.
>
> If you buy a retail box and you use it yourself, there is no issue.  If
> you buy a retail box, break it open, use it and then resell it, all bets
> could be legally off.  If you make it an issue enough for a
> manufacturer, they will have a problem with you.  ;)
>
> Again, I wasn't talking about end-users.  I was talking about people
> buying and reselling anything.  And even then I said it often doesn't
> become an issue until you're talking at least several dozen, if not
> hundreds of units.
>
> That's beyond the simple engineering product management facts that you
> sample a lot, classify it, and sell it appropriately.  I really don't
> care what you think or feel, because the reality is simple statistics at
> work.  ;)
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Bryan J  Smith              Professional, Technical Annoyance
> mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org  http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith
> -------------------------------------------------------------

Hello!
Brian, I quite agree with you regarding the issues of drive lifetimes.
For example on the computer running Linux, I just needed to replace
his drive.

It turns out that the 20G (yes I know, for Linux that's an absurd
size.), started making noises indicative of failure earlier this week.

It was obtained used. And it now seems to be one of those heavily used
types, as opposed to the gently used variety that I replaced it with.

It was a Seagate ST320011A model, and according to what information I
could find it was supposed to last about five years, or even outlast
the computer it was installed into, it was classified as an OEM drive
for a HP model.

The replacement is an 80G model from Western Digital.

The confirmation that the older drive had failed splendidly came from
not being able to access it again via a USB to IDE bridging device.

Incidentally, Bryan, if you were the fellow I was sitting next to,
last month, during that double event held for the regular gathering,
then I look forward to seeing you again, next week.
-- 
Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com
"This signature was once found posting rude
 messages in English in the Moscow subway."