I was just pricing some new drives over at the egg and noticed that they offer extended waranties. Add a year for 14.99 or two years for 24.99. The drives are already coming with 3 yrs and was wondering if the extra year or two is worth it. Approximatly how long have the drives in your Unraid server lasted? I know they can fail at any time, ( i just had a 6 month old drive fail) but on average what are you long time Unraid users seeing for failures?

I was just pricing some new drives over at the egg and noticed that they offer extended waranties. Add a year for 14.99 or two years for 24.99. The drives are already coming with 3 yrs and was wondering if the extra year or two is worth it. Approximatly how long have the drives in your Unraid server lasted? I know they can fail at any time, ( i just had a 6 month old drive fail) but on average what are you long time Unraid users seeing for failures?

 

Not worth it in my opinion

A little while ago there was a discussion about purchasing 'server class' drives, at a premium over standard drives, because the more expensive drives had a five year warranty.  The general feeling was that most drives are obsolescent before a three year warranty has expired.  At four, or five years, would you be happy with a like-for-like replacement (probably refurbished) drive?  Would it be worth the extra up-front cost?

I guess it may depend on who handles this warranty also.

Will newegg do the replacement?

Is it immediate?

Do they cross ship?

http://promotions.newegg.com/service_net/11-0615/index.html

 

I don't know how long will it be before Unraid will be supporting drives larger than 3TB ? I would certianly be happy getting a free 3TB HD 5 years from now. Even if it did not go in my server I have other machines I could use it in. If MTBF is between 3 - 5 years a steady stream of free replacements would be nice.

I don't know how long will it be before Unraid will be supporting drives larger than 3TB ?

 

Doesn't unRAID already support drives larger than 3TB?

A little while ago there was a discussion about purchasing 'server class' drives, at a premium over standard drives, because the more expensive drives had a five year warranty.  The general feeling was that most drives are obsolescent before a three year warranty has expired.  At four, or five years, would you be happy with a like-for-like replacement (probably refurbished) drive?  Would it be worth the extra up-front cost?

 

How much would you be willing to pay for a refurbed 250G drive?  (That was prime size 5 yrs ago.)  If you say "$25" would be an incredible bargain, then buying an extended warranty 5 years ago might have made sense (although chances are still pretty good the drive would not fail at 5 yrs old and need replacement, so you'd really need to think that 250G drive was worth $75 or $100 today, to be willing to spend $25 on an extended warranty 5 years ago).  For me, the answer would be - $0.  I don't want a 250G drive.  And 5 years from now I doubt I'll want a new 2T drive to replace one that might fail then.

 

Extended warranties are, in general, a ripoff.  They take advantage of the love and pride you have in a new purchase, tricking you into thinking you'll always feel that way, without realizing when you need the warranty, the product is likely obsolete and you won't even want it.  Save your money.  If something breaks, buy something new and current.  It will be cheaper than buying extended warranties of everything you buy - and you'll be upgrading, not getting a refurb of something you liked years ago.

Save your money....

 

There are a few things that an extended warranty with accidental damage is a good idea.

 

A Laptop perhaps, a cell phone,... umm drawing a blank. those are handy if you drop and break the item or it falls in the toilet...

 

other then that. it is just a scam. the manufactures warranty is usually good.

 

On the other side of the coin...

I do have 2 dead WD 2TB green drives that are dead and out of warranty.. i would take a refurb for those if i could..

BUT. If i had bought extended warranty on all of my 2TB  drives, at $25 a drive.. that would be $1000 (40ish drives) or so.. I think i can afford a new drive for $59. much better deal then 1k

Without an extended warranty, I have a Samsung 1TB drive that has died while under warranty. I am conflicted over paying the return shipping (probably @ $20) for a refurb warranty replacement. When I can buy a new 2TB drive for ~ 2x the return shipping does that make any sense ?

Without an extended warranty, I have a Samsung 1TB drive that has died while under warranty. I am conflicted over paying the return shipping (probably @ $20) for a refurb warranty replacement. When I can buy a new 2TB drive for ~ 2x the return shipping does that make any sense ?

 

I just sent back 4 Sammy 1.5tb drives. they sent me back a new drive. turn around was about 7 business days total.

... If i had bought extended warranty on all of my 2TB  drives, at $25 a drive.. that would be $1000 (40ish drives) or so.. I think i can afford a new drive for $59. much better deal then 1k

 

Ouch never looked at it this way, probably because my array is so small I am thinking one drive at a time.

I don't know how long will it be before Unraid will be supporting drives larger than 3TB ?

 

Doesn't unRAID already support drives larger than 3TB?

 

I don't think so but I could be wrong. I keep reading about people using 3TB drives at a lower capacity until V5 is complete. I don't know when V5 is done how large of a drive it will support since all I am reading about is 3tb right now.

I don't know how long will it be before Unraid will be supporting drives larger than 3TB ?

 

Doesn't unRAID already support drives larger than 3TB?

 

I don't think so but I could be wrong. I keep reading about people using 3TB drives at a lower capacity until V5 is complete. I don't know when V5 is done how large of a drive it will support since all I am reading about is 3tb right now.

The current Beta's support 3TB drives...

I believe right now, it is a GPT Partition table on XFS?... The limit for  GPT should be about 9.4ZB... but the underlying 32bit XFS would be limited to 16TB.

so in therory would could use 16TB disks... 

 

so.. whatever it is. you can use 3TB Hitachi drives at least... WD Might have hardware issues (untested).

so in therory would could use 16TB disks... 

 

This was the point I was making.  There is no technical restriction at 3TB, so it would have to be a deliberate constraint implemented in unRAID.

So 20 16tb disks.........I need to find more stuff to shovel onto the server.....lol

Technology changes so fast. You probably won't be using those drives more than 3 years anyway. The prices on them will drop, so if you need to replace them in 3 years, you will probably upgrade and if you don't, the same drive will be cheap.

I never buy the extended warranty on anything.

I had a video card that came with a warranty- after about a year the card failed and the company replaced it. This happened 3 times and they kept replacing it. They probably would still do it, but I upgraded.

I purchased replacment windows maybe 15 years ago, since then the company has changed hands at least for times, and the lift time warranty is as worthless as used toilet paper.

 

  Before I pay $25 for a 2 year warranty on hard drives, I would put the money in a saving account and let it build interest. (Albeit not much!) If you buy 6 - 3TB drives at $109 each then add $25 to each for extended warranty, and none or even just one fail after the first three years but before 5 years. You have thrown away $150 for pretty much nothing. (A 3TB refurbished drive will be worth about $25 in 4-5 years. I am betting that in 4-5 years SSD's will be in the 10-20TB range for less then $200 each, and HDD's will be gone.