http://www.ebay.com/itm/301127190706

 

Drive inside is most probably 5900 RPM green Seagate ST4000DM000

I am curious if you extract a drive from an external enclosure and the drive fails, can it be RMA'ed as an internal drive. In the old days drive manufacturers marked external drives (I remember a giant X) and prevented them from being RMAed as stand along disks.

 

Is that still the case?

 

Reassembling an modern external drive is virtually impossible so doing this invalidates the warranty.

I am curious if you extract a drive from an external enclosure and the drive fails, can it be RMA'ed as an internal drive. In the old days drive manufacturers marked external drives (I remember a giant X) and prevented them from being RMAed as stand along disks.

 

Is that still the case?

 

Reassembling an modern external drive is virtually impossible so doing this invalidates the warranty.

 

I know this has been brought up in other threads on here and it was a YMMV. In all of my experiences once you break up the external case it voids your warranty. Unless of course you can open it without them knowing and put it back in if the drive goes bad. I believe most MFG's keep track based on serial number.

This is a your mileage may vary scenario. I've tried to RMA two WD drives and one Seagate drive that were removed from external enclosures and in all three cases I've been successful. In one situation I RMA'd a bare 3TB WD Green drive ripped from an enclosure and received a 4TB external drive back that had a Hitachi drive in it. But on the other hand I've read plenty of cases of people not having any luck RMA bare drives from externals. If it were me and I needed a drive and a really good deal like this came along is buy it and roll the dice.

Haha yeah, I rma'd a Seagate that was ripped out of an external enclosure after 2.5 years. I sent in a 2TB, and received a brand new 3TB.

 

But I heard other people not being successful

Thanks guys. Kinda what I thought. You may get lucky but warranty is normally not honored.

 

I do my research and buy reliable ones (my array is almost all 3T Hitachis). I seldom have had one give trouble. But when they do give trouble it usually happens very early in their life. I would be pretty disappointed to buy an external, remove it from its case, find it had issues and (1) not be able to exchange it and (2) not be able to RMA it. So looking at a $140 internal drive from a reputable dealer with ability to exchange a defective one and get RMA service if needed, vs a $125 external "as is", I think is have to pay the extra $15 bucks. It's stupid that inside it is the identical thing, but unless the price savings were more I'd pay it.

 

My experience is 1 in 10 drives have a problem (and again this is with good quality drives). Joe L. reported generally more like 1 in 5 are showing signs of problems in preclear. So saving 10-20% on an unwarranted drive is break even if you are buying a bunch. 1 drive and it's a crap shoot but at least the odds are in your favor.

Also don't forget that if purchased with some credit cards, those credit cards will extend the warranty by 1 year.  I know this is true with my amex plat and visa preferred.