My 40 gig IBM Deskstar DTLA-305040 Hard drive failed on me last week . Lost a load of stuff, including my 'my documents' and all my favourites. Anway, luckily, I bought this when I was still learning the computer basics, and didn't know the best sites and stuff, and i got it from special reserve, but most importantly it had a 3 year warranty , unlike all the OEM drives i buy now , anyway Maxtor drives dont fail right ? well not for me so far anyway lol
Ok anyway, I had about 5 months left on the warranty so i RMA'd it. Its an IBM drive but now IBM drives are Hitachi as everyone knows, so i had to send it to Hitachi in the Netherlands. I posted it on Thursday, so thats what, 2 days so far.
My first question is, I was told at the post office that Air mail is only a day faster, about 2 or 3 days, than surface mail, 3 or 4 days. But when i looked after, according to RM's postal price book, it says air mail 3 days, surface mail 2 weeks !! How long do you think it will take ?? Anyone got any experiene with this ?
Next, Hitachi tell you to send it by a postal service which provides a tracking service .... but I sent it through standard RM small packet parcel post, will this be a problem ? any idea ?
Next, anyone have experience with IBM/Hitchi RMA's ? They say there may be a delay in dispatch of the new drive, if they are out of stock of the replacement drive. Well im not sure they even make this drive any more ? or would they just have some in stock still ? Is there any chance they will send me a better drive than the original in replacement ??
Any relevant comments greatly appreicated, thanks alot