TiVo Community Forums Archives - Can you really RMA just the hard drive?

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Can you really RMA just the hard drive?
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Posted by: MHz

I was reading some older posts around here and saw some people mention that they RMAd their Tivo's OEM hard drive and got a new one to use in the meantime. Does that actually work? I'm wondering since my brand new SAT-T60 made some strange clunk-clunk noises recently and I'm sure as hell not living without it for any period of time.

Posted by: Robert S

Possibly. You'll have to check the numbers on the drive on Maxtor's website to see if you're covered. Apparently working out exactly which of the numbers to type into which box is quite tricky!

If it is covered, you can use their advance return system where they send you a replacement drive and then give you a month to return the failing one.

Of course, you should already be running diagnostics, taking backups,etc...

Posted by: BlankMan

I've done two in the last month or so. (Now don't everybody go and get their undies in a bunch, I've got 16+ Maxtors constantly spining, 7x24, in my house so if I have a few early moralities I'm not that concerned. That's why I always get the mfg.'s 3 year warranty.) I called them both times because I like dealing with a person verses Web Forms and the process was smooth. They ask for certain numbers off the drive to check eligibility and they will do what they call an Advance Return or something like that. They ship you the drive then you have 30 day to return the bad one. You have to give them a CC number to do this though. They do not charge it, unless after 30 days you do not return the drive. This works for drives I've installed in the TiVo that were acting up, not drives that came in the TiVo. They might know from the serial number that they sold it to the TiVo mfg. and it was not in the retail channel, and they may baulk because of that, I don't know. But a failed drive is a failed drive if it's under warranty... However, a drive that came in the TiVo may not carry a drive mfg.'s warranty, the TiVO mfg. may get a price break if they take them with a 30 or 90 day drive mfg. warranty and then replace the drives themselves once past that time. Who knows. Your call will tell.

On my second one, a 120G 5400RPM, I told them it had the clicking problem twice and the only way to get it stop was to power it down. I've said this before, that's not in the scope of a drives normal operation. At any rate, they must know that's bad from experience because they did not ask if I ran diagnostics nor suggest I run diagnostics, they just offered to replace it.

If you do call, I'd be interested to hear if they did replace it and how old it was when they did.

Posted by: MHz

Sounds pretty good then. I'm not going to replace it until it starts causing problems other than clunck-clunking though so it may be a while until I can report what happens.

Posted by: BlankMan

I think the clicking problem I had and the clunck-clunking problem you're having are one in the same. If you have recordings, and you want to preserve them, I would recommend you get a replacement drive on the way and swap it out. Twice, when mine did this, on reboot, it GSOD'd, if yours does that, and it doesn't recover, you'll be sending the whole unit back.

Posted by: Francesco

You might have to know somebody (a reseller or systems builder) who has a good working relationship with Maxtor.

That's what I did and got an Advance Return RMA for the OEM 40GB Quantum in my Hughes DTiVo. Painless, and I was without TiVo on that TV for all of three days.

Posted by: BlankMan

I don't know nobody, and nobody don't know me and they had no problem extending the offer to me?

But seriously, do they not extend that offer to everyone? They do know I have a s*load of Maxtor drives spinning 7x24 and I'm no business.

Posted by: Francesco

I suppose so. But as you said, with the OEM straight out of the TiVo, YMMV.

Posted by: Stevenm007

I have called maxtor with a Dead drive that came in my HDR212. They said that this was not a drive that they sell directly to the customer. They asked where i purchased it and i just said ebay. They sent me a new drive with out and questions.

:cool:

Posted by: BlankMan

Stevenm007, good move, I'm going to have to remember that!

Posted by: aciurczak

I had a maxtor go dead on me in a new T-60. The serial # wouldn't work on the web form. I called the 800# and they entered the serial # manually into their system. They ended up sending me a 80 gig free of charge to replace the 40 that died; I had it in 4 days. Maxtor customer service keeps me buying them, even if the drives themselves are no better or worse than the other big guys.

Posted by: DJRobX

Maxtor's customer service is wonderful (and keeps me buying them despite my pitiful luck with their products), but my serial numbers on my TiVo drives come up "no warranty". I guess I'll have to try the phone route.

-- Rob

Posted by: captain_video

I've had two Quantum lct20 40GB drives from DirecTivos die on me (I accidentally shorted out a chip on the controller card on two different drives). Maxtor replaced both of them without a problem. I even told the first CSR that it came from a DirecTivo and she had no idea what I was talking about.

Posted by: Joshv

I purchased 2 Maxtor 80GB drives about 11 months ago for TiVo upgrades.

I am disappointed to say they both died this month. 1 drive completely failed and would no longer post, the other sounded like a bagpipe and was loosing sectors left-and-right.

Although Maxtor is repairing both of them under warranty, I still lost all of my shows on 1 TiVo (96 HOURS) and narrowly recovered most of the shows on the the other.

However the original Quantum drives in my TiVo's are sputtering along nicely...

I switched to Western Digital, for this round of upgrades, I'll try my luck with them. CompUSA is offering 120GB 7200RM + 8MB Cache for $149.99 after $50 rebate. Pretty good deal if you need drives in a pinch and can't wait for the mail.

Has anyone else had this bad of luck with Maxtor?

Posted by: MHz

quote:
Originally posted by BlankMan
Twice, when mine did this, on reboot, it GSOD'd, if yours does that, and it doesn't recover, you'll be sending the whole unit back.

Why would I be sending the whole unit back? Couldn't I just get a new drive and restore my backup and be good to go?