In fact, besides studying tests and technical data, buying a hard drive is largely influenced by personal experience. Disregarding manufacturer promises, technical innovations, price comparisons or even problems with drives from a certain series, a certain bond of trust between the customer and a brand is required. Once established, this trust can survive for many years. Anyone who's been subjected to the trauma of a hard-drive defect will find it difficult to trust the same manufacturer again. Just like that, the trust will have crumbled.

It's a far cry from mainboards and graphics cards, because a hard drive must be able to guarantee that the data it contains is always accessible. Seen both psychologically and practically, a defect is worse than the death of a graphics card, since the latter can be exchanged in a few minutes and does not represent any great investment of time and effort for installation and configuration.

A Defect's Not Always A Defect

We should make it clear at this point, however, that not all hard-drive defects can be labeled the same. If a drive dies after many years' service, it will usually have long exceeded its life expectancy. In this case, the manufacturer cannot be blamed given that products with moving mechanical parts subjected to heavy-duty service will perforce wear out some time.