Seagate is bundling two years of data recovery services with is new GoFlex Turbo Performance Drive models.
The new GoFlex is available in two flavors, with 500 GB capacity for $120 and with 750 GB capacity for $140. The "Performance" part of the name stems from the fact that these USB 3.0 drives rotate their platters with 7200 RPM, and not with 5400 RPM as their USB 2.0 siblings do.
However, the big news in those drives is Seagate's decision to bundle them with SafetyNet, which is a 2-year subscription to a data recovery service. Seagate considers the service as a bonus that provides "peace of mind" as far as the data security is concerned. I am not sure how much of a buying incentive the recovery service really is, but could be bringing in fence sitters who are storing valuable data on those drives - even if the SafetyNet program may not be exactly what you would want to have access to in the case of sudden data loss. According to the terms of the program, customers have to call Seagate, talk to a tech rep, who then determines if the case is eligible for data recovery service and whether any data is likely to be recovered. The drive may have to be shipped to Seagate and you may have to wait two weeks until you get your drive and data, if it is recoverable, back.
A hard drive can fail at any time, but the industry tells us that the risk of a failure dramatically increases after about five years of operation, at which a data recovery service may really be something you would want to invest in (or buy a new hard drive). Personally, I always found hard drive failures (I had plenty of them over the past 15 years) a pain in the neck to deal with and the more recent ones ended up at a local data recovery service, which was able to recover my data (not always in its entirety) within a few hours and less than $100 per case.
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Douglas Perry was a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering semiconductors, storage technology, quantum computing, and processor power delivery. He has authored several books and is currently an editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
So this reminded me of a quote from Tommyboy:
"they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of $h!t. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I've got spare time. But for now, for your customer's sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from Western Digital."
Actually i probably buy 50/50 - WD/Seagate, just think its funny to offer this service. Just goes to show you that so many clueless people back up a MECHANICAL hard drive on another MECHANICAL hard drive and thats all. i made that mistake many years ago and now i wouldnt keep anything of importance on a single backup when Flash/DVD/BD or Interet storage is so cheap as extra redundancy! Now if they want to package this service on their drives at identical prices to their competition, i take back my criticisms!
I have had PCs for almost two decades with no HDD failures. It seems I should be playing the lotto more often... I always forget how often this happens to people.
ginnaiI have had PCs for almost two decades with no HDD failures. It seems I should be playing the lotto more often... I always forget how often this happens to people.Ah, I used to be like you. Then I lost 5 years worth of data (only 232 GB back then) and came to realize the importance of backups. At which point I proceeded to zip up my entire website as a "backup" and kept the backups on the same HDD as my website itself. :P Of course, that too crashed. I like to think that I now do proper backups. :D
farleytronI'd rather have the 5 year Seagate warranty back! (they're trying to save some money by reducing it to 2 years)
Well, a 5 year Seagate warranty equals a 100% claim rate.
custodian-1back up back up and off site backup. Data recovery who needs it.
Most people are not that smart. And some can't afford it. But for those if the HDD dies, and by that I mean wont spin up or recognize on a PC at all, and this provides a way to retrieve that data its not that bad.
