There is an article on Tom's Hardware about the warranties provided with new hard drives.

Read it here -

Rant-O-Matic: When Hard Drive Warranties And Expectations Collide -
http://www4.tomshardware.com/column/200210141/index.html

Eric,

http://www.legge40.freeserve.co.uk/BuyerBeware.htm

it depends from company to company...

for example..

about 6 months ago i was drunk on a sat morning....

listening to music...

and then there comes a strange noise.... clicking and groaning from my machine... i reboot and its not better....

finally i work out its my main HDD with OS installed is the problem....

i remove it, replace with good known HDD...

boot from floppy....
start up drive image and restore my OS....

carry on listening to music as I get an RMA from the HDD company and put the HDD back in the post...

5 days later i receive a bigger HDD and fit that, drive image, etc....

problem solved...

always keep a backup and everything will be cool....

the company in question was Maxtor who gave me completely no problems....

total down time was 15 mins....

People with 1 year warranties are poorly unfortunate. Both of my drives are still eligible for their 3 year warranties, but my 2nd one is nearing the cut-off point.