Seagate Technology has just increased the warranty of pretty much all of their hard drives to 5 years.

"I think the reason we're doing it - well, there's a couple of reasons, actually," said Joe Cousins, senior director of global channel marketing at Seagate. "We're doing a pretty good job reaching out to customers, and evaluating their needs... also, Seagate's warranty of five years rather than one to three years is also a statement of our competence, quality, and reliability investments."

This is in conflict with a recent trend towards shortened warranties. IBM have received criticism for placing limitations on the usage of drives like the DeskStar 120GXP, which was only rated for eight consecutive hours of operation per day.