If you want to get a new hard drive, you might want to consider getting one now, if indeed you can find one with the recent shortages. The Verge reports that the two biggest hard drive manufacturers, Western Digital and Seagate, will be making some changes to their hard drive warranties starting in late 2011-2012.
Seagate is making the biggest change in its warranty plans. Starting on December 31 most of its standard hard drives for both PC desktop and notebooks will have their warranties cut down from a very generous five years to just one year. Some other hard drives will have their warranties cut to three years and that includes the company"s Momentus XT hybrid drive.
Western Digital"s moves are not quite as drastic as Seagate"s. It will cut the warranty times for three of its hard drives (Caviar Blue, Caviar Green, and Scorpio Blue) from three years down to two years beginning on January 2, 2012. Western Digital will also offer an extended warranty offer but you will have to pay extra to get it.
These changes will not affect any of the external hard drives that Seagate or Western Digital offer, nor will it affect Seagate enterprise drive or higher-end Western Digital drives.