Seagate Technology 200 GB USB 2.0 and FireWire External Drive ( ST3200823A-RK )
BEWARE THE WARRANTY
WARNING! The warranty for Seagate products may not be what you think it is.  I bought a Seagate external hard drive.  The outside of the box says \\"fully guaranteed - A worry-free one-year warranty covers all parts and labor\\"; BEWARE, this warranty is not for you - it is for the retailer that sells it to you.  This warranty starts the day that Seagate sells it to the distributor. So, if you buy it from a retailer and it has sat on their shelf for a number of months, your warranty is less than a year. <br /> <br />I learned the hard way - I bought the Seagate hard drive on the 22nd of January 2004.  It stopped working in late December of 2004.  When I called Seagate warranty support to inquire about the warranty, Seagate informed me that the warranty expired on December 2nd, 2004.  I called the retailer to ask them about the issue.  They did not know that the warranty started prior to my purchase and told me that there was no way for them to know how long that hard drive had been in their possession.  They recommended that I call Seagate warranty support back to escalate the issue since it was within 45 days of the end of the warranty and within one year of my purchase. <br /> <br />I had to call Seagate warranty support seven times in a month to try to get some answers.  Twice they told me that they were going to call me back and never did.  Finally, on the seventh call, they informed me that they would not replace my drive.  Dealing with the warranty support team was a miserable experience and after this experience, I would never recommend buying a Seagate product to anyone.  Spend a bit more money on a product with a real warranty, just in case something goes wrong.  After all, if the company has that little confidence in their product, why should you trust in it?