question about hard drives

[reboot_this]

What are the differences between purchasing an internal "retail kit hd" vs an internal "bare hd"? I can only tell there is a price difference... and probably the bare hd does not come in a retail box... duh. So what else is there? any warranty differences? any performance or reliability differences?

[carlgar]

The drives themselves are the same. Retail kits come in a retail box and include items like mounting screws and a cable. A retail SATA drive may even come with a power cable to convert from PATA type to a SATA type power connecter.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by reboot_this

any warranty differences?

Unless I'm missing something in the small print, there can be... see Western Digital's Warranty Policy.

- Andy

[jmiddleton]

OEM hard drives typically carry a 3 year (WD) to 5 year(Seagate) warranty. Warranties are usually measured from date of manufacture, not date of purchase. You can check warranty status by entering the model and serial number on the manufacturer web site. Retail box drives do not have better warranties though the retailers who sell them may have better DOA exchange policies.