Seagate - Amazing support

Initially I was worried about the hard disk crash. But now there are no worries. I did not lose too much data too. I was able to access my data by connecting my HDD as a slave on a friend's comp. I had been worried that the hard disk was totally screwed and there was no way of recovering data. Been lucky though.

I contacted Seagate support (Got the local service center number from their India toll free number) a couple of days back. The conversation went something like this:

Service center : Good evening. How can I help you?
Me : Hi. I have a 160GB Seagate Hard disk. I am having some problems with it for the past 2 days. I have not been able to boot into any OS; Not been able to reinstall any OS too.
Service center : Is it still covered by warranty.
Me : Yes
Service center : Please bring it to us. We will replace it.
Me : So will I be given a replacement immediately
Service center : No Sir, Your complaint will get processed in a couple of days, after which you will get your replacement.
Me : Where do I need to bring it?
Service center : (some address)... Thank you.

I had been very impressed. Well all other companies that I had ever contacted earlier for support (not for a hard disk though) always spoke as though the warranty never existed. The worst support I have experienced has been for Sify. I have a Sify broadband connection at home. It took me 15 days to get a renewal. I had called them more than 25 times during this period. The only reply that I always got was, "Our renewal team will get back to you. Your complaint will be processed within the next 24 hours."
Comparing that to Seagate support, I must say I am overwhelmed by the support.

Yesterday I went to the service center to give my faulty hard disk. The support staff there asked me what the problem with the hard disk was. Then he verified if there were any signs of physical damage on the HDD. After that he took my contact details. He asked me if I had any important data on it and I needed support to recover some data. He told me that it would take about 2 days to get the replacement and gave me a receipt. No other questions were asked. Well that shows that the company values its customers and the confidence that it has in its product. I have received 4 mails from Seagate so far indicating the progress of the request. They also have an online tracking system where you can login and view the status of your request.

Btw, Seagate is the only company that offers 5 years warranty on hard disks. Most of the other manufacturers offer only 3 years support. Also it is the only company that prints the toll free numbers for customer support on the hard disk label itself. Hmm.... Impressive.

Hope I get the replacement tomorrow or the day after.

On a side note, I have been running my comp completely on RAM for the past two days. Since there is no hard disk, I have been reduced to using only a Linux live CD.

Update : Got my hard disk yesterday. So that has been less than 1 week of downtime.

Day1 with no comp (Yesterday was Day0)

Its been a little more than 30 hours since my comp stopped booting. I am still trying to figure out if it is actually a hard disk crash or something else like a faulty RAM. I just hope for the latter. Don't want to lose over 140GB of data (mostly movies/games/music). Don't want to take the pains of rebuilding it from LAN. I doubt if I will get back some of it - like some old black and white tam movies
But I guess I will call up Seagate and ask them for support after all. It seems a very bleak possibility that the hard disk is still intact.

Incomplete without comp?

Today is the first day I think in the past 4 or 5 years that I have not had access to my comp when I needed it. Well my hard disk seems to have given up after all the trashing that it has been under for the past 1 year. The normal benchmarks that computers pass are not of any use when these comps are used in environments like IIT where they are just beaten black and blue. When you get a bit experimental and try to install every possible thing on your comp, there is nothing much that the comp can do. Well infact at some points of time, I had 3 OS on my comp simultaneously. Windows XP Pro, Mac OSX and Suse 10.0 on one instance and Windows XP Pro 32 bit, Windows XP Pro 64 bit trial and Suse 10.0 on another. No one knows how many times I have reinstalled operating systems on my comp. No wonder the hard disk gave away.

Well I really feel crippled without my comp now. Just shows how much I have become attached to my comp. Not that I really do too many useful things on it, but nonetheless I am just waiting to get it back up and running. Just hope that it does not take too long.