Having been a corporate support rep, I can assure you that laptop drives are the most often replaced part.  I have seen drives fail in very short periods of time.  We had one user who went through six drives in one year.  All we had to do to fix his problem was watch him throw his laptop into the trunk of his car and advise him appropriately.  Laptop drives fail much more often than desktop drives because they are more delicate.  The mechanical clearances are much smaller and therefore more critical.  The portability and handling enhances the chance for failures, especially compared to desktops.  Laptops that are "deskbound" have a very small drive failure rate.  If you ever get the chance, disassemble a bad drive and you will be astonished it ever worked in the first place - truly an engineering marvel.

 

Any part you recieve from Dell will probably be marked "refurbished".  I don't remember the exact reason, but is has something to do with tax or accounting issues.  Every part (not many) I have ever received from Dell has been marked refurbished. 

 

It's almost impossible to say any one brand of drive is more reliable than another.  Realiability seems to change periodically.  A good backup schedule is the only reasonable way to handle drive failures, especially with laptops.

 

Allen T.

To the best of my knowledge they are new.  However, most warranties have a disclaimer about parts.  Dell is the only one I have seen do this.  It appears to me that Dell marking them refurbished causes a lot of problems, if nothing else perception problems. 

 

Allen T.

I will try to get to the bottom of this through an official Dell support technician (although I doubt I will get a candid answer).

 

So what do you know about the warranty policy on the replacement drives you (and others) receive? Is it warrantied for another 1yr (or 3yr)? Or does the warranty expires along with the general warranty of my system (in my case 7 months)?