<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV>to me, that sounds like MAJOR grounds for a class-action suit on the grounds of false advertising.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Imagine if airplanes were sold on the idea that wings fail only once every 10 years.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>there'd be a lot of charred dead bodies laying around.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>this is definitely in my craw! I pay hard-earned money for these drives, which are advertised as having a vastly longer life than in reality.</DIV><DIV>when one fails, manufacturers are often cool and snarky about their level of responsibity (or lack thereof).</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>snarky vendors don't get my work done.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>There is one solution for a Mac user for now: buy from a re-seller who offers a return policy, such as Costco.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Then, if your 150-year drive pukes after 8 months, it's the manufacturer who suffers the $ loss on the gear, not you.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>nk</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Feb 17, 2006, at 10:19 AM, Bill Bauldry wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="1" style="font: 9.0px Lucida Grande">But - I know how the MTBF figures are calculated - and they are wrong. It's</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="1" style="font: 9.0px Lucida Grande">an improper application of "statistical independence" that gives the silly</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="1" style="font: 9.0px Lucida Grande">figures. Think of it this way: if the mean life of a computer is 5 years and</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="1" style="font: 9.0px Lucida Grande">the MTBF of a hard drive is 160 years, it should be such an incredibly rare</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="1" style="font: 9.0px Lucida Grande">event for a hard drive to fail that Norton, Alsoft, Prosoft, Micromat, etc.,</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="1" style="font: 9.0px Lucida Grande">would never have gone into the business. Manufacturer's claims</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="1" style="font: 9.0px Lucida Grande">notwithstanding, a Google search gives over 2.3 million hits for "hard drive</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="1" style="font: 9.0px Lucida Grande">repair."</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>