while considering which model to buy of all the peripherals in a computer
much consideration goes into deciding HDD Hard Disk Drives
for they contain the most moving (actually constantly Oh-My-God) parts in a computer .

thus even in the now personal character age in the Korean Penninsula
TWO major factors await your decision BEFORE choosing your purely /personal/ preference in Hardware manufacturers :

  1. how dependable is the specific model (which usually goes along with historical track of its manufacturer) from user reviews IN the country (for some intended for different countries are made in another part of the World)
  2. how long is the manufacturers’ warranted FREE support,

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[ Over-All HDD Hard Disk Drive Manufacturers’ Track Records AND User Opinions in South Korea ]
there is /always/ another person who disagrees but here it is :
( in the order of my own personal preference and this does change over say, 3 years)

WD and SeaGate has almost the same amount of dependability but with ONE big difference in support :
while WD exchanges the defective product on-the-spot
SeaGate will make you wait to diagnose (usually a few minutes) OR even ask you to come back later
for they insist on FINDING the problem before any exchanges !

the real problem is that with HDD Hard Disk Drives the problems are NOT always evident -_-

Hitachi is preferable in 2 cases in South Korea where either
it sometimes has the price advantage of roughly W2~40,000
AND some types of smaller models intended for notebook OR laptops .

and SamSung Drives are notorious for going kaput any time .
where the only reason it lasts is because they have more local sales points
except the unusual good feed-back on the F3 series HDD Hard Disk Drives of last year (now selling F4 models).

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[ Warranty dates of HDD Hard Disk Drives sold in South Korea ]
this is effective as of February 2011 and is always subject to change :

  • Western Digital 2 years FREE and another paid while external valid for ONLY a year,
  • SeaGate FREE Support was a generous 5 years bought BEFORE 2009 but has shortened to 3 years since,
  • Hitachi 3 years from the Manufacture Date printed on topside of the Hard Disk,
  • SamSung 2 years FREE and 4 years paid support while External Drives get a year more on FREE while same 4 for paid,

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fixing repairs in South Korea goes like this :
all FREE product support is done through their importers whose small stickers are attached on the topside,
and after the Warranty if void OR the importers cannot care for it
only then would you go to the makers’ official repair center
which the importer will inform you of .

[ Korean importers of Western Digital HDD Hard Disk Drives ]
most vendors in South Korea do NOT mention the name of distributor NOR will be eager to tell you
mostly for the simple reason that it is simply time-consuming because their profit margin on each device is slim due to competition .
still if you CAN have the option to choose an importer : THE deciding factor BEFORE you buy an HDD Hard Disk Drive
will be which is head-quartered OR has repair center closest to you in proximity geographically
for although all accept mail-ins, if you have ever been to a courrier relay station you have seen any package is thrown around .

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– Korea Tech BLog, March 2011 –