Good point, OP is from India, we have no clue how warranties work there. Here in the US we can buy from low-price internet stores like newegg.com. Since Newegg is inexpensive they cannot afford to pay for returns, customer has to pay. With WD I simply can go to the WD site, type in the serial and request an RMA (return merchandise authorization). They will ship out the new drive with return package slip, when your new drive arrives you simply use the return slip to ship the bad drive back. (At least this is how it was a couple of years ago.) With Seagate you go thru hell of paperwork.

Oh that's good to know!

Just my two bits, rather than having a WD vs Seagate discussion, you'd have to compare individual models and get some data. In particular you might want to distinguish between "enterprise versions" or "consumer versions", the former - supposedly - having a much longer MTBF, but with commensurate cost. The consumer drives are not designed for continuous use, ie in a server, but more for desktop use, ie not on all the time, or so I've read from various sources. Does anyone in the community really have any data to verify these claims?

Best disks ever was on old MFM drive made by IBM that I had, 30 MB, gigantic, and it outlasted several generations of newer drives...

Agree about Amazon.. if it's a recent purchase. If not and you need to use the warranty, then:
RMA = return merchandise auth, you call the company, they authorize a return, send you a mailing label to pack the device back to them.
pita = pain in the anal regions

Don't tell me about MFM, when I got home late and turned my puter on my wife woke up in a room across hallway ...