For anyone who has had a hard disk crash and burn (and who in the tech world hasn’t) the latest announcement from Seagate that it will offer a 5 year warranty on all drives manufactured since June 1st 2004 is the best of news.

This should spur the competition to similar offerings and eventually lead to more reliable hard drives.

Seagate’s fortunes of late have suffered a little of late reporting a net loss of $33 million in it’s July 20th Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Year-End 2004 report.

Let’s hope this latest announcement bouys their sales and that they are still around in five years to honour any warranty claims that may arise!