Hang on to that Hard Drive

Gateway doesn't want your hard drive. That's right. Under a new service plan, called "Keep Your Hard Drive," if your hard drive fails, Gateway will just send you a new one. You can turn your defective drive into an ashtray, paperweight or bonsai pot. Anything's better than shipping what could be sensitive data off to an unknown entity...even if that entity is Gateway. After all, no vendor can ensure the chain of custody for its warranted services department. Just think L.A.P.D. and OJ.

And at 30 bucks per drive for three years, the price point won't put a dent in your budget. The only thing missing from this plan is a price-break for the corporate buy. So if you're planning on picking up some Gateway notebooks and E-Series business desktops, be sure to press your sales rep on this point.