[alar44]

I can't blame them. I'd imagine tons of people try to replace perfectly fine drives - "I can't find my spreadsheet so drive is bad" "Windows updates were slow so drive is bad" "I bricked my drive trying to install Linux on a NAS" etc etc.

[crtasm]

At least those first two scenarios don't sound like people who'd think to provide SMART test data.

Windows shouldn't be a requirement for getting a faulty product replaced.