I'm assuming that they have some grace period but I don't know. I assume you can check their FAQ. I signed up when my Drobo had a error and stayed on with the fan off and ate one of the hard drives, I had images of losing all my family photos and the $ is worth the peace of mind. As an added benefit I can now pull down my lossless audio files from work so I don't need to remember to take my portable drive home.