WD SUX!

Crashman · Oct 6, 2001

Every so often a WD drive I get dies. Big deal, all companies get the occasional bad drive right? And they always die about 3 months before the warrantee ends. So I should feel lucky to get a replacement, it should last longer, right?

Well the thing that SUX is that EVERY SINGLE REPLACEMENT I RECEIVE FROM WD is a REFURB and DIES within 90 days of installation! This just won't do as I warrantee my computers for 90 days! And when I contact WD, I get the response "This drive is no longer under waruntee becasue it's a refurb".

Now, whenever a Maxtor, Seagate, Quantum, IBM, or even Fujitsu drive dies I get a NEW one, with a NEW warantee! Heck, if I have a smallish Maxtor die, they send me the smallest new one available, which is usually much larger! And Seagate, I sent them a SCSI drive, they not only sent me a new one, but with almost 5 years left on the warrantee!

Then there's Western Digital. EVERY replacement drive has died while the computer I put it in was STILL under my warrantee. And get this-I can't find the problem with them! No head crash, everything spins, do you think maybe they program BIOS to give back an error code after a certain amount of time has elapsed? They must be doing SOMETHING to CAUSE them to die after a certain amount of time, because EVERY ONE of them does!

Back to you Tom...

Guest · Oct 7, 2001

Man I feel ya I just had a WD drive die, just over two years old. Replaced it with a Maxtor.

Edited by AmDad on 10/06/01 05:21 PM.

Crashman · Oct 7, 2001

It's still under warruntee then if the manufacturing date is less then 3 years ago. Maybe you'll have better luck with the replacement drive then I have.

Back to you Tom...

AMD_Man · Oct 7, 2001

It's about luck and storage conditions. Make sure you don't store the hard drive in a very humide/moist place and make sure that you're ambient case temp is not too high. Also try to measure the Hard drive temp as it works. If it seems high, then get an HD cooler.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the ULTIMATE PC processor

Guest · Oct 7, 2001

Where is the manuf. date listed. I'm looking at it but cant quite figure out where it is.

Guest · Oct 7, 2001

Never mind found thier web site. I have until 1/24/2002 . Thanks!

Crashman · Oct 7, 2001

Dang you better get an RMA on it NOW, your getting close to the end of the warantee!

Back to you Tom...

Crashman · Oct 7, 2001

I'm not even talking about high-performance drives that get hot, these are standard 5400RPM dirves mounted in standard locations. The original WD drives are not any worse than anyone elses for failure, but the replacement units they send me are bogus!

Back to you Tom...

AMD_Man · Oct 7, 2001

Well, I can't argue with you there. I agree with you!

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the ULTIMATE PC processor

Lars_Coleman · Oct 7, 2001

Maxtor's warranty actually states that you will get a refurb drive for repacement. The way you can usually tell is that it has a sticker on it that says it was manufactured to Maxtor specifications. I like the idea that they send a comparable drive for replacement also. I think they have a somewhat good return policy!

I have never had good luck with WD with the one I had. But never bought one agian ...

BIOS updates do wonders ....

Crashman · Oct 7, 2001

One of my friends bought a Maxtor 600 meg hard drive in the early 90's. A couple months before the warrantee was to end, it failed. Lacking any drives that small to send him, they sent him a new 2GB unit. With a recent build date. So that one failed a couple months before its 3rd birthday, they sent him another one, 4GB that time. Nice. Well, that one died last year and they sent him a new 8GB.

Back to you Tom...

Guest · Oct 7, 2001

I hope your friend is diligent about backing up his data

Crashman · Oct 7, 2001

His drives always made noise long before they lost data!

Back to you Tom...

Guest · Oct 8, 2001

Really makes it tough for me to decide between the WD1000BBRTL, which is rated VERY highly by Storagereview.com and the IBM 60GXP, which is not as fast as the WD according to Storagereview.com

Sigh, why did I pick such a stressful hobby?

AMD_Man · Oct 8, 2001

Get the 100GB 7200RPM WD. The chances of a failure as still relatively slim.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the ULTIMATE PC processor

Crashman · Oct 8, 2001

Only about 1 out of 20 of my 2-3 year old drives fail. WD's failure rate is not significantly higher than others. But their exchange program sucks.

Back to you Tom...

Guest · Oct 10, 2001

Hey crashman,
Is this an issue on a single computer?? I ask only because I experienced a similar problem about a year ago. A customer brought in a PC he'd bought from an online distributor. He said after about 1.5 years the drive chashed so he shipped the whole unit back to the dealer they replaced the drive and told him he'd have no more problems. 2 months later it died again. Now that he recognized the problem he sent just the drive back and they replaced. After two more times the dealer would no longer replace the drive and WD told him that because it had a dealer warranty he'd have to refer back to them. So he brought it to me, I've used WD for years and never had any problems so I turned suspicion to the PS. Ihooked the PS to a voltage monitor with a thermal paper recorder that records spikes of more than 10% and sure enough the PS was spiking to almost 17 volts regualarly about every 97 minutes. I'm not sure why it would do this but I replaced the PS and installed a new WD Drive and so far no problems. I'll update if I have a return on that unit.

If you haven't yet check that ps.

Crashman · Oct 10, 2001

No. It involves several drives on several computers. In fact, I normally replace defective drives with whatever I have on my shelf of a similar capaicity, and later (like 3 to 5 weeks later, that's how long it takes me to get a drive replaced) I put the RMA'd drive in another system. So in all cases every drive is dying on a different system than the original one did. The problem only seems to affect the refurbished drives WD is sending out as replacements (isn't that nice, you buy a new drive and when it fails they replace it with a refurbished drive).

Back to you Tom...

AMD_Man · Oct 10, 2001

There is nothing wrong with refurbished products! You make it sound that refurbished products are of inferior quality when they are in fact are probably superior. Refurished products are less likely to fail because they've been specifically tested rigorously, repaired and tested again.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the ULTIMATE PC processor

Crashman · Oct 11, 2001

I said nothing of the refurbed products found being resold, I simply stated the truth-that the replacement drives I have been sent by WD are refurbished units of inferior quality. This does not imply that all refurbished units are of inferior quality, only those sent out by WD as replacements.

Back to you Tom...

FatBurger · Oct 11, 2001

because they been specifically tested rigorously, repaired and tested again.

Wait, so you're saying that WD's new drives are more likely to fail, because they aren't tested as much? Now I'm REALLY scared...

I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP

AMD_Man · Oct 11, 2001

All refurbished products are more stable than the originals because they've been tested more thoroughly. First the manufacturer tests the product for the problem (which was missed in the original tests), then they repair it and test it again for any other potential problem and then send it out.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the ULTIMATE PC processor Edited by AMD_Man on 10/10/01 06:16 PM.

DanielR · Oct 11, 2001

i had an old WD and it had bad sectors.. oh well, Wd gave me a refurb and it has been going for 6 years! go WD!

who ever has the most ram when they die wins!

Crashman · Oct 14, 2001

That testing does not mean a thing when it comes to head crashes months later. And I propose that WD actually does something to the drive to make it fail at a ceratain time after the warrantee period of the original drive expires. I can find nothing wrong with the failed drives, it's almost like they put a bug in the BIOS to make it stop at a given date!

Back to you Tom...

AMD_Man · Oct 14, 2001

Ok, that doesn't sound right! There must be something wrong. How exactly do they fail? Are they completely unseen by the BIOS? Do you get bad sectors? How exactly do they fail?

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the ULTIMATE PC processor

WD SUX!

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