WD drives have reliability problems?

[Nyago123]

So basicaly I got screwed by their hardware once (out of 12 purchases), but I actually started buying more WD's after that because they don't hassle me when I need an RMA even if their tech people disagree with me.

The only reason I buy mostly Seagate is because only WD's Enterprise drives have 5 year warranties.

That's a very good point. While I'd rather not lose data to begin with, RMA procedure is something else to consider. These days I buy almost all my drives online so if it's bad out of the box, I'm generally going to RMA direct to the manufacturer than send it back to the reseller.

I've never actually RMA'd a Seagate drive.

Maxtor makes you run their useless diagnostic program to get a code before you can get past the RMA screen online, though you can always claim the drive is completely dead. But Maxtor shortened their warranty to 1 year at one point and each time one of my drives died I felt like I was playing the lottery- feed the S/N into the website and see if I got lucky and still had some time left to RMA it. Not to mention the fact that as soon as you get it back from RMA, it's only good for 90 days.

WD's RMA online was simple- just state your reason and get your RMA #.

One other thing about WD- I am in San Diego and my RMA return point for WD is in Irvine, about 75 miles north. That means even using UPS Ground the turnaround time was fast. The replacement Raptor drive I got does say "Refurbished to Western Digital specifications" on it.

 

[Codesmith]

All RMA departments ship you a refirbished hard drive.

Which is why you should always do an advance replacement RAM. They 2nd day you the replacement and you ship the old drive back to them within 30 days in the same packaging.

This is especially handy when your drive is still functional as you can move your data to the new drive before shiping the old.

These reparied drives should actually be more reliable than new once since they are more throughly tested than new drive comming of the line.

 

[clue69less]

I'm wondering if there has been a change in the last few months.

I've bought a total of 9 WD drives this year, spread about evenly over time and have bought from a variety of sources. The most recent was about a month ago. All nine have been perfect.

 

[SBD]

Thank you, that's the kind of info I was looking for.

 

[clue69less]

Thank you, that's the kind of info I was looking for.

Hey, I just noticed your handle - is the "S" for "silent?

George Carlin is a genius.

 

[WickedDevils]

I've bought probably 6 WDs. I threw 4 of them in a case and they were kind of close together. They had a fan blowing on them so I didn't think it was an issue. Until they all dropped like flies. WD does not do well with heat. Since then, I have bought nothing but seagates and have been 100% happy.

I will never buy a WD again

 

[tleavit]

I’ve been in the industry for a good 15 years and I have personally gone through at least 10000 computers (while I worked at one of the biggest companies in the world).

I’ve seen drives.. lots of them and I have had all kinds of experiences with them.

WD is by far the most reliable HD company on the market. If we saw one in a Compaq/hp/dell/etc.... we were happy.

I have been through some extreme hard drive clusters such as the old Quantum Big foot drive fiasco. We had to replace 200 of those hard drives. Maxtor was one of the worst, always strait up breaking down… About 3 years ago we had a Maxtor drive problem.. started failing all over the country in hundreds and thousands… we eventually got replacements for ALL of them even the ones that were still running. That had to be 30000+ drives nation wide… what a cluster.

zzzz...zzzzz....zzzz...zzzzz

Seagate was just as bad... nothing but problems.

I had seen hundreds and hundreds of WD hard drives and I have probably owned 100 myself and I have only seen 1.. yes only 1 drive die on its own and it was my own drive which WD replaced with no problems.

 

[nukemaster]

Just gonna add my 2cents

WD drives owned
2.6gig
40gig
120gig
250gig
250gig (yes 2)
and all kinds of 500meg and such...

the 40 did die 🙁
the first 120 was defective... the RMA'd one is still going strong.

I will buy western digital in the future....there drives are solid...the 40 had years of use in a hot case and 24/7 opperation.

one of the 250's are loud to seek...but in a vibrating manner....not loud like cllliccckkkk. the other is quiet....(they have different motors)

Seagate
120
120
320
320

All to new to give opinion. the 120's are loud(seeking). the 320's are soooo quiet

Maxtor
2gig
15gig - years of 24/7 and going strong
30gig

the 30 died. But allot of abuse from my brother did that.
I do hear allot more of maxtor drives failing. I do not buy them often for 24/7 use. but that 15 just wont die. you drop it and it comes back for more.

All drives have an equil chance of failure now days. so buy whats cheap and fast... Current choice seagate 320's they are fast big and quiet and cheap

 

[clue69less]

I’ve been in the industry for a good 15 years and I have personally gone through at least 10000 computers (while I worked at one of the biggest companies in the world).

Reminds me of that interview with Jonny Wadd.

Seagate was just as bad... nothing but problems.

I worked in a lab where our PC acquisition farm got "upgraded" with a bunch of Seagate drives. Within a few months, they began to sound like they had sand in them and they just kept getting louder till they would die. We actually started betting on when the next one would die.

From what I read, they have gotten better. I hope that's true becuz I'm about to buy a perp for my kid's box.

I had seen hundreds and hundreds of WD hard drives and I have probably owned 100 myself and I have only seen 1.. yes only 1 drive die on its own and it was my own drive which WD replaced with no problems.

I doubt that I'm quite up to 100, but well over 50 for sure - also one single death. I've got WDs that have been running in RAID arrays for like 8 years or something. Seems funny to have a drive that small in an array, but hell, it's still running...

 

[Slobogob]

I won´t buy WD again unless they offer something really fast, really cheap, with a really long warranty. I once bought a WD 40GB. Worked for a week, i sent it in and got a new one that worked for almost 2 months. When i got it i already had another one so i set them up as a raid 0. Worked for almost half a year until one drive crapped out. After i replaced that one, i set them up as a raid 0 again. They kept working until about a few months after the warranty (2 years) was off, then number 1 crapped out. A year later number 2. The seagate drive running in the same computer worked for more than 6 years without even a hitch. I even had a 5 1/4 drive bay cooler installed and i didn´t use them heavily. I had another WD (a 30GB one) that still is working (3,5 years now). I´m expecting it´s death any second.

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

8O Well I haven't worked with that many HDDs before (I'm only in HS after all) but I can relate to your experiences. As I said earlier I've had Maxtor drives die on me really fast. Same for Seagate... although I've heard that Seagate has gotten better I'm still more of a WD and Hitachi fan. Never had a drive from either of those companies die on me or give me problems.

 

[SBD]

Thank you, that's the kind of info I was looking for.

Hey, I just noticed your handle - is the "S" for "silent?

George Carlin is a genius.

Actually, it's meant to be 'Scout' as in the SBD Dauntless, but taken as SBD alone, I see your point.

Anyway, on topic, I'm going to pick up some WD drives, as the SE16s rate as near-completely silent while being some of the fastest 7200 RPM drives. I don't know what Fry's problem is, but I have my faith in WD renewed.