WD Recertified SATA HDD

[puchee]

WD have sent me a “Recertified” SATA HDD in exchange for my old one (1 TB).
Want to know what they mean by recertified and if is it a refurbished drive.

Would it be a good idea to sell it and get a new one to ensure data safety?
1 year to go before warranty expires.

 

[Guest]

Yes. WD sent you a repaired drive that someone else sent in for replacement. It should still carry the same warranty (what was left on your original hard drive). As far as reliability, it has been "recertified" to run within WD's specifications and would be as good as new.

 

[ram1009]

To me, "recertified" or "refurbished" means "already broke once".

 

[nocona_xeon]

Yes. WD sent you a repaired drive that someone else sent in for replacement. It should still carry the same warranty (what was left on your original hard drive). As far as reliability, it has been "recertified" to run within WD's specifications and would be as good as new.

To me, "recertified" or "refurbished" means "already broke once".

Regarding your warranty statement, I had a WD Green drive fail after 3 days of use. I believe the warranty period on the Green series is 2 years. I received a replacement and they sent to me a WD Black version. So, do I get the 5 year warranty period of the WD Black version then? Plus, the WD Black drive does say "recertified."

I think that WD tells customers that any "recertified" drive that you receive has only a six (6) month warranty. Therefore, my situation is all screwed-up as I used a 2 year (minus 3 day) warranty period, received a different model drive, it should have a five (5) year warranty, so where does that leave me?

Why would they reduce the warranty period to only six months?? If I bought a fridge and after 3 days, it no longer kept food inside cold, I would demand a new fridge PLUS get the exact same warranty period as the first fridge!

 

[puchee]

Regarding your warranty statement, I had a WD Green drive fail after 3 days of use. I believe the warranty period on the Green series is 2 years. I received a replacement and they sent to me a WD Black version. So, do I get the 5 year warranty period of the WD Black version then? Plus, the WD Black drive does say "recertified."

I think that WD tells customers that any "recertified" drive that you receive has only a six (6) month warranty. Therefore, my situation is all screwed-up as I used a 2 year (minus 3 day) warranty period, received a different model drive, it should have a five (5) year warranty, so where does that leave me?

Why would they reduce the warranty period to only six months??

I may be wrong but it looks like the "only 6 m warranty" applies to drives that are SOLD by WD; not to ones sent as replacement. See: http://support.wd.com/warranty/policy.asp?&lang=en#recertifiedproducts
The recertified drive sent to me has the warranty that the old one had.

 

[Guest]

Western Digital's policy on replacement hard drives has always been that the unit sent back will *always* carry whatever warranty is left from the original one that was sent in for repair/replacement regardless of the fact you were sent an upgraded model that has a longer warranty than the one you sent in.

 

[puchee]

People in the business I talked to are highly suspicious of Recertified drives inspite of WD's claims of high standards.

I tried to sell the drive which WD sent to me and the price quoted was not even double that for my 9 year old Hitachi IDE HDD whose capacity is 160GB which is 1/6 th that of WD’s 1 TB. Not to forget the 1 year warranty remaining on the WD drive.

The huge discount was attributed to the Recertified label. A new drive would fetch a reasonable price inspite of the short balance warranty period of 1 year.

I logged a ticket with them and got a reply stating that issuing such drives was as per policy.

This is a really bad way to treat customers who rely on your products to manage valuable info.

 

[nocona_xeon]

Thank you all for the advice. Great information. And, yes, I think their "policy" stinks. What did I do after 3 days of use that caused their problem to become my problem?! Nothing. And, the WD Black 4TB recertified that they sent to replace the 3 day old and broken WD Green 4TB brand new drive runs very hot. The Black version requires a cooling fan blowing over it for certain and the speed gain over the WD Green is nothing big. The WD Green needs no cooling at all. I may stick it to them by requesting a WD Green drive and they will likely say that they sent to me a WD Black which is better but not for my purpose which is C-Drive SSD and D-Drive 4TB HD for "I don't care how fast" storage. I'd also like to know what the reason was for why it needed to be "recertified." Initial flash didn't take or did one of the heads crash? Thanks again.

 

[popatim]

WD replacements drive honor the remaining warranty of the original drive or 6 months, whichever is greater.

Your 'Recertified' drive may be brand new or simply repaired. The label would be to prevent you from getting another full 'new drive' warranty that might be replacing a drive that only had 1 day of warranty left.

As for a drive dying after 3 days. Just like a fridge - you take it back where you bought it. If you call the warranty center they'll just fix what you have.

 

[puchee]

Your 'Recertified' drive may be brand new or simply repaired. The label would be to prevent you from getting another full 'new drive' warranty that might be replacing a drive that only had 1 day of warranty left.

If I'm not wrong, the warranty is tied to the Serial Number, not to the label on the drive. When a drive is replaced the company just assigns the warranty expiration date of the old drive to the new drive.