Western Digital Drive Failed

[pickyantivirus]

Hey everyone,
This isn't so much a question as a quick overview of my experience with mechanical hard drives and my latest failed drive. So this isn't an old drive, it's about 1 year old and has already failed. I have filed an RMA with my etailer and am hoping they sort it for me. Now the reason I've written this is because Western Digital have been the most reliable brand I have ever used *until now*. I've had Segate, Maxtor and Hitachi drives all fail. I have a 4 year old Western digital which is still fine, but this 1 year old WD Green is failing. So I guess my only question is, are hard drives declining in quality? or is it just the amount of platters and capacity which cause these drives to fail. Maybe I was just unlucky and got a dodgey one from the start, but I wish you all luck with mechanical HDDs and I can't wait for SSDs to drop in price and have much higher capacity. My main drive with windows is an SSD so I'm safe there for a while, but I have now lost all 2TB of my films, pictures and software installers.(only 1TB backed up and some corrupt)

So let me know, what are your experiences with these different brands and who do you trust with your vital data?

[seumasbeathan]

I remember hearing that those green drives had a higher failure rate than blue and black

[pickyantivirus]

Originally Posted by seumasbeathan

I remember hearing that those green drives had a higher failure rate than blue and black

That would be typical. With the luck I've had with computers recently I have felt like throwing it out the window and changing career paths lol.

[jamesriley94]

I personally think that it's half the owners fault as well. Possibly in hot swapping them badly, or not putting cables fully in or something like that.

The reason I say this is because I've been through 3, 1 TB Samsung F3s, all died, 1 for clicks of death, and the other for a PCB problem I think. Every single one of those died within a year, and pushing it all the way to the year warranty on all 3 to like 11 and a half months.

Now, these were both internal drives, where it as obviously up to me to plug them in and out etc...

I've also had Maxtor external TB drive. That ran absolutely flawlessly for 3 years, before I decided to take it out of the enclosure and internalise it. Due to the return of the Samsung's, I'd found out that they are Seagate OEM, as was the external maxtor drive (for some reason). And they even shared the same model number if I remember correctly. Everything was running fine for about 2 months, before the drive died again.

In my experience, I've never had an external drive fail...well there was one, but that was when I accidentally plugged my laptop charger into it instead of it's own mains power which kind of blew it, but cant blame the drive for that

I just think because of this that the drives are either mishandled when out in the open or not plugged in correctly.
I no longer even use internal HDDs. I'm running off just a 128gb Crucial M4 and a 320gb external WD drive.

I also think it's going to stay that way for the foreseeable future. I'd personally like the companies to start making drives that dont have any exposed parts as in, sheet of metal covering the PCB, and a proper port to plug sata power and data into, rather than just the trashy connector at the end which in my opinion isnt sturdy enough to stand the test of time.

Anyway, they're just my thoughts

[airdeano]

i dunna know i this a relation, but remember the big tsunami and bad weather the
Asian coast had and hard drives were scarce (pricing was nuts), well some may have
been rushed out with "compromised" assemblies. just an observation.
if i have to use a mechanical drive, i gotta go with enterprise drives. they are more expensive
but the hours of service are usually double. did you know there is a minimum and
maximum temperature that a hard drive requires? should be 30°-50°. loose mounting rails
can contrbibute to some as the heat disapation is drastically reduced because the rails
typically transfer the heat from the drive to the cage.

airdeano

[S_I_N]

wow one drive fails and you jump on the its e band wagon just after saying they have been the most reliable??? I'm not sure I can agree with your issue mate. i mean lets face it parts sometimes fail. And it took it a year or so to do so does that mean its e??? NO!! I personallt have had several WD drives fail but I will usually buy them over other brands cause WD doesnt quibble about RMA's if you register the drive when you buy it and it fails along the way simples submit RMA they offer advanced replacement if needed. And send in defective drive you get a completely different drive back. And in some cases bigger than you sent in. I RMA'd a 640 and got back a 1TB I sold it untested (should of checked it lol) buyer advised me of issue I RMA'd that one and got back a 1.5TB

But back on topic lol one drive failing after a year isnt anything to call foul over. Specially the greens with there intelli power design. That just never sat right with me lol. give me 7200 or 5400rmp and leave it having a drive that choose what to spin at just didnt seem right in my mind lol. If your etailer doenst warranty it simply contact WD they will make it right registered or not they warranty off of S/N to begin with.

[pickyantivirus]

Originally Posted by S_I_N

wow one drive fails and you jump on the its e band wagon just after saying they have been the most reliable??? I'm not sure I can agree with your issue mate. i mean lets face it parts sometimes fail. And it took it a year or so to do so does that mean its e??? NO!! I personallt have had several WD drives fail but I will usually buy them over other brands cause WD doesnt quibble about RMA's if you register the drive when you buy it and it fails along the way simples submit RMA they offer advanced replacement if needed. And send in defective drive you get a completely different drive back. And in some cases bigger than you sent in. I RMA'd a 640 and got back a 1TB I sold it untested (should of checked it lol) buyer advised me of issue I RMA'd that one and got back a 1.5TB

But back on topic lol one drive failing after a year isnt anything to call foul over. Specially the greens with there intelli power design. That just never sat right with me lol. give me 7200 or 5400rmp and leave it having a drive that choose what to spin at just didnt seem right in my mind lol. If your etailer doenst warranty it simply contact WD they will make it right registered or not they warranty off of S/N to begin with.

Did I say that I wouldn't be buying WD again, No I didn't. I said I was disappointed with the short period of time the drive had lasted. I will always buy WD as all the other brands I constantly see failing, mainly because they are all made by segate who seem to have no standards at all. I simply wrote this to see other peoples experiences with HDDs and not to have an argument which it seems you wanted to cause. Or maybe it's just the way your word things.

[yassarikhan786]

Well you did say this in the OP "Now the reason I've written this is because Western Digital have been the most reliable brand I have ever used *until now*"

[pickyantivirus]

Originally Posted by yassarikhan786

Well you did say this in the OP "Now the reason I've written this is because Western Digital have been the most reliable brand I have ever used *until now*"

But thats a fact?
All i meant was I've now had every major brand fail, but at least the others lasted more than a year! I was also interested to see what other people thought about Segate and WD.

[yassarikhan786]

But your phrasing suggests that Western Digital drives are the most unreliable in your eyes because of this one failure. Irregardless of the time it has taken for it to fail, the wording you have used indicates that you now see WD as the least reliable company. So it is not wrong for other people to assume that as well, or is it?