Western Digital Drive Failed

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pickyantivirus

New member
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?
 
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 :)
 
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
 
wow one drive fails and you jump on the its shite 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 shite??? 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.
 
S_I_N said:
wow one drive fails and you jump on the its shite 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 shite??? 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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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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*"
 
yassarikhan786 said:
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*"
Click to expand...
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.
 
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?
 
yassarikhan786 said:
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?
Click to expand...
I said this is the first drive to fail and that WD are still the best. It's hardly slating them. I just want to know what other peoples experiences with Hard drives are and not to slate any company. (Ok maybe Segate because they do suck really bad) How about I just forget I even bothered to ask people their experiences which has been ignored and just have an argument about the way I posted. Never mind how some of the replies are written.
 
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pickyantivirus said:
I said this is the first drive to fail and that WD are still the best. It's hardly slating them. I just want to know what other peoples experiences with Hard drives are and not to slate any company. (Ok maybe Segate because they do suck really bad) How about I just forget I even bothered to ask people their experiences which has been ignored and just have an argument about the way I posted. Never mind how some of the replies are written.
Click to expand...

OK, no worries, I was just saying that you can't blame people for thinking that you are slating them because of how the OP is worded.

Anyway, we shouldn't quabble :p and get back OT. Well in my experience with Hard-drives I've always gone with WD and have not had one issue so far (touch wood). I've had pre-built systems in the past that have all used WD drives and none failed. That is the reason why I will always choose WD :). I've got a 2TB black in my system now and that hasn't missed a beat since I purchased it (about 11 months ago). I've never used one of the "Green" drives so I can't really comment on them.
 
yassarikhan786 said:
OK, no worries, I was just saying that you can't blame people for thinking that you are slating them because of how the OP is worded.

Anyway, we shouldn't quabble :p and get back OT. Well in my experience with Hard-drives I've always gone with WD and have not had one issue so far (touch wood). I've had pre-built systems in the past that have all used WD drives and none failed. That is the reason why I will always choose WD :). I've got a 2TB black in my system now and that hasn't missed a beat since I purchased it (about 11 months ago). I've never used one of the "Green" drives so I can't really comment on them.
Click to expand...
Thank you, and my apologies. It seems to be the same for me with WD drives. Maybe I just got one of the Greens before they finished re-calling and replacing them. Although I bought mine before the floods so it was only £60 a year ago. I will get a replacement from WD (Hopefully) but plan to buy only Blues and Blacks in the future due to spin speed.
 
No worries and no need to apologize. Yeh, you might have just had one from the bad batch, but we can only guess. I've never had to RMA a drive but I've heard they are very good with RMA's :)
 
yeah its all in the wording and sometimes ppl mistake your meanings but its all good. I myself love WD but I have had great luck with both WD and Seagates. In all the rigs I have built of late or have in my possession its only WD or Seagate.
 
tinytomlogan said:
Ive got 9 of the 2TB greens and actually really like them
Click to expand...
Ha ha tom, I was waiting for you to praise WD in your videos. I do think WD are the best and I'm hoping my experience with their RMAs will be good.
It has to be said they are stupidly quiet, I have literally never heard it make a noise, even now it's failing.
 
Running an SSD for programs/OS means my WD Green never really gets accessed, but when it does, it does seem to make rather an annoying noise. Could just be mine though.
I have no real experience with hard drives, but I sway towards WD just through reading other people's accounts.
 
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