And the WDC<=>HGST Warranty Replacement Games Start!

[mwroobel]

Well, I knew it would happen sooner or later.... Luckily our rep smoothed things out and they replaced the drive with the type I sent out. Unfortunately, I don't see this as the end of this happening, merely the beginning....
We just shipped back 3 failed 5K3000's back for RMA (4 dead total out of 150+ in over 12 months, not bad at all). We received the box back from WDC with 2 5K3000s and 1 WDBAAY0030HNC-NRSN. I called WDC Support to inquire (complain), and they basically told me I sent them a non enterprise, non-7200rpm "coolspin/intellipower" drive and they were "free to return a drive that meets or approximates the performance, and is at least equal in size to the drive we return" (and it is true, that's what the fine print says). For people who are maintaining arrays where they like the 5K3000, I would try and get one or two 5K spares (used if you have to) just in case the RMA doesn't go as you hope.
This is where paying double for branded enterprise drives comes into play. You can be guaranteed availability for up to 5 years, and when you RMA a drive you will get the same type back.

 

[odditory]

:headdesk: A dark day for Hitachi owners but we knew this day was coming. I couldn't think any less of WDC than I do now. The WD Green they sent you back is a disaster waiting to happen and is about as far opposite the quality and strengths of the drive you sent in as it could possibly get. And when you purchased the 5K3000 you certainly weren't signing on to take a WD drive as a warranty replacement. But such are the joys in these acquisition situations. This is a serious headache now for Hitachi owners, but on the bright side Hitachi's will tend to outlive their warranties, a couple months months ago I sold close to 100 of the HT 1TB's that I bought almost exactly 5 yrs ago, and only a couple of them had even developed a bad sector or two.

I agree with the advice to grab spare 5K3000's where possible, even used, and I'd suggest one per 8-16 drives of an array. Personally I'm going to continue avoiding WDC drives like the plague, and this whole debacle with WDC buying out the competition for the sole purpose of killing it only makes it easier. Seagate 1TB/platter 3TB and 4TB drives aren't bad, and mostly I'll be waiting to see what Toshiba kicks out from Hitachi's old fabs in the way of 3.5" drives as mwroobel has heard might commence.

 

[Aesma]

Well, with Seagate drives you'll surely have less problems with RMAs, since after one year they'll be out of warranty !

BTW, they play the exact same game, I sent a fried Samsung F4 2TB and received a refurb Barracuda LP in its place.

At least with most of my WD RMAs I got a new drive and not a refurb, often a bigger drive, too !

 

[odditory]

Yes that's a given and sucks to be a Samsung owner but we're not talking about that. The problem is WD desktop/consumer class is notoriously raid-unfriendly. It's not that Seagate is the answer, its that 1TB/platter Seagates seem to work okay in a raid scenario + price isn't bad, and buys some time to see what Toshiba's going to do.

 

[madcoder]

Sounds like time to stock up on spares, and then when any come back from RMA, you just eBay it. Hopefully, something new will come on the horizon after a few years to save all those with aging arrays without having to jump to enterprise priced drives (and here I am talking about hardware RAID compatibility).