Can TWO WD Easystore drives crap out at the same time?

philb2

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I have two 3.5" Easystore drives. The 14 TB drive I use every week or so, and the 12 TB drive maybe once a month. Both seem to be dead. is there any way to get these drives to work again? Here is what happened.

This evening, the 14 TB drive would not power up using the same WD AC adapter that I always use. I keep the adapter plug permanently installed on my desk. So I tried a different WD 12 V AC adapter with that drive. No luck. Then I tried the 12 TB drive. Same thing. No power up with either AC adapter. Then I plugged in a different external drive into that WD AC adapter on my desk. That drive powered up no problem.

Until now I was very happy with these Easystore drives. I shucked an older 8 TB drive. And ever since Hitachi got out of the drive business I've been buying only WD, with great results.
 
Are they under warranty still?

Have you tried a different USB cable? (I know the easystore drives have that weird micro-usb+other pin situation.)

Cause, if not, i'd say Shucc em and see if they show up as fine that way.
 
A voltage spike could destroy both HDDs tvs diodes if there was a really bad power spike. They can be replaced, kind of like a fuse. Used to be quite easy, dunno now.
A TVS ( Transient Voltage Suppression ) diode works by clamping voltage spikes. It protects a sensitive circuit by diverting damaging overvoltages and spikes away from the load. If the overvoltages are of sufficiently short duration (< 8usec), then the diode will recover and continue working. However, if the diode is subjected to a sustained overvoltage, then it will sacrifice itself by going short circuit.
 
Are they under warranty still?

Have you tried a different USB cable? (I know the easystore drives have that weird micro-usb+other pin situation.)

Cause, if not, i'd say Shucc em and see if they show up as fine that way.

Agree. If they are in warranty, go that route. If not, shuck em and hook up directly to see if the drives still work. Could just be a fried controller board.

At least the 3.5" models ARE shuckable. The WD 2.5" element drives have the controller soldered on... if those die you're SOL (had to break that news to a friend last week, she lost so many photos)
 
Are they under warranty still?

Have you tried a different USB cable? (I know the easystore drives have that weird micro-usb+other pin situation.)

Cause, if not, i'd say Shucc em and see if they show up as fine that way.
I tested two different USB cables. But that wasn't the real issue. The real issue is that the drives won't even power up. The power on LED on both drives doesn't come on, with two different WD power supplies.
 
A voltage spike could destroy both HDDs tvs diodes if there was a really bad power spike. They can be replaced, kind of like a fuse. Used to be quite easy, dunno now.
Could be, but these drives were not used at the same time. Also, FWIW, I have an APC UPS protecting my system. Don't remember if the drive power supply is just connected, or one of the devices that stays on if the power goes out.

I know that the 14 TB drive is still under warranty. I bought it only last December. The 12 TB drive, I probably bought that on Black Friday, 2020, so I need to check that.

Lately a lot of tech in my house is giving me problems. Too much time on the phone with Comcast/Xfinity. Too many projects stacked up to fix all this tech. Do I own this tech, or like a cat, it owns me?
 
Could be, but these drives were not used at the same time. Also, FWIW, I have an APC UPS protecting my system. Don't remember if the drive power supply is just connected, or one of the devices that stays on if the power goes out.

I know that the 14 TB drive is still under warranty. I bought it only last December. The 12 TB drive, I probably bought that on Black Friday, 2020, so I need to check that.

Lately a lot of tech in my house is giving me problems. Too much time on the phone with Comcast/Xfinity. Too many projects stacked up to fix all this tech. Do I own this tech, or like a cat, it owns me?
Sounds like your house may have dirty power. That APC UPS might be saving your computers life.

Do you have anything in your house pulling more power than usual right now? Such as an electric heating system?
 
Sounds like your house may have dirty power. That APC UPS might be saving your computers life.
Have lived here over 30 years, never had any power problems before I got the UPS.

Do you have anything in your house pulling more power than usual right now? Such as an electric heating system?
Nothing. We have gas heat, and a 200 amp service, double what the service was until we did a remodel. Only real power issue is that we get blackouts during the "rainy season," so that's why we got the UPS.
 
More on these drives. I registered both of them with WD, no problem. WD's website said that Easystore drives have a two year warranty, but just for me, the warranty on the older drive expired about 3 month ago. In other words, after only 1 year. That was the 12 TB drive.

For the newer 14 TB drive, I still have 710 days of warranty left, so I did an RMA. I shucked the older 12 TB drive. I'm starting a new thread about what I found. The drive works fine when I put it into a drive dock.
 
So after I set up a warranty for the 14 TB drive, I had some qualms about the data on that drive. That was my backup drive, with all my financial records, password files, bank account info, family personal info, etc., etc. When you read the WD website, they don't seem to say anything about what happens if you send in an Easystore drive where the actual drive is good, but with bad case electronics. So I figured that it wasn't worth it to send in this drive, and my wife agreed. If the drive was back, then I'm SOL but my data is safe.

So I shucked the newer drive, and sure enough, the drive IS good. That's two Easystore drives in a row with bad case electronics. Maybe I should switch to Seagate???~~!!

I just recycled the EasyStore cases.
 
If you a have a volt meter, check the power supply. I bet it's defective.

Good call on not sending it to WD.
 
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If you a have a volt meter, check the power supply. I bet it's defective.

Good call on not sending it to WD.
Actually I checked the drives against two different WD supplies. Both times the drive would not power up. then I plugged my "regular" WD power supply plug into a different drive case. Shazam! The drive powered up right away and I could open up any folder I wanted.

So maybe it's good to buy these Easystore drives on Black Friday, but with no expectations.
 
Actually I checked the drives against two different WD supplies. Both times the drive would not power up. then I plugged my "regular" WD power supply plug into a different drive case. Shazam! The drive powered up right away and I could open up any folder I wanted.

So maybe it's good to buy these Easystore drives on Black Friday, but with no expectations.
I dunno if the cases are interchangable, but if you actually want the cases, I've got four from drives I shucked that are no longer in warranty. And I'm certainly not the only one who buys these and stores the cases to put them back for warranty purposes only. Mine are model WDBCKA0100HBK-NESN, contained WDC WD100EMAZ-00WJTA0 drives inside.
 
I dunno if the cases are interchangable, but if you actually want the cases, I've got four from drives I shucked that are no longer in warranty. And I'm certainly not the only one who buys these and stores the cases to put them back for warranty purposes only. Mine are model WDBCKA0100HBK-NESN, contained WDC WD100EMAZ-00WJTA0 drives inside.
Thanks, but I have at least one other case from a drive that I shucked two years ago.Right now I'm pretty down on Easystore.
 
Actually I checked the drives against two different WD supplies.

In what order though? PS1/PS2/PS1/PS2? Or PS1/PS2/PS2/PS1?

Both times the drive would not power up. then I plugged my "regular" WD power supply plug into a different drive case. Shazam! The drive powered up right away and I could open up any folder I wanted.

What drive? Another Easystore, or something else?
 
In what order though? PS1/PS2/PS1/PS2? Or PS1/PS2/PS2/PS1?

Both Easystore drives, with both PS's. None of the combinations would power up the drive.
What drive? Another Easystore, or something else?
A Fideco case (great,BTW) with an old 4 TB HGST. Plugged that into the WD PS1, (the one with the cable on my desk), and that drive spun up normally.

Each time I shucked a WD drive, I put that drive into the Fideco case, and each time the drive spun up and worked fine with Windows Explorer.
 
Both Easystore drives, with both PS's. None of the combinations would power up the drive.

A Fideco case (great,BTW) with an old 4 TB HGST. Plugged that into the WD PS1, (the one with the cable on my desk), and that drive spun up normally.

Each time I shucked a WD drive, I put that drive into the Fideco case, and each time the drive spun up and worked fine with Windows Explorer.

There's nothing there that disproves my theory of a bad power supply. You don't remember the order so you could have connected the same power supply to both drives (before trying a different power supply). And the Fideco adapter that works could have its own voltage regulator and therefore work with a bad power supply.
 
I'm also thinking bad power supply. Honestly, I'd be worried about the particular plug outlet if you used the same one for all tests. Might have something going on that's frying and/or tripping the power supply protection.
 
There's nothing there that disproves my theory of a bad power supply. You don't remember the order so you could have connected the same power supply to both drives (before trying a different power supply). And the Fideco adapter that works could have its own voltage regulator and therefore work with a bad power supply.
Perhaps. But the important thing is that I was able to save the data on both drives. Maybe the WD power supplies aren't that good. Who knows?

I do know that the Fideco case is well made, unlike ********** (name starts and ends with O)for example.
 
I didn't read the entire thread but the easy store USB adapter will not power up the drive unless it sees an active USB connection. I have a bunch of shucked 14TB drives but kept the USB adapters sitting around because they come in handy. Make sure the USB port you are plugged into is working correctly or the drive will NOT spin up even when power is attached.
 
I didn't read the entire thread but the easy store USB adapter will not power up the drive unless it sees an active USB connection. I have a bunch of shucked 14TB drives but kept the USB adapters sitting around because they come in handy. Make sure the USB port you are plugged into is working correctly or the drive will NOT spin up even when power is attached.
Oh geez. I wish I had known that before. In any case, I already recycled the electronics for one case, but I still have all the parts for the second case, including that flimsy looking piece of clear plastic. I'm going to try to reassemble the 14 TB drive into an EasyStore case.

:eek::cry::notworthy: This is how I feel now. :dead:
 
Going to piggyback here since all the experts are already here...

If one wanted to buy the most reliable external HDD possible, for backups, what is the best (better?) option? Is it still WD? Do they have different grades?
 
I'd get a NAS personally. If you definitely want external USB buy a proper NAS grade hard drive and an aftermarket enclosure that has a fan.
 
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