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Western Digital = JUNK

Sounds like its a case of poor retailer handling. Most drives are usually quite stable. I have a 7 year old WD 8GB drive in my PC. It still runs fine, and I have no problem with it. I use it as my "My Documents" folder.

Its easier when I do reinstalls (yes I back it up as well). when it dies I will replace it with something else, who knows. Maybe I will go SATA at that point.

Cheers,
 
Well, there is an awful lot of stupid-user error out there killing equipment and then claiming it was a defect. I'm not saying you broke the drive, but that isn't uncommon. The unfortunate side effect is that people who do have legitimate problems get screwed over. So far I've found two solutions to this - the first is to stop buying hardware from vendors who do BS like that, the second is to buy enterprise-level stuff where the customer/warranty service is far better. Both increase your initial costs, but I think it's cheaper in the end considering failures, time costs, frustration, etc.
 
^ yah what Snugglebear said :p
Which Brand of Hard Drive is Most Reliable?
and practice your own due diligence
Proper Handling Guide

if that drive was shipped to you with a broken power connector
its is now your fault for not spotting it, and if you didnt break it, then it was busted in shipping, and again you might bear some responsibility due to the packaging

and finally you didnt document (as in photos) the condition of the drive apon recieving it and prior to shipping it

if that seems a "hard" judgement, consider this
I ride motorcycles, and regardless of someone else's failure to obey the rules of the road, if I allow them to kill me

Im dead

and could really care less who was at "fault"
to a large extent we have a "victim" mentality in this society
where we rely on "rules" to assign blame
and if you dont want to be a victim the first thing that needs to go is that mindset,
followed by adopting a cynical due dilengence
you need to be able to "prove" your innocence
this isnt a court of law where the presumtion of innocence is automatically awarded to you, you either need to buy it
or prove it (much like how the courts work in reality :p )
 
I agree with what you said Ice Czar, however there is more to this that I didnt feel like typing, But I will share it with you now. Originaly, I didnt look that carefully at the drives before I installed them, However when I removed them after the failure,I looked at them pretty closely and didnt see any damage. They are claiming damage on the SATA power connector. I used the Molex connector. Also, when I called them on March 31st to see what the hold up was I was told that they had been checked and in fact were defective. They also told me that new ones would be shipped out the next day. So I was expecting them to be at my house on the 4th at the latest. Instead I get a phone call saying there is damage. Now when I questiond them about the damage, the women admitted to me that she hadnt seen it, the tech had pointed it out to her. That raised a big red flag to me. why 4 days after they were supposed to ship them to me, was there all of a sudden "damage" Now Im not perfect and have broken my share of stuff, But I chalk it up to experience and throw it out and buy new. I have NEVER RMA'd a product that I broke. I feel like I am getting screwed here and dont like it one bit.
 
About the Raptors it´s perhaps a reason why only WD makes S ATA 10000 rpm drives?

But considering they got a 5 year warranty I won´t complain. I mean I have yet to own a harddrive that don´t die on me. Thankfully I have owned IBM harddrives but it´s a double edge sword. They got 3 years warranty but they also die very soon.
 
Originally posted by Ice Czar
<snip>

if that seems a "hard" judgement, consider this
I ride motorcycles, and regardless of someone else's failure to obey the rules of the road, if I allow them to kill me

I'm dead
Click to expand...

Wow, that is really well put.

Ya know though, an easier solution that I follow all the time is "buy locally". First off, you are supporting your community (and that is important), returns are so much easier (because shit happens) and finally, once you get a good relationship going with a local dealer, internet purchases are no big savings.

I'm a bit of an exception due to the sheer volume of toys I buy, but there isn't a site on the net that can touch the pricing I get (now) from my local guy.
 
So far out of the 10 74gig Raptors we've had 2 fail. One went out within a week, the other took 2 days to fail. Both were complete failures, IE it won't even spin up or recognize anymore.

We've bought about as many 36Gig raptors (many of them as soon as they came out), most of which have ran for weeks on end, and not one has failed yet.

Something is screwy here, and we're not touching the 74Gigs until something changes.
 
Originally posted by fezman
So far out of the 10 74gig Raptors we've had 2 fail. One went out within a week, the other took 2 days to fail. Both were complete failures, IE it won't even spin up or recognize anymore.

We've bought about as many 36Gig raptors (many of them as soon as they came out), most of which have ran for weeks on end, and not one has failed yet.

Something is screwy here, and we're not touching the 74Gigs until something changes.
Click to expand...

2 out of 10 is statistically uniportant.

When you get to 100+ drives lets us know the failure rates (and if they where from the same shippinng courier, etc).
 
Im more inclined to blame the supply chain too
than to chalk up the failures to a design flaw
a savvy local vendor, that is buying in volume
knows the importance of that (or should)
as long as its not a large chain with could care less stockboys

I think they should just start shipping all hard drives with
Handle with Extreme Care, Explosives lables :p
and have anyone that handles HDDs sign an evidence chain documentation, to ID the 800lb Gorillas in disguise

Crosshairs I would definately look into disputing the charge based on that, 4 days is enough time for them to inspect the drive. if that fails, Id file a claim against the shipper
but all in all, either would be easier to pursue with a photo
 
Crosshairs I would definately look into disputing the charge based on that, 4 days is enough time for them to inspect the drive. if that fails, Id file a claim against the shipper
but all in all, either would be easier to pursue with a photo
Click to expand...

Yeah i spoke to "Fatima" in customer service at zipzoomfly this morning and convinced her that it would be better for both of us if they just issued a credit.:D I explained to her that I had already been in contact with my credit card company and they were willing to stand behind me 100%. Seeing as how they already had the drives back, she agreed that they would issue a credit. I then ordered 2 more from Mwave and should have them on Friday. I am hoping that these will arrive in good shape, but will be taking your advice, and checking them over carefully before installation. I will also be taking pics of them just in case.
I am looking forward to my next post being how great these drives are!!!!
 
what a mess, man, I'm sorry to hear about all of it.

I honestly think the 36 gig raptors are ALMOST the ibm dethstar close to "bleeding edge". . .lower power-off G's tolerance, who knows, but they are fishy. Out of curiosity, were these 36gig'ers that are dying OEM's that might have more shipping/packaging problems than retail?

I got my 80gig WD in the day from outpost (fry's) retail and it was retail AND packed pretty nicely. My 160 gig seagate I just got at BB was retail packaged in a crapload of foam. . .knowing the crap OEM stuff **CAN** go through, i wouldn't be surprised if something like a HD w/ moving parts would be more susceptible to damages.

Ya know, the more I think about this, the less I ever want to buy a HD oem. I think I'll stick w/ ram, CPU's, etc but no HD's. Hell, even a DVD-rom still has tolerances ~10^5 greater than a HD(? maybe 10^4, who knows for the read head and I'm feeling too lazy tonight to google it).
 
My buddy has his comp plugged into a switched outlet. Every once in a while, someone hits the switch and kills the whole thing. I told him that was just about the worst thing he could do to his drives. He was unconcerned..."I've never had a problem", until shutting it down killed one of his drives. Now he's concerned...
Hey, accidentalsuccess...where are you in Cambridge? I used to work at Advance Muffler and Brake on Fulkerson. Right near the school.
 
Originally posted by Ice Czar
I think they should just start shipping all hard drives with
Handle with Extreme Care, Explosives lables :p
Click to expand...

John Ashcroft would just dig on that.

Originally posted by O[H]-Zone
My buddy has his comp plugged into a switched outlet. Every once in a while, someone hits the switch and kills the whole thing. I told him that was just about the worst thing he could do to his drives. He was unconcerned..."I've never had a problem", until shutting it down killed one of his drives. Now he's concerned...
Hey, accidentalsuccess...where are you in Cambridge? I used to work at Advance Muffler and Brake on Fulkerson. Right near the school.
Click to expand...

That's not all that bad in reality. Drives park themselves automatically these days as soon as they detect a power failure. He should definitely learn about UPSes, though.
 
O[H]-Zone,

I actually live in somerville (gg cheaper rent :) ), but I go to MIT (grad student).


Having a HD get powered off and on w/ a light switch like that is bound to eventually kill the capacitor (or whatever) that stores the juice to park the HD head when the power goes. That's probably what happened to that one. 'course, I'm just wildly guessing while drinking coffee. :D

UPS. . .oh brother don't get me thinking about them. . .I know I should have one, but. . .. gah.
 
Originally posted by Snugglebear
John Ashcroft would just dig on that.
Click to expand...

If I could just cause John @#$@@#&# Ashcroft a moments pause
Id dance a jig :p

Crosshairs its also a good Idea to take a quick snapshot of the package itself before opening ;)
(or before shipping and when packing)

Power Events wouldnt cause a head crash as Snugglebear points out
however power regulation, transient response, overvoltage, brownouts ect can play havoc with the circuit board, and sudden power loss is almost guranteed to fubar the filesystem, as the cache doesnt get cleared (written)

when I first built my RAID 5 array (the SX6000) I had it powered by a seperate PSU, and I systematically screwed up every array (mostly through installing software and the subsequent restarts)
until I synchd the PSUs, since then no problems
 
Originally posted by Ice Czar
Power Events wouldnt cause a head crash as Snugglebear points out
however power regulation, transient response, overvoltage, brownouts ect can play havoc with the circuit board, and sudden power loss is almost guranteed to fubar the filesystem, as the cache doesnt get cleared (written)
Click to expand...

Yes, unless you disable write caching there will be filesystem problems on the reboot. Normally the PSU will screen out any irregularities in the power, but that assumes your PSU is worth a damn. Normal sequence is for the PSU to detect the failure and signal the board with a power failure flag. The machine then does whatever is necessary to protect itself, and does so very quickly. It's just a few ms to get things properly turned off, and the PSU has enough capacitance to give the computer that time.
 
Yeah, i don't know, I used to be a BIG Western digital fan, had 6 in my main box. One of them died a few months ago killing my raid-0 stripe and now it's matching drive just died also. Maybe I just got a bad pair, or maybe western digital sucks. *shrug*
 
OK well, I got my new drives today, they showed up in nice box, no visible damage.
I installed them and could tell right away, that my first ones were bad from the get go. These drives, while a little bit louder than my Seagates, are NO WHERE near as loud as my first ones. They formated in half the time as the first pair, and installed Windows quick as hell. So far so good. I have already beat my previous record of 3 hours :) so I got my fingers crossed this time.

Im not quite ready to start bowing to the WD Gods, but they do feel a bit "snappier" that my 7200 RPM drives. Its probably all in my head , but hey for $240.00 I deserve to kid myself that it was all worth it ......
 
Originally posted by oqvist
Name a harddrive that don´t fail within the warranty time :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

My 60gig IBM deskstar (DJNA) have been running happily for years now, Yup, the type everyone complained about back then :D
 
Ive 12 Western Digital WD400BB that are
starting to exceed the 3 year warranty
 
Back in the day I used to think western digital and IBM were the best, Seagate was OK, and Maxtor was junk.

My experience with each company is as follows.
I'm currently running 2 maxtor drives in my rig. They're quiet, fast, and haven't given me trouble. Everyone else is swearing by them too.

I had an IBM Deathstar. It was a fast and quiet drive...but I dropped like a hot potato when I found a buyer. Don't know how much longer it would have lasted, but it worked well while I had it. Probably the best drive I had until I got the Maxtors.

I've had a few Seagates pass through my hands. Had a pair of 1st-gen Cheetahs for a time...they were fast, they were noisy, and man were they hot. All to be expected from 1st-gen, 10k RPM SCSI stuff. I admit, I liked 'em.
I also had a few old 3GB drives I salvaged from some old computers. Man did those things take a beating...they just refuse to die. Obviously not as fast as a modern drive, but still solid drives.

I just bought my second Western Digital. I didn't run the first one for very long, so I can't really comment, but the second one (a 120GB) seems to be rather loud and hot. It runs quickly enough, but I would really think it would be quieter and cooler...
 
i love you guys who can tell how loud HD's are. :p

My "hair dryer" fan on my proc and 2x50CFM case fans are a chorus of cooling air to my ears.

HD "noise". :rolleyes:

:D

p.s. glad to hear the raptors are holding tight for at least a few days this time. ;)
 
Originally posted by Crosshairs
Yeah I sent em off this morning. It just sucks, I have to pay for shipping them back. I sent them with insurance and DC, so it was 13 bucks. I bought these from zipzoomfly cause they had free shiping, which made it 10 bucks cheaper that newegg. I cant help but think that if I had got em from newegg, I would not have gotten this defective drive. its just luck of the draw I guess.
Click to expand...

Drive failures happen.

Case in point: I have had *one* WD drive fail on me (and that was well outside the warranty period), yet a family friend had *her* WD fail on her within the first year (yes, she bought retail, not e-tail, and from a dealer I recommended!).

I still have my 80 GB Caviar SE (I called it *Scorched Earth*) drive, still going strong, and I have thrown *every* possible OS at it over its life (DOS, various flavors of Windows, Linux, UNIX, BeOS, various flavors of BSD, even Darwin) and it's still going strong. It has outlasted seven motherboards.
 
Originally posted by PGHammer I still have my 80 GB Caviar SE (I called it *Scorched Earth*) drive, still going strong, and I have thrown *every* possible OS at it over its life (DOS, various flavors of Windows, Linux, UNIX, BeOS, various flavors of BSD, even Darwin) and it's still going strong. It has outlasted seven motherboards. [/B]
Click to expand...

The OS's are impressive but *7* motherboards....wow!! :eek:
 
I had my WD Caviar 120GB 8MB Cache drive die on me last year. It was going strong for 1 year then BOOM! it died. Weird thing is I still have my Quantom Fireball 6 GB still going strong without any hiccups till to this date sitting in my old rig. Funny thing is I had my Quantum during the pentium I days, then bought a new rig, but strangely decided to reuse the good ol' quantom drive. Hmm.. wonder what happened to Quantom now?
 
I guess I've been lucky then.... I've had 2 IBM 20 gigs (pre- deathstars), and IBM 60 (during the deathstar era), and now I'm using a WD 200 and 2 WD 160s. The 200 I've had the longest out of the last 3, and its still purring along just fine. Ditto for the 160s, 20s, and the 60. All the rest of the drives went to hand-me-down machines. Actually, the only dead HDD I've encountered was a 650meg (!) one I pulled from a dinosaur 386. I have 2 more 650s that work great, although none of them are WDs. I even have a massive seagate 650 that took up two 3 1/2in slots. Picked that one up for free (forgot where). Still works.
 
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