Western Digital Hard Drives Black editions

[905dude]

Hi ... It came to my attention but it seem Western Digital is trying to sell defective Hard Drives . So far everyone I know that just bought a 2.5 Sata Laptop hard drive ( 500 gb ) seem to be not working or have problems with . From what I gather its only with the Black Editions HDDs . Has anyone else here also experienced this ?Thx

[bhlombardy]

I have several PCs, and three laptops in my household. There are 4 black-label WD drives in them total (2 in laptops and 2 in my file server)... have suffered no failures and the drives run all the time.

In fact, if anything, I'd recommend that black label drives over their other lines (specifically their "green" line drives).

How many is "everyone you know" that have bought these 2.5 inch SATA drives? And how did it come to your attention that WD is purposely selling defective hard drives? Why would they do that? They'd lose time, money, effort, not to mention reputation in the support issues alone.

What sort of problems are the drives experiencing? Are they compatible with the SATA controller you are connecting them to? Many laptop controllers require firmware updates to the controller to support newer model drives -- if the firmware is even available.

Has "everyone you know" bought them all from the same place? is/are the retailer(s) reputable or official WD dealers? are the drives considered refurbished drives? are they OEM drives being sold from a local computer shop? -- are THEY getting them through proper channels?

I used to manage a local computer retailer and there were always some "too good to be true" distributors trying to pawn off counterfeit product through wholesale channels to retailers. These were usually "OEM" drives (no box, just a bare drive in a antistatic bag.) While WD DOES sell OEM drives, it wouldn't be unheard of if these drives were perhaps counterfeits.

[kerrylj]

I have had far better perfromance and reliability from the Western digital drives I have had. I found the seagate ones have issues sooner.


I would suggest making sure that the drive is defragged or having it mark the bad sectors on the drive so that information is not written to those sections. Also make sure you never fill the drive too full (leave atleast 10% of the drive empty or more or the drive will fail)

[905dude]

Well first off 2 other friends of mine are having problems with the black editions . Also I'm talking about just recently . Yesterday when I was buying a keyboard at this tech store and I saw a guy returning his drive back , he said his drive wasn't getting recognized in the bios . My drive when installed windows wouldn't recognize it . I alway bought black editions until now . If one Google WD Black edition there many having problems with them

[905dude]

I would suggest making sure that the drive is defragged or having it mark the bad sectors on the drive so that information is not written to those sections. Also make sure you never fill the drive too full (leave atleast 10% of the drive empty or more or the drive will fail)

I wish I could do just that but it doesn't get recognized to do so . Its a new drive never been drop or anything

[kerrylj]

Is the drive new? If it is under warranty get support because drives can have real issues. I lost one drive because it threw bad sectors where the FAT table is. There was nothing that could be done because there was no way to reformat it and block out that sector because of where the bad sectors are.

[kerrylj]

Otherwise you may be able to use linx to get the computer booted and then do a lowlevel format that way and then move to windows. But I would not bother if it has a warranty or came with your laptop. I know with my son's computer his harddrive started acting up and it was easier to have them repair it because it has enough bad sectors that they replaced the drive instead.

[bhlombardy]

Well first off 2 other friends of mine are having problems with the black editions . Also I'm talking about just recently . Yesterday when I was buying a keyboard at this tech store and I saw a guy returning his drive back , he said his drive wasn't getting recognized in the bios . My drive when installed windows wouldn't recognize it . I alway bought black editions until now . If one Google WD Black edition there many having problems with them

I would say that if they all came from this tech shop you mentioned, then perhaps my earlier post sheds some light. If the drives are not coming from a proper source, they might very well be refurbs, and/or counterfeits. -- that's not a blame on the retailer, they might not know they bought such items.

As Kerrylj mentions, check your warranty right from the WD website. If the serial # and all that checks out, then seek support directly. Run their software check on the drives, record the errors and submit warranty. They'll replace the drive within a week or so, typically.

If the serial # DOESNT check out, then you've got fraudulent issues on your hands.

[905dude]

What would make more sense to you guys ? WD wants me to send the defective drive to this address which I live 5 minutes away from , they said to make sure I get the damages delivery coverage . Ok, so they want me to pay for this service and all , its going to take a few days until they get it and whether they get in good condition . Wouldn't it make more sense for me just to drive there and drop it off ? I'm only 5 minutes away from the address . They say no . They want it deliver . How F U is that ?

[bhlombardy]

Their request makes perfect sense to me. The address is most likely a handling company and there is probably no public access to the building. Even so, the front desk reception is likely not equipped to handle multitudes of people dropping off defective product for handling. That is why the shipping/receiving department exists at most companies.

Keep in mind that this company probably is the sole handler for all WD's RMA requests across Canada. They have a process in place that begins at the receiving department, and it's probably not the only thing this company does.

Furthermore, by mailing it there is a documented record that you shipped it, and that it was received by the handler. It creates a paper trail for auditing purposes.

It's more likely that this is an arrangement between WD and the handler, in order to ensure that service level agreements are met. If there's no record of the delivery, WD has no official record when the item arrived at the handler, and they can't hold them to their turn-around. This benefits YOU as well, as you can prove when the item arrived.