Western Digital drives keep failing (Computers)
:: Tuesday, January 10th, 2006 @ 7:56:40 pm
Well, I lost another Western Digital drive today. It just kept clicking: *click* *click* *click*
I stopped buying WD drives awhile ago, but I’m still having fallout from those that are still active in the multiple machines I require in a life as digitally-oriented as mine is. I’m pretty sure that my WD drive-failure rate is at least 50%.
I will say, however, that if your dive fails, WD makes it really easy to get a replacement shipped to you. You just type in your serial number, and another one is on its way! It’s almost as if it was a natural part of their product life-cycle…
Anyway, I just wanted to state again that I will definitely never buy another Western Digital drive.
[friends of echeng report on WD drive suckage] [wd gets horrible reseller ratings]
One of my friends once accused me of having the most computer problems of anyone he knew. I’d like to point out that I have seven active machines at home, plus one machine in New York, and between all of them there are approximately 24 hard-disks spinning at all times. I also have two dedicated web servers that give me tons of headaches, despite having someone on-site to help with management.
Hardware fails. Computers suck.
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Bummer. What is your current HD situation for backup? Also, what do you recommend for the slightly more average Joe for backup? I bought a RAID0 setup from Dell that failed (at the controller level, all data got corrupted, apparently). I also have an external HD that I use for most backups. It has also failed once (and was quickly replaced). I think it is a WD, actually.
Norm — I recommend a non-WD external drive. There are some really cheap NAS boxes coming out these days. Get one with gigabit, and just slap it on the network!
My current HD situation is that all my data lies on a 2TB RAID 5 server on the network. I have a NAS box with 1.6TB in it that backs up personals and photo data. Music and video data get backed up onto separate drives sitting in various computers I have strewn about. Not the best solution, but it works pretty well.
Oh yeah: photos all get backed up onto DVD and are shipped off-site.
I stopped buying WD drives back when a huge drive was 4GB and I lost three WD drives at work in the period of one year (click click click). With seeming great WD deals out there, I was actually wondering recently if their quality had improved. Not sure I would hassle with replacing a WD with another WD. Just gift the replacement WD drive as a joke to a friend –”Hey! I got this HUGE drive and you can have it! Don’t forget to backup!” (choose someone who does not use you for computer support — not easy). Seriously, I’ve had a few problems with Maxtor (also an easy return), but Hitachi/IBM/Fujitzu drives have been rock solid. Thanks for the data point.