Another red bites the dust

cyber69 · 27 Feb 2018 at 08:00

Had three WD reds fail on me in the past year now, all 4TB. Latest one to fail was a warranty replacement drive which I received only back in November last year.

Anyone with a Synology who gets a I/O error and bad sector warning, i’ve found running an extended smart test will normally stick at 90% so instead power off the NAS and connect the drive to a PC and run the WD quick test. It will normally fail after about 5 minutes saving a load of time.

cyber69 · 27 Feb 2018 at 17:29

RMA done and drive posted off at least it’s a UK address it goes back to.

bledd · 2 Mar 2018 at 04:19

I've had two fail from about six.

In work, had one fail from forty.

cyber69 · 9 Mar 2018 at 14:59

Still waiting for my replacement drive to arrive. It was shipped out from Poland and received into the UK and it looks like UPS has lost it.

Is there a WD Rep on this site?

bledd · 9 Mar 2018 at 15:53

There was, but he left, they removed their presence from all forums :/

cyber69 · 9 Mar 2018 at 16:45

I've raised a case on the WD support website. To be fair not WD fault, UPS lost the parcel but just frustrating as I've now got to wait until WD investigate with UPS. In the meantime I've used my offline spare to replace the faulty disk to get the NAS up and going.

Undesirable · 11 Mar 2018 at 11:28

If even WD drives cannot be trusted to hold out as a reliable workhorse at least until they fail mechanically, such as the motor giving up after 4-6 years then they are not really doing their job considering the premium we paid for NAS drive reliability. Seeing as they've also done a disappearing act on forums, I'm starting to view them in the same light as Seagate; i.e. if their drives are prone to failure then any asking price is too much. If any of my Red 6TB die prematurely then I may seriously consider downsizing to a high capacity SSD and calling it a day with mechanical HDDs.

cyber69 · 12 Mar 2018 at 08:35

The thing is with a NAS, you need to rely on a good warranty backup to get a failed drive replaced quickly without hassle and preferably send the faulty drive back to some warranty dealer in the UK.

Western digital have a postal address in the UK and a replacement drive was dispatched in under 7 working days but in my case it looks like UPS have lost the parcel and it’s going to be interesting how WD deal with it now and how long they take.

I’ve had no reply to my case I raised with them yet and UPS tracking has not updated since the 8th meaning it looks like they have lost it.

cyber69 · 13 Mar 2018 at 22:04

WD replied to my open case and said they would escalate it but having had no reply I called them and again they said they would look into it.

I just looked on the WD support portal and they have closed my open case for it.

UPS no longer have any update or information on the parcel so I am in limbo land.

I will try calling their warranty support again tomorrow and try a stronger approach.

If WD just ignore the fact UPS have lost my replacement drive what recourse do I have against them? Smalll claims court?

Bugbait · 14 Mar 2018 at 10:20

cyber69 said:
If WD just ignore the fact UPS have lost my replacement drive what recourse do I have against them? Smalll claims court?

Send an email or two warning that you will escalate to Small Claims if they don't resolve it, making sure you give them a reasonable amount of time to respond (5-7 days is sufficient given all the dealys). It's 100% their responsibility until the drive is in your hands.

cyber69 · 15 Mar 2018 at 19:13

Bit of an update, after calling WD warranty support, they have escalated the open RMA and asked me to provide a sworn statement and proof that the courier, UPS, has lost the parcel.

I managed to get a screenshot off twitter on which UPS owned up to losing it so sent this off along with the affadavit.

I then got an email notification that they have created an advanced RMA to replace the lost drive and also one from UPS to say they are launching an investigation into the missing one.

So looks like I might get my drive later next week.

I’m just lucky I bought an offline spare at the same time as buying the NAS, it’s paid off 3 times so far.

I wouldn’t like to run my NAS on a 3 drive raid 5 for over three weeks whilst waiting for an RMA

C-Roy · 15 Mar 2018 at 21:34

You've had to prrove a courier that WD used themselves had lost an item that they sent? Takes the **** that.

Pocah · 16 Mar 2018 at 07:53

The 4TB drive seems particularly prone to failure. I think I would avoid the reds at the moment and possibly try the blacks instead.

cyber69 · 16 Mar 2018 at 08:57

C-Roy said:
You've had to prrove a courier that WD used themselves had lost an item that they sent? Takes the **** that.

Yep, I didn’t mind though as i’d already been in touch with UPS via twitter so just had to grab a screenshot, but I see your point. WD should be chasing the courier and getting the info.

cyber69 · 16 Mar 2018 at 17:20

I thought it was strange for UPS to lose a parcel like this. Well anyway my neighbour had a parcel delivery which I took in for them and the courier was UPS on the box label but the driver was in a plain panel van and not wearing any UPS uniform.

So I think they are using agency drivers for some home deliveries.

cyber69 · 16 Mar 2018 at 21:35

Dammit, I knew this would happen, another one of the WD 4TB remanufactured drives has gone degraded now. Has less than 80hrs power on time and riddled with bad sectors.

Had an email from WD about my advance RMA replacement anyway and I should receive that drive middle of next week so I can use this to replace the latest one that's gone bad.

Not having much luck with WD red drives

C-Roy · 16 Mar 2018 at 22:18

This is certainly putting me off WD Reds, well WD in general..

MassiveJim · 17 Mar 2018 at 13:09

oh god this isn't good news.
I've literally (a month ago) just upgraded my NAS to 4TB Reds.

I tested them all extensively before going live with them however.

OF the posters above that have had drives fail, did you run any kind of checks on the drives before putting them in to full time use ?
personally I ran a full checkdisk (surface check) took SMART readings before and after as well as a full surface scan with a program called HDDScan

Pocah · 17 Mar 2018 at 15:00

C-Roy said:
This is certainly putting me off WD Reds, well WD in general..

If you look at customer reviews for all the manufacturers, WD do pretty well. The main complaint for all of the manufacturers is short term drive failure. I can't help but think that the rise of the SSD is to blame. The bottom has dropped out of the mechanical drive market and what's left has become extremely competitive. No one wants a primary mechanical drive now. The competition is all about secondary drives which people don't really want to spend money on. I sort of get the idea it's all about price and quality has gone out the window. I mean when you think about it just a few short years ago drives were very expensive and if you take a look at "pro" drives they still are. The low prices are just in the home and small business market.

bimbleuk · 17 Mar 2018 at 15:29

Just bought 3 x 4TB REDs myself and I'm using them quite regularly so I'll report back on any issues. I had 3 Seagate 3TB drives + 1 WD in my NAS before but each had over 25K hours on them as they were discarded from work. 2 failed within a few weeks at home but I think that was because they were desktop drives and putting them next to each other in a NAS enclosure can cause bad vibes. I could certainly hear them spin up from upstairs. The REDs are basically silent.