Hard drive failing - 5 working days left on warrenty - could use some advice

contador26

contador26

contador26

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Joined
27 Jun 2010
Posts
16
Hello,

I bought a hard drive last year thats failing and its got 5 working days left on the warrenty. When I try and boot, the system checker spams 'IO - input/output error',. I am trying to wipe the drive to see if a reformat will work, but the wipe program (DBAN) is telling me there are 39 'verifiying errors' so far.

Its a Western Digital Caviar, that as far as Im aware, has the standard 12 month warrenty, and WD's own 3 year warrenty.

(by the way, the drive wasnt bought from OCUK, it was from another highstreet retailer, but I do buy hardware from OCUK, so I thought it would be alright to post here, and this is the only hardware forum Im registered with).


I was just looking for some advice really.
 
If it's failing don't bother trying to reformat it, contact the drive manufacturer (most of them have a specific RMA request form on their site), fill in the details there and send it back to them :)

It'll probably cost about a fiver recorded delivery (make sure you package it according to the instructions they give), most of them have a UK based office/facility for receiving the drives (although it may not be the first choice on the form), and usually they seem to be very fast to send out a replacement.

In my experience Seagate and Samsung for example seem to authorise an RMA within a day or so, and send the replacement drive out by return courier (you post the drive Monday, they get it Tuesday and send out the replacement, you get it Wednesday), and some of the drive manufacturers even offer an advanced RMA where they will take your credit card number and ship the replacement drive out before you send the old one back (they take the card number so they can charge you if you don't return the failing drive).
 
Werewolf,

would not having the paper receipt be a problem? I cant locate it anywhere, although when I log on to the online retailers site it comes up in my purchase history.
 
contador26 said:
Werewolf,

would not having the paper receipt be a problem? I cant locate it anywhere, although when I log on to the online retailers site it comes up in my purchase history.
Click to expand...

With the manufacturers RMA they normally go by the batch date (the serial number tells them the batch number for the drive, and it usually works out that the batch covers several months), which means the only time you might need your receipt is if the drive had been in the supply chain for a while :) (and you need to prove that you've had the drive only say 2.5 years, even though the batch shows it was made 3.5 years ago).

I don't think I've ever needed a receipt for a manufacturers RMA with hard drives :)
 
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