Western digital returns??? drive is poweringi it's self down all the time.

Matrix · 8 Mar 2006 at 16:37

My WD drive has started to fail on me it won't power up and sometimes it does but it still won't boot.
Checked everything and tried other cables etc but no luck.
Also tried the WD program and it couldn't even see my drive as it kept powering it's self down.

I've just checked onthere site and i still have warranty on my drive.
I was going to go for the advance replacement service but i'm not sure where i'm ment to sent it back to . Usa ,europe?
Does anyone know before i go any further on this.

Thanks...

MAllen · 8 Mar 2006 at 17:24

There is a German address that drives get posted to. I have used this before on a WD drive that failed five days after being installed!!

Make sure you use a full disk box, not a jiffy bag.

You will loose all your data as they do not do a backup service.

And the drive you will get back will have a big "Reconditioned" stamp across it. That was a pain for me as I then couldn't resell the drive to the original customer. But to be fair to WD, that 20GB drive is still running strong....

geeza · 9 Mar 2006 at 16:18

i had a drive that failed (started clicking etc) after almost 3 years. The warrenty ran out in about 1 month. I sent it back to them via special delivery(to the german address) and didnt hear from them for about 3 weeks. I rang them and someone said they lost it but did receive it and they would send me one out asap. I got a 120gb drive about 4 days later for the one i sent, but then about a week later I also got a 160gb drive aswell. Excellent!

ps make sure you send it in an antistatic bag
pps Ive put the 160gb in my dads computer, i kept it because i had to wait over a month to get a drive back that they must have received almost straight away

scott.holmes · 9 Mar 2006 at 20:14

Ive used the WD advanced warranty service, they took my CC details and pre-charged the cost of a replacement drive too it, they sent me out a brand new drive which i got two days later.

I sent my drive back, took them 4 days to get it, once they had i got an email saying all resolved, charge removed from the CC all good!

Ive bought WD ever since!

NATO · 5 Apr 2006 at 00:17

Having been Western Digital's #1 Fan for years, I'm sorry to report on the first drive I ever had to RMA with them.

I used the advance replacement programme which meant they sent the replacement first. Very satisfied with this, the drive arrived about a week later, well packed. However, the drive I have received is quite different.

The drive itself was one of those with the silver 'lid' on it which I haven't seen for some time (the recent drives all have black 'lids' from my experience). That got me thinking that the drive wasn't exactly a brand new replacement. When I unpacked it from the sealed anti-static bag I noticed a large amount of scrapes and scuffs along with the 'recertified' label. When I powered it up, it sounded like a jet engine compared with the identical drive I had next to it. Definitely not happy, I phoned them and the exceedingly helpful customer service rep immediately arranged yet another replacement to be sent.

I have just received the new replacement and I can't believe it. My initial satisfaction from seeing a black 'lid' drive was offset by yet more scuffs and scrapes on the drive itself along with a white sticky label stuck to the side over one of the screw holes (with a hole where the screw went through it) with 12/04 scrawled on the label. There was also a large amount of dust in the various crevices so I'm absolutely certain this drive has been used for a long period of time. I have just fired off an e-mail of complaint to the customer service department demanding a brand new replacement.

When you have just returned a drive which has stopped operating properly, how can you possibly trust a replacement drive which is clearly 2nd hand? If you don't know the age and condition of a drive, how can you possibly trust your data on it?

Oh, and in an earlier e-mail from Western Digital about the first replacement drive, the customer rep stated "We never replace with 2nd hand drives. We never repair drives, we always replace them. We replace with new product, but product that continues the warranty of the original drive. Therefore we put 'recertified' on the drives so they cannot be sold as new"

Not happy . . .

MAllen · 5 Apr 2006 at 09:07

Sounds like standard Western Digital. They assume that your drive is "old" so then send you out a second hand drive. A "like for like replacement" they call it. It may of been fully tested and serviced, but it ain't new.

I had a brand new WD drive die within a week of installing it into a customer PC. Even that brand new drive was replaced by a second hand drive with a big "Reconditioned" stamp on it. This made the drive useless to me as I could not sell that to the customer.

Never touched a WD drive since. (Apart from removing dead one's from PCs....)

NATO · 5 Apr 2006 at 09:59

How are Seagate drives? I'm very tempted to start using those after this sour experience with Western Digital

Morlan · 5 Apr 2006 at 21:05

geeza said:
I got a 120gb drive about 4 days later for the one i sent, but then about a week later I also got a 160gb drive aswell. Excellent!

I love when stuff like that happens. My broadband provider sent me THREE free wireless modems because I kept nagging them on the phone!

geeza · 5 Apr 2006 at 22:14

Morlan said:
I love when stuff like that happens. My broadband provider sent me THREE free wireless modems because I kept nagging them on the phone!

i was never charged for my megaworks speakers that were £220 at the time (not from ocuk). Thats what places get for not having different delivery address to billing address. I just put my delivery address and they rang me up and i confirmed my name card details etc, they didnt ast for billing address though.

MAllen · 6 Apr 2006 at 11:31

NATO said:
How are Seagate drives? I'm very tempted to start using those after this sour experience with Western Digital

Seagate - excellent. Also consider Hitachi and maybe Samsung. There is a thread around with a poll in it of hard disk failiures. Fairly unscientific, but seems to show a good pattern of failures. WD scores bad, Hitachi scores very good.

Morlan said:
I love when stuff like that happens. My broadband provider sent me THREE free wireless modems because I kept nagging them on the phone!

Don't say this too loud... but I am still using a PC case from seven or eight years ago. This was my first introduction to OCUK when a mate ordered a case. They then sent him two in error..... and he was only charged for the one.

Long live Human Error

djjuk · 7 Apr 2006 at 10:11

I used the advanced RMA from WD very recently, had no problems at all.

Got brand new replacements in about 4 days..No reconditioned stamps.

Was very impressed with the whole procedure tbh.