What Is Wrong With Western Digital

[h90]

I always bought WD HDs and for a long time I thought they are reliable.

I always bought the 5 year warranty models. Than they started to fail, but the exchanged/refurbished one worked well.

Now it starts a exchanged one from WD does not even start to spin. Another exchanged one get "lost clusters" after 3 months.

This time the spare drive didn't work. Now I think I change brand. I bought a Hitachi and the computer freezed once today. It didn't do that the last 5 years.

Any recommendation for future? Seagate? Samsung?

[JetsetBkk]

WD stopped giving 5 year warranties several months ago. I just had a 2.0 TB Green replaced and they gave me a Black instead. The Green failed after about 2 years 6 months.

I think 2 year warranties are the best you'll get from them now for the 2 TB and bigger drives.

Some of the smaller Blacks - 500 GB - are still 5 year, I believe.

Edit:

I now start "Crystal Disk Info" when my PC starts and check the status of the drives. Some shops will replace a drive that is starting to fail, e.g. shows a warning on the "Uncorrectable Sector Count".

Remember: "Data that is not backed up is data that you don't care about."

Edited February 22, 2013 by JetsetBkk

[jamhar]

My 1TB WD drive is doing just fine thank you. But i always keep a fan on mine. Keep it cool, and shock free, and it will treat you just fine.

Also had luck with seagate and samsung. I buy whatever is on sale, and make sure i keep it cool. Its worked so far.

[h90]

WD stopped giving 5 year warranties several months ago. I just had a 2.0 TB Green replaced and they gave me a Black instead. The Green failed after about 2 years 6 months.

I think 2 year warranties are the best you'll get from them now for the 2 TB and bigger drives.

Some of the smaller Blacks - 500 GB - are still 5 year, I believe.

Edit:

I now start "Crystal Disk Info" when my PC starts and check the status of the drives. Some shops will replace a drive that is starting to fail, e.g. shows a warning on the "Uncorrectable Sector Count".

Remember: "Data that is not backed up is data that you don't care about."

yes I think I bought the 500 GB black the last time, all other are 2 or 3 year (can't recall).

Shop: JIB you go there say "bad sector" and they send it in. They don't care if it is really broken or not.

Yes we have all data on 2 "server" actually just normal computer. Which I backup frequently.

From the others I have a backup of clean installation.

But still it is some work. Today it was the computer that controls a CNC lathe. at 8 AM. The spare WD drive didn't work as well. The local computer shop was closed, at 10.30 we decided that we won't wait any longer and drove to the next bigger mall (so the technician couldn't work, and two people went to the mall). Finally it was 1 PM till everything was running again. With perfect backups.

[h90]

My 1TB WD drive is doing just fine thank you. But i always keep a fan on mine. Keep it cool, and shock free, and it will treat you just fine. Also had luck with seagate and samsung. I buy whatever is on sale, and make sure i keep it cool. Its worked so far.

Here they work in aircondition 20-25 degree and the computers have excellent ventilation. And no shocks I hope.

But they run a 12+ hours 6 days a week.

[JetsetBkk]

My 1TB WD drive is doing just fine thank you. But i always keep a fan on mine. Keep it cool, and shock free, and it will treat you just fine. Also had luck with seagate and samsung. I buy whatever is on sale, and make sure i keep it cool. Its worked so far.

Here they work in aircondition 20-25 degree and the computers have excellent ventilation. And no shocks I hope.

But they run a 12+ hours 6 days a week.

Here is a report that might surprise you all about temperature and hard drive failures:

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-numbers/google-research-temperature-not-a-major-factor-in-hard-disk-failures/121

[manarak]

OP: just use cheap drives on a RAID-1 controller.

[JetsetBkk]

OP: just use cheap drives on a RAID-1 controller.

Doesn't protect against accidental data deletion or viruses, etc. You still need to backup RAID 1 arrays.

[Satcommlee]

I was talking to a guy that has a production facility near to where I work, they make some sort of Hard Drive component.

The traditional hard drive makers are struggling and they foresee their demise in a few years.

This is all due to SSD (Solid State Drives) taking over.

The factories making the last runs of the old VHS video recorders probably done exactly the same thing, cut costs at expense of reliability.

[manarak]

OP: just use cheap drives on a RAID-1 controller.

Doesn't protect against accidental data deletion or viruses, etc. You still need to backup RAID 1 arrays.

OP wanted a solution for the reliability problem of harddisks. Not a safeguard against data deletion or viruses. did you read the topic?

[jbrain]

I was talking to a guy that has a production facility near to where I work, they make some sort of Hard Drive component.

The traditional hard drive makers are struggling and they foresee their demise in a few years.

This is all due to SSD (Solid State Drives) taking over.

The factories making the last runs of the old VHS video recorders probably done exactly the same thing, cut costs at expense of reliability.

I think the largest SSD drive is currently 200 Gb, so I don't see them take over from the spinning drives anytime soon.

[Tywais]

I was talking to a guy that has a production facility near to where I work, they make some sort of Hard Drive component.

The traditional hard drive makers are struggling and they foresee their demise in a few years.

This is all due to SSD (Solid State Drives) taking over.

The factories making the last runs of the old VHS video recorders probably done exactly the same thing, cut costs at expense of reliability.

I think the largest SSD drive is currently 200 Gb, so I don't see them take over from the spinning drives anytime soon.

2011 OCZ announced 4TB SSD and even 32TB but silly prices and PCI bus models. A company called Foremay recently announced a 2TB 2.5" SSD but not much info on it yet. Basically, they are catching up.

[GooEng]

I've had 3 WD drives - all "passport" model, all failed. First one, a 1TB lasted about a year, second 500GB lasted 3 months. Both well cared for. Bought in Saudi where the idea of a refund/replacement was laughed at by the so called reputable retailer. So I switched brand and bought a rubber encased, shock proofed Transcend drive, supposedly military approved and tested also failed within days! I was given a third WD from my employer as a safety award, also failed within months.

Now using Seagates which do seem reliable. Looking forward to SSD becoming mainstream and affordable - the large capacity ones are still hellishly expensive....

[manarak]

I was talking to a guy that has a production facility near to where I work, they make some sort of Hard Drive component.

The traditional hard drive makers are struggling and they foresee their demise in a few years.

This is all due to SSD (Solid State Drives) taking over.

The factories making the last runs of the old VHS video recorders probably done exactly the same thing, cut costs at expense of reliability.

I think the largest SSD drive is currently 200 Gb, so I don't see them take over from the spinning drives anytime soon.

2011 OCZ announced 4TB SSD and even 32TB but silly prices and PCI bus models. A company called Foremay recently announced a 2TB 2.5" SSD but not much info on it yet. Basically, they are catching up.

OCZ 1TB SSD is available and costs about 2500 USD.

Edited February 22, 2013 by manarak

[NHJ]

WD drives are th most popular in laptops, they are also the ones i replace the most.....

so for me WD is a no go(blue models)

[indothai]

My 1TB WD drive is doing just fine thank you. But i always keep a fan on mine. Keep it cool, and shock free, and it will treat you just fine. Also had luck with seagate and samsung. I buy whatever is on sale, and make sure i keep it cool. Its worked so far.

Here they work in aircondition 20-25 degree and the computers have excellent ventilation. And no shocks I hope.

But they run a 12+ hours 6 days a week.

I'm guessing are going to use it in a PC and not a laptop. And it seems you need it to run 12+ 6 days a week, that's close to a 24/7 operation. Most consumer desktop drives cannot meet your requirements and will probably fail before the warranty, unless you buy their Enterprise lines or those specifically stated to operate 24/7.

WD: It seems the Reds are designed for what you need. Do Not buy the Greens, Greens are for light-duty applications.

Seagate: (http://www.seagate.com/files/docs/pdf/whitepaper/mb538-drive-selection-guide-us.pdf).

Samsung: I think they have merged with Seagate.

I buy WD's only because I can get them swapped immediately at Pantip. I've had 2 fail on me out of about 6, but I think it's because I abused them or incorrectly used their drives.

Note: Drive manufacturers are notorious for not mentioning the "Typical Operation Hours" for their consumer drives, the above link from Seagate mentions it on page 2 under "Reliability", look carefully and you'll see that their Enterprise lines are more suited for 24/7 operation. If this is for an office or work application then I would recommend the Enterprise lines from any manufacturer, as they may have the proper duty-cycle for your needs.

Which model drive failed on you?

[utalkin2me]

Try to buy these outside of Thailand I think is a better bet. USA for me, never had a problem yet. I simply keep mine propped up to get airflow underneath. I always buy non portable plug in units too, much cheaper (and more reliable?).

I honestly didn't know these gave people this many problems; I have always thought the quality control here in Thailand is suspect, even on products from reliable companies. It kinda makes sense, they can put units that didn't pass certain inspections in boxes being sold in Thailand... why in the world not? It isn't like there would ever be a large consumer uproar.

Edited February 23, 2013 by utalkin2me

[astral]

I just checked my laptop, and the disk is Toshiba.

I know I felt cheated when I bought a Buffalo drive

only to find it was a WD inside.

[JetsetBkk]

I just checked my laptop, and the disk is Toshiba.

I know I felt cheated when I bought a Buffalo drive

only to find it was a WD inside.

Interesting. 2 of my 4 Buffalo drives are reported as Samsung by DiskCheckup.

One is reported as a Samsung HD154UI (1.5 TB), the other is reported as a Samsung HD203WI (2.0 TB).

The other 2 drives are newer and are not reported by this utility.

Do you use another utility?

[manarak]

Buffalo does not manufacture harddisks.

They only make enclosures and storage devices, but generally equip them with the most inexpensive disks they can find on the market, because Buffalo designs and sells inexpensive storage devices which offer good price/performance.

I had 2 Buffalo Terastation PRO NAS, but I now use Synology 212+ devices, which I am very very happy with.

[h90]

Try to buy these outside of Thailand I think is a better bet. USA for me, never had a problem yet. I simply keep mine propped up to get airflow underneath. I always buy non portable plug in units too, much cheaper (and more reliable?).

I honestly didn't know these gave people this many problems; I have always thought the quality control here in Thailand is suspect, even on products from reliable companies. It kinda makes sense, they can put units that didn't pass certain inspections in boxes being sold in Thailand... why in the world not? It isn't like there would ever be a large consumer uproar.

Strange before in Austria I never had any problems as well. My mother usually never turns off her Laptop and when the laptop is dead they bring me the HD to find her holiday photos....

[h90]

My 1TB WD drive is doing just fine thank you. But i always keep a fan on mine. Keep it cool, and shock free, and it will treat you just fine. Also had luck with seagate and samsung. I buy whatever is on sale, and make sure i keep it cool. Its worked so far.

Here they work in aircondition 20-25 degree and the computers have excellent ventilation. And no shocks I hope.

But they run a 12+ hours 6 days a week.

I'm guessing are going to use it in a PC and not a laptop. And it seems you need it to run 12+ 6 days a week, that's close to a 24/7 operation. Most consumer desktop drives cannot meet your requirements and will probably fail before the warranty, unless you buy their Enterprise lines or those specifically stated to operate 24/7.

WD: It seems the Reds are designed for what you need. Do Not buy the Greens, Greens are for light-duty applications.

Seagate: (http://www.seagate.com/files/docs/pdf/whitepaper/mb538-drive-selection-guide-us.pdf).

Samsung: I think they have merged with Seagate.

I buy WD's only because I can get them swapped immediately at Pantip. I've had 2 fail on me out of about 6, but I think it's because I abused them or incorrectly used their drives.

Note: Drive manufacturers are notorious for not mentioning the "Typical Operation Hours" for their consumer drives, the above link from Seagate mentions it on page 2 under "Reliability", look carefully and you'll see that their Enterprise lines are more suited for 24/7 operation. If this is for an office or work application then I would recommend the Enterprise lines from any manufacturer, as they may have the proper duty-cycle for your needs.

Which model drive failed on you?

After thinking of it, half of the computer are more in the 8 hour per day range (the other half 12+), all computer very light use.

WinXP+Office installed, started once a day and taking Excel files from the two "server".

(I am just thinking if it would be possible to install say Win 7 64 bit, put in a lot Ram boot over network or very small HD/SSD copy everything in a RAM Disc)

These "Typical Operation Hours" are a strange idea...."We give you 3 year warranty as long as you start the computer just ever 3days".

[monty]

I was talking to a guy that has a production facility near to where I work, they make some sort of Hard Drive component.

The traditional hard drive makers are struggling and they foresee their demise in a few years.

This is all due to SSD (Solid State Drives) taking over.

The factories making the last runs of the old VHS video recorders probably done exactly the same thing, cut costs at expense of reliability.

I think the largest SSD drive is currently 200 Gb, so I don't see them take over from the spinning drives anytime soon.

2011 OCZ announced 4TB SSD and even 32TB but silly prices and PCI bus models. A company called Foremay recently announced a 2TB 2.5" SSD but not much info on it yet. Basically, they are catching up.

OCZ 1TB SSD is available and costs about 2500 USD.

As JB said, it'll be spinning drives for a little while more

Currently using a 120 GB ssd in the laptop with a 1 TB seagate and a 640 GB WD external as main storage...

[indothai]

My 1TB WD drive is doing just fine thank you. But i always keep a fan on mine. Keep it cool, and shock free, and it will treat you just fine. Also had luck with seagate and samsung. I buy whatever is on sale, and make sure i keep it cool. Its worked so far.

Here they work in aircondition 20-25 degree and the computers have excellent ventilation. And no shocks I hope.

But they run a 12+ hours 6 days a week.

I'm guessing are going to use it in a PC and not a laptop. And it seems you need it to run 12+ 6 days a week, that's close to a 24/7 operation. Most consumer desktop drives cannot meet your requirements and will probably fail before the warranty, unless you buy their Enterprise lines or those specifically stated to operate 24/7.

WD: It seems the Reds are designed for what you need. Do Not buy the Greens, Greens are for light-duty applications.

Seagate: (http://www.seagate.com/files/docs/pdf/whitepaper/mb538-drive-selection-guide-us.pdf).

Samsung: I think they have merged with Seagate.

I buy WD's only because I can get them swapped immediately at Pantip. I've had 2 fail on me out of about 6, but I think it's because I abused them or incorrectly used their drives.

Note: Drive manufacturers are notorious for not mentioning the "Typical Operation Hours" for their consumer drives, the above link from Seagate mentions it on page 2 under "Reliability", look carefully and you'll see that their Enterprise lines are more suited for 24/7 operation. If this is for an office or work application then I would recommend the Enterprise lines from any manufacturer, as they may have the proper duty-cycle for your needs.

Which model drive failed on you?

After thinking of it, half of the computer are more in the 8 hour per day range (the other half 12+), all computer very light use.

WinXP+Office installed, started once a day and taking Excel files from the two "server".

(I am just thinking if it would be possible to install say Win 7 64 bit, put in a lot Ram boot over network or very small HD/SSD copy everything in a RAM Disc)

These "Typical Operation Hours" are a strange idea...."We give you 3 year warranty as long as you start the computer just ever 3days".

If you've got the an IT guy to do the "RAM Disc" thing, then you're all set. Do a thin-client over dozens of PC's over networked NAS/SAN would be best. But if you've got less than 5 to 8 PC's and want to save costs... USB hard drive or simple NAS or network server with decent hardware would do the job. Just stick in a 250GB on those PC's and have a clone image ready. Just have a simple but effective backup plan for those PC's and your data.

Those "Operation Hours" and warranty details were actually the result of a large number of consumers and enterprises complaining a few years back (8 years or so ago), about their desktops failing in large numbers. The HD manufacturers quickly realized that people were leaving their PC's on longer and using it "outside of spec". Consumers didn't really care for the technical mumbo-jumbo and enterprises only wanted to buy the cheapest, so notion of understanding "power-on hours", "Operation Hours", "MTBF", would be beyond anyone... back then.

Most people don't know this, but torrenting actually put extra stress on the hard drives, and approximately after 2 years of releasing the bittorrent technology hard drives start to fail in large numbers.

Unrelated to Bittorrent, a while back IBM had serious issues with their hard drives at the Enterprise level and prosumer level (professional consumer). Who would have thought IBM would be up neck deep in a pile of dung with their Deskstar drives (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deskstar#IBM_Deskstar_GXP-model_failures_in_2001). This lesson has taught me to NEVER trust in any manufacturer outside of what they are willing to cover in their warranty. IBM later sold their Hard Drive unit to Hitachi and I've bought some pretty good spec'd Hitachi's in my time and none failed during operation. Am I saying that Hitachi is better than IBM?, no.. I think it's just luck and good timing.

I wish that SSD aren't so expensive, I firmly believe that SSD are the next evolutionary step for "Hard Drives", unfortunately they are still do darn expensive.

[Satcommlee]

SSD is going to come down in price considerably..

In an almost "Moore's law" way..

It is already to a certain extent if you shop outside Thailand.. There must be some sort of tariff in place to protect the Thai industry because they are still so expensive here.

but it's funny that I have spent quite a lot of money to protect against disk failure, my PC is RAID and I have a 8TB linkstation NAS with 4TB in raid configuration and I've never suffered a disk breakdown EVER!

[jbrain]

SSD is going to come down in price considerably..

In an almost "Moore's law" way..

It is already to a certain extent if you shop outside Thailand.. There must be some sort of tariff in place to protect the Thai industry because they are still so expensive here.

but it's funny that I have spent quite a lot of money to protect against disk failure, my PC is RAID and I have a 8TB linkstation NAS with 4TB in raid configuration and I've never suffered a disk breakdown EVER!

The prices noted for SSD drives higher uo in the thread are in US$, which I would guess are prices from outside Thailand, and at 78.000 Baht for a 1Tb drive currently they will have to come down quite a bit before any private consumer gonna consider them.

[jbrain]

but it's funny that I have spent quite a lot of money to protect against disk failure, my PC is RAID and I have a 8TB linkstation NAS with 4TB in raid configuration and I've never suffered a disk breakdown EVER!

It all depends on the size of the HDD's. My experience is that the issues started as soon as they started producing larger than 1Tb disks, which I assume involves more then one disc inside the housing.

I have 200 and 320 Gb disks as old as Metusalem with yet not a single bad sector, but anything bigger than 1tb guaranteed fails within the warranty period.

Those bigger disks have usually a few bad sectors out of the box.

[Satcommlee]

Jbrain.. I think you are right, they just tried to push the bit density too much, it is not two or more spinning disks - it is still only one.

The technology has come to an end, moving parts are just not the way forward anymore.

Even the current technology is still based on single layer chips but very soon we will see the 3D multi-layer technology enter the commercial marketplace.. actually it is quite exciting, I'm sure we all remember the likes of the spectrum 48K and commodore 64k.. how thing have changed, and I have no doubts that in 20 years time we will be making the same comparisons.

[h90]

but it's funny that I have spent quite a lot of money to protect against disk failure, my PC is RAID and I have a 8TB linkstation NAS with 4TB in raid configuration and I've never suffered a disk breakdown EVER!

It all depends on the size of the HDD's. My experience is that the issues started as soon as they started producing larger than 1Tb disks, which I assume involves more then one disc inside the housing.

I have 200 and 320 Gb disks as old as Metusalem with yet not a single bad sector, but anything bigger than 1tb guaranteed fails within the warranty period.

Those bigger disks have usually a few bad sectors out of the box.

the latest that failed was a 160 GB. A while ago a 360 GB. And a couple of years ago a 80 GB failed (but the exchange drive lasted forever...it is still working)

[lomatopo]

Try to buy these outside of Thailand I think is a better bet. USA for me, never had a problem yet. I simply keep mine propped up to get airflow underneath. I always buy non portable plug in units too, much cheaper (and more reliable?).

I too buy most of my equipment in the U.S., however any W-D HDDs I purchase have always been "Made in Thailand". Cheaper in the U.S. though.

There is a W-D service center in Pantip Plaza, stop by for 5 minutes and you may be amazed at the flow of customers and the stack of replacement drives for warranty replacement. They have the warranty replacement process down to a well-oiled machine, taking ~ 3 minutes per customer.