Update 4 (1/16/2011): Actually, they have now shipped the original drive they said they were going to send and it’s in Dallas currently. Not sure what that RMA email was about with the other drive type.
Update 3 (1/15/2011): Apparently the drive type has changed unexpectedly during the RMA process to the WD2002FYPS. I looked up the drive on Tom’s Hardware and came up with an interesting review. At this point in the process, you tell me what you would think after reading this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/2tb-hdd-energy,2371-5.html.
“Although a RAID Edition drive like the new RE4 sounds like it should spin at 7,200 RPM and serve up high performance, the new WD2002FYPS is not a new hard drive. Instead, WD modified and re-validated the existing 2 TB Caviar Green WD20EADS to suit the demands of 24/7 applications in business and data center environments.”
Have emailed my contact at WD twice with no response at this point.
Update 2 (1/14/2011): Well … Western Digital called today and I won’t say who I spoke with to keep people anonymous in the process. The sales guy I spoke with was very kind and apologetic. I must say, at this point, they are working to make up for this, as they are sending me this drive: Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s. Okay that’ll do. But we’ll have to wait and see how it performs, short and long-term. I’ll keep you posted. 🙂
Update 1 (1/12/2011): the story only gets worse. I sent the drive back to Western Digital a couple of months ago before the warranty ran out, at my own expense, and was sent back a used, scratched up, junky drive … that ALSO DIDN’T WORK WORTH A … (you know), in either of the computers I tried it in! I had initially asked on the site when requesting the replacement that I be sent a Caviar Black instead of the Caviar Green and that I was willing to pay the extra amount for the drive, and received no response whatsoever, but instead received an absolute piece of junk that didn’t work at all.
This is unbelievable to me, the level of non-support, the lack of quality in the product, the process from top to bottom, from the humans to the machines. I will never, ever buy Western Digital again. I’ve only had trouble. I have no idea in my mind why in the world Western Digital is still in the market at all. MAJOR FAIL on the part of Western Digital on this one!
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So for Christmas, my Dad bought me a Western Digital 1.5 TB (terabyte) hard drive from TigerDirect.com. No issues with TigerDirect to be clear. No issues with what my Dad got me since I told him the hard drive to order. And initially no issues with the hard drive either.
However, the past month or two, the computer would just freeze up with no warning or signs that a problem was imminent. At first I thought no big deal. Then it kept happening, and then the freezes became more frequent. Then they became everyday recently. Finally the other day, I rebooted the machine and it couldn’t even see the drive until I switched SATA (Serial ATA) controllers on the motherboard.
So I did some research and came across several forums in which people had experienced similar issues, only to find out Western Digital knows about the defect (but keeps manufacturing them? I don’t get it).
Every Western Digital drive I have purchased in the past, including this one, has either quit working before the other brands or crashed completely. I thought I would give them the benefit of the doubt this time around and hope they maybe got it together (happened to HP/Compaq several years ago, they got it together), but I must say I’m quite disappointed. I’ll be contacting them and sending it back in short order. We’ll see how the customer support goes. 🙂 Fortunately I was able to get a new drive (Seagate_ and copy the entire image over to the new one and things are good (praise God and Him willing). At least that drive is cruising along just fine.
Long story short, don’t get the Western Digital Caviar Green hard drive. Apparently it’s not just the 1.5 TB drive either, but any of these particular Caviar Green drives. You have been warned. 🙂
Jimmy
Bummer about the drive man. You would think a company this big would at least make things right on the customer service end. Let me know if they follow up any more, I have a few friends that are major purchasers of hard drives… if they don’t treat you right, then I will mention it to them and maybe they can pull off a boycott of WD. One of them even does HD reviews for Toms Hardware I think, so maybe he can get some media exposure out there to shine a light on this problem.
mike
My drive suffered an electronic failure (no crash, just the circuits went haywire). The disks and motor/everything in the 2 tb external (elements, probably green caviar from what ive read)are working perfectly fine. But the drive became unusable as the pcb failed somewhere and the data is inaccessible. This happened right after a 1 year warranty expired. WD basiclly told me that they could find someone to recover my data for about $2000. I asked if they sold pcb boards for drives, and after they said no the tried to sell me another drive. I then let them know ill find a pcb online and repair the drive myself.
In all reality, the odds of me repairing anything right are slim to none. In conclusion, do not buy western digital unless: Your data is already backed up (making them worthless to begin with) OR
if you want something that breaks down immediately after reaching warranty