Two Brand New WD Black HDD Failures

[RhoXS]

I just purchased two new WD WD1002FAEX 1 TB 7200 RPM Black HDDs. Both were bad. I used Western Digital Lifeguard to check both drives after I had indications of major problems. The Extended Test for both aborted due to too many bad sectors and the Quick test was also unsuccessful for both. Newegg's outstanding customer service came to the rescue but I nevertheless found it unusual to have two new drives failed out of the box.

I have not yet recieved the two replacement drives from Newegg but I intend to test them using the WD Lifeguard App before they get installed in my new Synology DS212 NAS. The two bad drives were installed in the DS212 but never saw any service because I was unable to set the DS212 up. It is just hard not to make a connection between the DS212 and the two bad drives because after a lot of years and many drives a double failure of two new drives does not seem credible.

Does my experience indicate a problem with this series of HDD or is just a coincidence?

 

[ViviTheMage]

oof, that sucks! I do not know anything about WD Black trends, but 2 out of 2 is high failure for new drives.

 

[Elixer]

Sounds like those drives had a very rough transit on the way to you.
How did the egg pack them ? If they were on top of each other, then I am not surprised.
Could have also been damaged by the egg packers dropping them or something along those lines.

 

[RhoXS]

Actually Newegg, as has always been my experience, packaged the drives very well. Each drive was in its own sturdy cardboard box, well wrapped in bubble wrap. The two relatively small boxes containing the drives were then inside a much larger box, packed with styrofoam peanuts. IMO, Newegg did a reasonable and competent job shipping the drives.

 

[WilliamM2]

Actually Newegg, as has always been my experience, packaged the drives very well. Each drive was in its own sturdy cardboard box, well wrapped in bubble wrap. The two relatively small boxes containing the drives were then inside a much larger box, packed with styrofoam peanuts. IMO, Newegg did a reasonable and competent job shipping the drives.

If you use bubble wrap to send a drive back to any HD manufacturer, they will void your warranty. I've have a very high HDD failure rate from Newegg, enough that I won't buy them there anymore. I get them from Mwave, or even pay a little more to get them locally, and properly packaged. I've never had a DOA drive from any other retailer, just Newegg.

 

[Magic Carpet]

If you use bubble wrap to send a drive back to any HD manufacturer, they will void your warranty.

Please, remind me how it should be packaged.

 

[Burner27]

I usually follow this practice:

http://support.wdc.com/warranty/rmapacking.asp#approvedpackaging

Never had a drive rejected or warranty voided for improper packaging.

 

[Maximus96]

If you use bubble wrap to send a drive back to any HD manufacturer, they will void your warranty.

i bubbled wrapped a dead WD Black 1TB last week. they did not void my warranty. Instead they promptly sent a replacement.

 

[RhoXS]

As long as the drive is protected from static and not in contact with the bubble wrap I cannot see a problem with it and, furthermore, there was abosolutely nothing in any of the documentation that indicated bubble wrap was not acceptable. In any case I just sent two drives back to Newegg, wrapped in bubble wrap, over the antistatic bag, and I am not expecting a problem.

 

[Rvenger]

Use an antistatic bag then wrap it OR use the pink ESD bubble wrap.

 

[WilliamM2]

i bubbled wrapped a dead WD Black 1TB last week. they did not void my warranty. Instead they promptly sent a replacement.

Apparently they do accept buble wrap now, but it must be 2" worth.

http://support.wdc.com/warranty/rmapacking.asp?custtype=end&lang=en

I've never had Newegg use that much. I've even had them stack drives together and then wrap them.

 

[thelastjuju]

Damn, that is just horrendously bad luck.. I even got a used WD Black off ebay, shipped to me in a small cardboard box with absolutely NO padding what-so-ever, and the drive still made it to me fine.

Make sure its not bad motherboard ports or a bad SATA cable or something first..

 

[ronbo613]

Sounds like really bad luck. All hard drive manufacturers have some bad drives, but two WD Blacks dead out of the box is pretty unusual. Return them to newegg for two new ones.

 

[Emulex]

yah it's the ole put it back in the box and send it to the next guy trick.

Check the # of hours when you get a drive first thing. especially ssd , though smart folks know how to reset the counters, many don't bother.

Why i never buy a drive from amazon. Every damn time it's a drive with far too many hours and fails epicly.

 

[Burner27]

Apparently they do accept buble wrap now, but it must be 2" worth.

http://support.wdc.com/warranty/rmapacking.asp?custtype=end&lang=en

I've never had Newegg use that much. I've even had them stack drives together and then wrap them.

Whoa!!! Deja-vu!

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=33733704&postcount=7

 

[paul878]

It is a Newegg problem.
I brought 3 drive from them during different time and they all were DOA.

Chat with a Newegg rep and get them to pay for the return shipping.

 

[RhoXS]

It is a Newegg problem.
I brought 3 drive from them during different time and they all were DOA.

Chat with a Newegg rep and get them to pay for the return shipping.

Not a problem. I have been using Newegg for what I am guessing is ten or more years now. Not very many problems but on the few occasions there has been an issue their customer service is consistently is good as it gets.

 

[BFG10K]

I have the same drive and its been flawless.

 

[Blain]

My Newegg purchases have always been packed well and never a DOA component.

 

[Andle Riddum]

Use an antistatic bag then wrap it OR use the pink ESD bubble wrap.

To ship back a defective product it's mandatory to use the original packaging materials, that said you should reuse the original anti-static bag (unless you lost it).

BTW those pink bags are not "anti-static", meaning it doesn't protect the content from ESD. They're called "anti-static" because the bag itself doesn't build up a charge. That's why you should use those grey bags

 

[VirtualLarry]

I try to buy HDs in larger quantities, so that Newegg is forced to use one of the OEM packaging containers to ship my HDs. Either that, or I purchase retail-boxed HDs.

 

[RhoXS]

I received the first of the two replacement drives today from Newegg. Interestingly, it arrived in a small but substantial cardboard box not much larger than the drive itself. The drive, in a sealed antistatic bag, was supported by two molded plastic supports. No other packing etc.

I immediately tested the drive using the Western Digital Lifeguard app and it passed without any exceptions both the quick and extended (>2 Hrs) tests.

This drive is now going to sit for a few days out of harms way on a shelf. When I receive the second black replacement (probably Tuesday) I will immediately test it too. If the second drive also tests good I will then install them in my new Synology DS212 NAS.

I am a little (well maybe a lot) suspicious of the DS212 for the following reasons.

Initially I installed the two 1 TB WD Blue drives in the DS212 that were working apparently without a problem in my old Dlink DNS323 NAS. The DS212 never completed the RAID 1 parity check because it was indicating bad drives. WD Lifeguard then indicated both Blue drives as having bad sectors.

I then returned the two blue drives to WD for a warranty replacement and just ordered two black drives from Newegg so I could get my new DS212 NAS up and running sooner. The exact same thing happened after installing the two black drives. Maybe this is a little too coincidental but I can't help think something about the DS212 may have caused all four drives to fail. I cannot imagine how it can do this but, again, there is a lot of coincidence here. Therefore this time I will prove I am starting out with good drives before they even get near the DS212.

I will provide updates later next week.

 

[ronbo613]

Make sure all those drives are on the Synology compatibility list. It took a long time to format the two WD Green HDs in my Synology 212j, I thought there was something wrong. I mean it took like 12 hours for two 1TB drives! Synology makes good NAS units, but if you're a little unlucky, they may be harder to configure and get running than advertised.

 

[RhoXS]

Make sure all those drives are on the Synology compatibility list.

Both the WD EALS 1 TB Blue drives and the FAEX Black drives are indeed on the Synology compatibility list.http://redirect.anandtech.com/r?url...duct.aspx?Item=N82E16822136534&user=u00000687

 

[Zardnok]

WD Blacks are about the most reliable drive available, so definitely strange you got two bad.